Studying Dialects: Methods

Question 1

Who was John Ray?

Answer 1

A dialect collector that created a “Collection of English Words not Generally Used (1674)

Question 2

What was the issue with this technique? John Ray (Collection of English Words not Generally Used)

Answer 2

No recognisable method just simply noting down local words and phrases.

Question 3

Who was the principle collector?

Answer 3

Joseph Wright - The English Dialect Dictionary

Question 4

Why must we excercise caution?

Answer 4

The first dialect collectors used simplistic unsystematic methods.

Question 5

Development of dialect study, why did dialectology develop?

Answer 5

developed as a set of methods for gathering systematic observations relating to the way in which dialects differed.

Question 6

What are neo-grammarians?

Answer 6

New scholars of grammar.

Question 7

What did they mean by “sound changes are exceptionless” ?

Answer 7

Sound changes change in all dialects

Question 8

What did this hypothesis indicate? (neogrammarians)

Answer 8

That dialect data needed to develop and become systematic to prove it

Question 9

What are the main features of tradtional dialect study?

Answer 9

Aimed to further understanding of linguistic change - assumpttions about the interrelatedness od language and their dialects

Takes an “Item centred” approach - focusing on individual linguistic items

Attempted to define dialect areas

Question 10

Who investigated Early English Pronunciation?

Answer 10

Alexander Ellis - first systematic and wide-ranging dialect survey in the uk.

Question 11

What were the three methodological components of his study? (Alexander Ellis Early English Pronunciation)

Answer 11

1. the comparitive specimen
2. Classfied word list
3. Dialect test

covered loads of regions

Question 12

Which phonological features did he base his findings on? Alexander Ellis - early english pronunciation

Answer 12

1. STRUT~FOOT split.
2. Pronunciation of /r/
3. reduction of the definite article.
4. the monothongal realisation of MOUTH words

Question 13

The Survey of English Dialects -Eugen Dieth and Harold Orton (1948)

Answer 13

To record traditional types of English amongst the rural populations

Question 14

What method did they use?

Answer 14

Questionnaires using direct questoning and indirect questioning

Question 15

What did the questioning in these questionnaires in the SED obtain?

Answer 15

Spontaneous speech is gathered - informants opinions etc.

Question 16

What is the advantage of having a single questionnaire administered by a team?

Answer 16

Interviews can be conducted by many fieldworkers but still elicits a common core of linguistic data

Question 17

What type of people were the respondants normally? (SED)

Answer 17

NORMs
Nonmobile - speech is representitive in their region
Older
Rural - urban communities involve too much mobility and flux
Males - females are more conscious of their speech than mens

Question 18

How have linguists improved on dialect study? (4 things)

Answer 18

1. Studying the urban population
2. Widening the range of informants e.g social class gender and age
3. becoming more representitive
4. recording data

Question 19

What are Sense relation networks (SRNS)?

Answer 19

Method by the Survey of Regional English - visual
They are a web of
words that represent linguistic expressions in the mind. Asked to give words for following words and then interviewed afterwords.

Question 20

What are SRNs useful for?

Answer 20

lexical data and accent

Question 21

What is the Millenium Memory Bank?

Answer 21

Local radio stations recorded personal oral histories of people