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The Dialects of England
This text celebrates the rich variety of regional and social dialects of English in all its forms, ancient and modern.
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 20, 2019
Brilliant dissection of English dialects past, present and future. Found the conclusion a touching rallying cry for diversity against the rising tide of supposedly "proper" vocabulary and pronunciation.
January 19, 2023
An overall very effective and informative overview/introduction. It's aimed at a general audience, so the treatment of the subject is necessarily somewhat cursory -- cursory, but not inaccurate. (This is especially true where diachronic developments are concerned, which aren't really the focus of the book in any case.) Only occasionally are there passages that I would describe as genuinely slipshod.
I learned a lot. It's a great overview. The prose is not lively, but if one wants the nitty-gritty details about the pronunciation, grammar, and regional distinctions of English dialects -- the precise fundamentals as opposed to perhaps better-written, but fuzzy and impressionistic personal reflections -- then the shortcomings of the prose are readily forgiveable.
Some of my favourite tidbits:
-- the clarification over when "intrusive r" does and does not occur (e.g., "That's a good idea" vs. "the idear is good")
-- that where Standard English has "this book" (near) and "that book" (far), some dialects add yet a third distinction (remote), e g. "yon book"
-- archaic retentions such as cassn't? ("can't you?") from canst thou not? and ast? ("have you?") from, you guessed it, hast thou?
-- dialect words that have no equivalent whatsoever in Standard English: like bracking, "the chipping of eggshells when hatching begins"
And a lot else besides.
(One note of warning: if you know IPA transcription, then you absolutely want the second edition, as the first only contains "orthographic" phonetic representations, which I found to be rather foggy. The second edition wisely incorporates both. )
I learned a lot. It's a great overview. The prose is not lively, but if one wants the nitty-gritty details about the pronunciation, grammar, and regional distinctions of English dialects -- the precise fundamentals as opposed to perhaps better-written, but fuzzy and impressionistic personal reflections -- then the shortcomings of the prose are readily forgiveable.
Some of my favourite tidbits:
-- the clarification over when "intrusive r" does and does not occur (e.g., "That's a good idea" vs. "the idear is good")
-- that where Standard English has "this book" (near) and "that book" (far), some dialects add yet a third distinction (remote), e g. "yon book"
-- archaic retentions such as cassn't? ("can't you?") from canst thou not? and ast? ("have you?") from, you guessed it, hast thou?
-- dialect words that have no equivalent whatsoever in Standard English: like bracking, "the chipping of eggshells when hatching begins"
And a lot else besides.
(One note of warning: if you know IPA transcription, then you absolutely want the second edition, as the first only contains "orthographic" phonetic representations, which I found to be rather foggy. The second edition wisely incorporates both. )
July 31, 2017
Este libro es EL BIEN y obra de consulta forever para dialectos ingleses. Trudgill, te lanzaría mis ropas interiores.
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April 11, 2013good book
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews