VOICES OF THE UK

Accents and Dialects of English

LIBRARY H Siim a

Do you call a bread roll' a bap, barm cake, batch, bread cake, cob, scuffler or stottie? Do you pronounce the word plant to rhyme with ant? Are you listening to this CD sitting on a sofa or sat on a settee? One of the intriguing differences between speech and writing is that even the briefest of spoken utterances can reveal something about our identity - our age, gender, regional affiliation, socio-economic status, ethnic and/or cultural heritage, educational background and all manner of minute sociolinguistic biographical detail. As the fictional phonetician, Professor Higgins, famously observed, they give themselves away every time they open their mouths'. It is almost a hundred years since Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion and yet, despite an apparently increasingly homogeneous society, we still only need to travel a remarkably short distance in the UK

to witness (and enjoy) the gradual, but nonetheless perceptible change in the nature of the voices we hear - the accents and dialects that immediately conjure up a sense of the place to which they belong. The release of this double CD coincides with a major exhibition, Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices, held at the British Library between November 2010 and April 2011. Voices of the UK: Accents & Dialects of English draws on internationally acclaimed audio archives created at the start, middle and end of the 20th century to capture and celebrate the extraordinary diversity of regional speech in the United Kingdom. The compilation contains 143 extracts selected from four collections held in the British Library Sound Archive including recordings from as early as 1916 to 1999. Disc one features linguistic field

recordings carried out by academic researchers in the early part of the last century: 15 tracks from the Berliner Lautarchiv British & Commonwealth Recordings; 51 from the Survey of English Dialects; and five from the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (SAWD). Disc two contains a further three extracts from SAWD and 69 excerpts from the Millennium Memory Bank, a substantial collection of oral history interviews created by the BL and the BBC at the turn of the century. Each extract lasts approximately one minute and is edited from longer recordings. Tracks are arranged geographically by region. The location and date of recording are given in the track listings. Where such information is available, individual speakers are identified and some biographical detail is included. The date of some of the earlier recordings, the nature of the recording environment and technology available are sometimes reflected in the sound quality. In selecting passages that contain noteworthy linguistic features it was inevitable that audio quality was occasionally a secondary consideration. It was an impossible task to achieve

comprehensive coverage of all our regional varieties, particularly as access to earlfer recordings from Scotland and Northern Ireland was limited to a single collection, so some speakers may be disappointed if they feel their dialect is overlooked, but every effort was made to include a representative sample of speech across the whole of the UK. English Accents & Dialects All languages change over time and vary according to place and social setting. The way we speak is influenced by many factors - our roots, our social and educational background, our working environment, our friends, our sense of identity - and we are all capable of adjusting our speech according to context. The terms accent and dialect are often used interchangeably, but in strict linguistic terms they refer to different aspects of language variation. A dialect is a variety of English that differs from other varieties in a number of ways: lexis (vocabulary), grammar (structure), phonology (pronunciation or accent) and discourse (conversational strategies). Mark James from Newcastle-upon-Tyne (CD2 track 2) peppers his speech with localised

vocabulary, such as if a lass had a bairn out of wedlock [= if an unmarried girl had a child] and frequently uses regional grammatical constructions, such as the alternative possessive pronoun in I'll always love wor [= our, i.e. 'my'] lass or the negation system apparent in I diwent [= don't] think they're right now and you cannot [= can't] speak for other people really can you. Mark's pronunciation is also very distinctive, in particular his consistent use of extremely marked local vowel sounds in the following phrases: I'll always love wor lass; everybody looked down on people like that; he got the wrong one and I've been lucky ... dead lucky, while his use of the discourse marker, mind, in the phrase saying that mind I got the right one and his pronunciation of, you know, in the phrase I fell in love with her vou know, is typical of many speakers in the north east of England. Accent, on the other hand, refers only to differences in the sound patterns of a particular variety. Very broad dialect speech is relatively rare in some parts of the UK, but despite popular belief we all speak with an accent. Julia Williams (CD2 track 50) uses exclusively mainstream vocabulary and grammar, but her pronunciation has an unmistakeable

hint of South Wales. This is apparent both in the pronunciation of individual words, consonants and vowel sounds - as in a few of my relations lived here: and play all together and there are too many computers and what have you - and, equally importantly, in the instantly recognisable rhythm and intonation patterns of her speech. For these reasons we could legitimately describe Mark as a Geordie dialect speaker, whereas Julia should properly be described as having a Swansea accent. For valid reasons researchers in the early part of the 20th century were primarily interested in recording rural dialects, so CD1 features speakers almost exclusively from rural locations. To compensate for this bias, preference on CD2 was given to selecting speakers from urban locations. Although this presents a potentially misleading picture of the changing nature of speech in some parts of the country over the course of the 20th century, it ensures a meaningfully distributed network of locations and enables comparisons to be made both over time and across geographic space. In listening to either CD in isolation it is above all immediately apparent that

speech at both the start and end of the 20th century varied significantly from place to place. It is worth noting that several features encountered in the recordings are common to most, and sometimes all, varieties of English. In saying whan he haed spent awthing a muckle famine come ower the countrie William Gunn of Watten, Caithness (CD1 track 59) uses a non-standard simple past form that occurs in most varieties of British English, as confirmed 80 years later and 600 miles further south by Wayne Vincent of Southampton (CD2 track 35) when he states and riding a bike become a problem. Likewise some features encountered in the recordings might more accurately reflect the age, rather than geographic location, of the speaker. When, for instance, Charles Hall of Shrivenham, Berkshire (CD1 track 43) says the younger on 'em said to his father gie us the part of the goods that belongs to I he substitutes on for of. This was at one time a relatively widespread construction and indeed remains a feature of some older speakers in parts of the UK as demonstrated by Frances Conway of Nottingham (CD2 track 17) when she recalls they was

very clean people most on. 'em miners and hard-working people. The overriding impression we get from the recordings, however, is one of astonishing regional diversity. There is insufficient space here to record many examples, but the following gives a flavour of the variety of features captured from the Shetland Islands to Cornwall. Dialect words abound from when ah wis peerie [= little] before ah wis eh alloud to go out (CD2 track 53 Lerwick, Shetland) to we used to call it regrator [= egg collector] (CD1 track 52 - Altarnun, Cornwall). Most recordings contain examples of localised grammar, including alternative forms of negation, such as the characteristic Scots ah cudnae wait to hear a bell at the end of the day tae get hame again (CD2 track 54 - Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire); less familiar features such as the so-called bare infinitive, which is widely attested in the North West and East Midlands of England as exemplified in, for example, I'd love _ be a wrestler (CD2 track 22 - Stoke-onTrent); and rarer phenomena, such as historic pronouns in, for example, hoo [= she, i.e. 'if, referring to 'lightning'] went over hoo hit that tree at tother side field

there (CD1 track 1 7 - Kniveton, Derbyshire) or features possibly attributable to interference from Welsh in bilingual Welsh-English communities, such as the fascinating tense/aspect contrast apparent in my mother was doing [= did] that well all the farm women were doing [= did] that (CD2 track 47 - Aberhosan, Powys). Every recording testifies to the extraordinary variety of pronunciation patterns that exist in British English and sound, of course, captures this considerably more effectively than a purely written description, even if one understands phonetic transcription. Well-known accent features, such as rhoticity (the 'r-colouring' of vowels preceding orthographic <r>) in Scotland, Northern Ireland and a gradually shrinking area in the West Country, Lancashire and elsewhere can be heard, for example, in my father would go to synagogue every Saturday morning (CD2 track 56 Edinburgh) and when you'd got a long journey you'd start off perhaps uh two two or three o'clock in the morning (CD1 track 25 - Clifton-upon-Teme, Worcestershire). In addition there are glimpses of more elusive phenomena, such as V-epenthesis in northern

English in, for example, it rises for quarter of an hour and then I puts it intiv [= into] a nice warm oven (CD1 track 9 - Welwick, Yorkshire) or the extraordinary parasitic L of broad Bristolian evident in just outside of Helston and Porthleven all round that areal [= area] (CD2 track 37 - Bristol). Finally there are examples of extremely subtle discourse markers that distinguish speakers from different parts of the UK, such as the intriguing use of emphatic tags, as in I wouldn't like that me (CD2 track 9 - Leeds) and I was a back-seat passenger in a car accident so I was (CD2 track 66 - Newry) - the former apparently common among speakers in the north of England and, possibly, parts of Wales and Scotland; the latter perhaps restricted to Northern Ireland and Scotland. CD2 also contains a small set of recordings of voices other than wellestablished regional varieties of British English. Three extracts feature speakers of Received Pronunciation (RP), the regionally neutral accent associated with some middle and all upper class speakers in England. RP is arguably the most widely studied and most frequently

described variety of spoken English in the world and still serves as a theoretical model in educational contexts. Although recent estimates suggest that RP is spoken by only 2% of the UK population, the prestige it enjoyed for most of the 20th century justifies its inclusion. As with any accent of English, RP encompasses a wide variety of speakers and should not be confused simply with the notion of 'posh' speech as is demonstrated by the three very different RP voices here. For more than half a century, migration from the Indian subcontinent and the West Indies has also added variety and diversity to the rich patchwork of accents and dialects spoken in the UK, so two recordings one each of Indian English and Jamaican English - have been included to acknowledge that contribution. There is currently growing evidence of new dialects emerging in many of our urban centres as the distinctive speech patterns that distinguish older generations along ethnic lines appear to have become increasingly blurred among younger speakers. Unfortunately the collections featured on this CD were created before this process received appropriate attention, but linguists at the start of the

21st century are beginning to document and interpret this fascinating development and any future CD would almost certainly include such voices. NB. Counties are identified according to administrative classification at time of recording Jonnie Robinson, June 2010

The Collections
The Berliner Lautarchiv British & Commonwealth Recordings is a subset of an audio archive made between 1915 and 1938 by German sound pioneer, Wilhelm Doegen. Enlisting the support of numerous academics, Doegen sought to capture the voices of famous people, and languages, music and songs from all over the world. The original shellac discs are held at the Berliner Lautarchiv at the Humboldt Universitat (http://publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/ lautarchiv/). The British Library collection (BL ref. C1315), acquired in 2008, comprises 821 digital copies of recordings of British prisoners of war and colonial troops held in captivity on German soil between 1915 and 1918 and later recordings made by Doegen in Berlin and on field trips to Ireland and elsewhere. The 15 extracts on this CD feature British POWs reading from the Parable of the Prodigal Son or reciting poems or lyrics from traditional songs in their native dialect. They differ from the other three collections in that they are performances rather than spontaneous speech and thus raise concerns about the authenticity of the voices. Nonetheless they are fascinating in that they represent some of the earliest known recordings of 'ordinary' speakers and it is reassuring to note that many of the words, pronunciations and grammatical constructions elicited are confirmed by later, more naturalistic recordings. The Survey of English Dialects (SED) was a groundbreaking nationwide survey of the vernacular speech of England, undertaken by researchers based at the University of Leeds under the direction of Harold Orton. From 1950 to 1961, a team of fieldworkers collected data in 313 mostly rural localities, initially in the form of transcribed responses to a questionnaire containing over 1300 items, but subsequently augmented by an audio recording programme that continued until 1974. The informants were predominantly male farm labourers who had spent little or no time living away from their village. The sound recordings were unscripted and unrehearsed, with speakers encouraged to use their natural speech forms. The

findings, published between 1962 and 1971, continue to be used by linguists worldwide and the original fieldworker's notebooks, open reel tapes and gramophone discs are held at the Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/english/activities/ lavc/index.htm). Digital copies of sound recordings held at the British Library Sound Archive (BL ref. C908) include recordings from 288 SED localities, additional recordings from Ortons pre-SED Northumbrian corpus and several pilot recordings from non-SED localities. Longer extracts from the 51 tracks on this CD and from all 288 surveyed localities are available on the Archival Sound Recordings site at http://sounds.bl.uk The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (SAWD) was an investigation into the English folk-speech of Wales based on SED methodology and directed from 1968 by David Parry at the University of Swansea. Fieldworkers used an almost identical questionnaire with the aim of making possible direct comparison between the material collected in England and that collected

in Wales. A network of 90 rural localities was investigated and elderly informants were interviewed and tape-recorded. The original fieldworker's notebooks and audio cassette tapes are held at the Archive of Welsh English at the University of Swansea (www.swan.ac.uk/CREW/Home/). Digital copies of the sound recordings are held at the British Library Sound Archive (BL ref. C1314) and consist of recordings in 43 SAWD localities, early pilot recordings, recordings made for SAWD-related research in the Rhondda and recordings collected for the later, urban phase of SAWD, which used shorter questionnaires and a more sociolinguistic methodology in interviews with young, middle-aged, and elderly informants. The five extracts on CD1 are taken from the earlier rural phase, while the three extracts on CD2 derive from the later urban survey. A small set of longer extracts from SAWD is available on the Sounds Familiar website at www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar During 1998 and 1999, forty BBC local radio stations recorded personal oral histories from a broad cross-section of the population for the series The Century Speaks. The result is one of

the largest single oral history collections in Europe, the Millennium Memory Bank (MMB): a set of hour-long interviews with a range of speakers from across the UK contained on 5429 minidisks. Although the MMB was not devised as a linguistic survey, the intention was always to be inclusive - ultimately 56% of the interviewees were male, 44% female, ranging from 5 to 107 years old and drawn from a diversity of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Although the primary objective was to record thoughts and attitudes rather than speech patterns, many interviewees had

spent the vast majority of their life in a particular place and are, therefore, fully representative of their respective speech communities. Longer extracts from over 350 MMB interviews in England, including the 42 tracks on CD2 are available on the Archival Sound Recordings site at http://sounds.bl.uk Longer extracts of MMB recordings from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and of RP and minority ethnic English speakers (including the 27 featured on CD2) are available on the Sounds Familiar website at www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar

DISC ONE
England - the North
1. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Arthur Roper (b.1894; Durham, County Durham) Recording location: Wittenberg, Germany Recording date: 29.02.1916 Duration: 1.01 2. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: John Hayhurst (b.1881; Chorley, Lancashire) Recording location: Wittenberg, Germany Recording date: 29.02.1916 Duration: 1.06 3. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: John Townend (b.1882; Shelley, West Riding of Yorkshire) Recording location: Gustrow, Germany Recording date: 03.07.1917 Duration: 0.37 4. Making a cartwheel Speaker: Thomas Mosscrop (b.1879, joiner) Recording location: Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland Recording date: 21.03.1953 Duration: 1.01 5. Shearing sheep Speaker: John Peart (b.1872, farmer) Recording location: Wearhead, County Durham Recording date: 14.05.1954 Duration: 1.05 6. The village schoolmaster Speaker: Albert Davidson (b.1879, farm labourer & paper mill worker) Recording location: Hunsonby, Cumberland Recording date: 08.12.1953 Duration: 1.11 7. Sheep farming Speaker: Roger Allen (b.1881, farmer) Recording location: Staveley-in-Kendal, Westmorland Recording date: 05.11.1954 Duration: 1.19

8. Stacking com Speaker: Charles Armstrong (b.1894, farmer) Recording location: Stokesley, North Riding of Yorkshire Recording date: 16.04.1955 Duration: 1.08 9. Baking bread Speaker: Madge Dibnah (b.1890, housekeeper) Recording location: Welwick, East Riding of Yorkshire Recording date: 14.04.1955 Duration: 1.14 10. Mill work Speaker: James Gledhill (b.1889, piecer) Recording location: Golcar, West Riding of Yorkshire Recording date: 1974 Duration: 0.48 11. Trapping moles Speaker: Tom Atkinson (b.1880, quarryman & farm labourer) Recording location: Cartmel, Lancashire Recording date: 05.06.1954 Duration: 1.05

12. Tupping time Speaker: Jim Wade (b.1885, farmer) Recording location: Read, Lancashire Recording date: 05.03.1954 Duration: 0.58

Recording date: 10.05.1916 Duration: 0.41 16. Cutting millstones Speaker: Wilf Lancaster (b.1898, miller) Recording location: Swettenham, Cheshire Recording date: 1957 Duration: 1.15 17. A thunderstorm Speaker: John William Woolley (b.1892, smallholder) Recording location: Kniveton, Derbyshire Recording date: 23.08.1952 Duration: 1.16 18. Breaking difficult horses Speaker: Percy Strutt (b.1885, farm labourer) Recording location: Oxton, Nottinghamshire Recording date: 1957 Duration: 1.01 19. Work-horses Speakers: W. Brothwell (b.1885, farmer) & F. Greenwood Recording location: Wragby, Lincolnshire Recording date: 1960 Duration: 1.01

20. Sheep farming Speaker: George Walker (b.1893, farmer) Recording location: Goadby, Leicestershire Recording date: 03.03.1965 Duration: 0.57 21. Work-horses Speaker: Billy Williamson (b.1884, farm labourer) Recording location: Warmington, Northamptonshire Recording date: 1957 Duration: 1.09 22. Mining Speaker: George Davies (b.1884, miner) Recording location: Weston Rhyn, Shropshire Recording date: 1955 Duration: 0.58 23. Laying a hedge Speaker: W. Carrington (b.1896, ploughman) Recording location: Lapley, Staffordshire Recording date: 06.01.1955 Duration: 1.00

England - the Midlands

13. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: John Devlin (b.1883; Stalybridge, Cheshire) Recording location: Wahn, Germany Recording date: 05.10.1916 Duration: 0.42 14. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: George Farr (b.1889; West Stockwith, Nottinghamshire) Recording location: Gustrow, Germany Recording date: 03.07.1917 Duration: 0.36 15. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Henry Heath (b.1881; Wolverhampton, Staffordshire) Recording location: Gottingen, Germany

24. Farm labour Speaker: Bella Green (b.1888, housewife) Recording location: Nether Whitacre, Warwickshire Recording date: 1965 Duration: 1.18 25. Farm labour Speaker: Ted Roberts (b.1877, farm labourer) Recording location: Clifton upon Teme, Worcestershire Recording date: 13.12.1955 Duration: 1.14

27. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: John Hickman (b.1885; Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire) Recording location: Sennelager, Germany Recording date: 22.07.1916 Duration: 0.45 28. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Albert Tucker (b.1883; Hunton, Kent) Recording location: Wahn, Germany Recording date: 06.10.1916 Duration: 0.55 29. Black voles Speaker: Edward Dawson (b.1883, gamekeeper & smallholder) Recording location: North Elmham, Norfolk Recording date: 01.02.1957 Duration: 1.07 30. Shearing sheep Speaker: Bill Scott (b.1877, shepherd) Recording location: Tuddenham, Suffolk Recording date: 1957 Duration: 1.07 31. Skating on the frozen washes Speaker: unidentified Recording location: Little Downham,

Cambridgeshire Recording date: 1958 Duration: 1.02 32. Building a haystack Speaker: Harry Pierce (b.1896, farmer) Recording location: Kingham, Oxfordshire Recording date: 1966 Duration: 1.03 33. Coleshill Fair Speaker: Harry Appleby (b.1886, farm labourer) Recording location: Coleshill, Buckinghamshire Recording date: 1957 Duration: 0.56 34. A difficult bull Speaker: W. Simons (b.1889, farmer) Recording location: Great Barford, Bedfordshire Recording date: 1958 Duration: 1.11 35. Penny farthings Speaker: Amos Males (b.1884, farm labourer) Recording location: Codicote, Hertfordshire

Recording date: 1958 Duration: 1.03 36. Farm wages Speaker: W. Dutton (b.1889, farm labourer) Recording location: Little Bentley, Essex Recording date: 1958 Duration: 1.04 37. Public transport Speaker: H.J. Kent (b.1888, shoemaker & engineer) Recording location: Hackney, Middlesex Recording date: 1967 Duration: 1.02 38. Com ricks Speaker: Mr Baker (b.1894, farmer) Recording location: Thursley, Surrey Recording date: 1959 Duration: 1.00 39. Itinerant farm labour Speaker: William Bushel (b.1888, miner & travelling thresher) Recording location: Denton, Kent Recording date: 1959 Duration: 1.10

England - East Anglia & the South East

26. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Fred Eccles (b.1888; Aslacton, Norfolk) Recording location: Quedlinburg, Germany Recording date: 14.06.1917 Duration: 0.39

40. Harvesting Speaker: Harry Prior (b.1881, gardener) Recording location: East Harting, Sussex Recording date: 1959 Duration: 1.02

Recording date: 09.05.1916 Duration: 0.54 44. Cider making Speaker: George Lloyd (b.1881, farm labourer) Recording location: Weobley, Herefordshire Recording date: 08.12.1955 Duration: 1.15 45. The Forest of Dean Speaker: Frank Cook (b.1885, miner) Recording location: Bream, Gloucestershire Recording date: 12.12.1955 Duration: 0.55 46. Childhood pranks Speaker: Walt Fisher (b.1884, farm labourer) Recording location: Wedmore, Somerset Recording date: 1956 Duration: 1.19 47. Farm labourers Speaker: H.J.W. (b.1879, carter) Recording location: Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire Recording date: 1960 Duration: 1.09

48. Bacon pigs Speaker: Reuben Annett (b.1876, blacksmith & pig-sticker) Recording location: Inkpen, Berkshire Recording date: 1959 Duration: 1.07 49. Sheep feed Speaker: Charles Henry Dudman (b.1898, gamekeeper & licensed victualler) Recording location: Hatherden, Hampshire Recording date: 1958 Duration: 1.01 50. Com ricks Speaker: Sid Hodder (b.1878, market gardener & railwayman) Recording location: Portesham, Dorset Recording date: 1956 Duration: 1.05 51. Clotted cream Speaker: John Arthur Reap (b.1892, farmer) Recording location: Peter Tavy, Devon Recording date: 01.04.1963 Duration: 1.14 52. First jobs on the farm Speaker: Wesley Stevens (b.1890, shepherd)

Recording location: Altarnun, Cornwall Recording date: 29.03.1963 Duration: 1.07

Wales
53. Welsh farmhouse Speaker: W.P-J. (b.1910, farm labourer) Recording location: Botwnnog, Gwynedd Recording date: 1980 Duration: 1.11 54. Dairy cattle Speaker: Mr R. (b.1902, farmer) Recording location: Nantglyn, Clwyd Recording date: 1982 Duration: 1.22 55. Itinerant farm labour Speaker: Mr W. Recording location: Knighton, Radnorshire Recording date: 1965 Duration: 1.05

England - the West Country & South West

41. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Percy Child (b.1885; Prestbury, Gloucestershire) Recording location: Wahn, Germany Recording date: 09.10.1916 Duration: 0.41 42. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Frederick Shears (b.1892; Cricklade, Wiltshire) Recording location: Gottingen, Germany Recording date: 09.05.1916 Duration: 0.45 43. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Charles Edward Hall (b.1882; Shrivenham, Berkshire) Recording location: Gottingen, Germany

56. Tumbling rake Speaker: Mr D M . (b.1906, farmer) Recording location: Marloes, Dyfed Recording date: 1974 Duration: 1.03 57. Cockle-picking Speaker: Mrs. B. (cockle-picker) Recording location: Penclawdd, West Glamorgan Recording date: 1982 Duration: 1.12 58. Baking bread and lardy cakes Speaker: A. Pearson (b.1868, domestic servant) Recording location: Raglan, Monmouthshire Recording date: 09.12.1955 Duration: 1.08

60. The Whistle by Charles Murray Speaker: John Harold (b.1890; MacDuff, Banffshire) Recording location: Ruhleben, Germany Recording date: 16.11.1918 Duration: 0.59 61. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: John Hay (b.1890; Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire) Recording location: Dyrotz, Germany Recording date: 20.03.1916 Duration: 0.39 62. The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond Speaker: George Campbell (b.1887; Aberdeen) Recording location: Sennelager, Germany Recording date: 22.07.1916 Duration: 1.16 63. Fou the Noo Speaker: Peter Fisher (b.1894; Inverkeithing, Fife) Recording location: Merseburg, Germany Recording date: 20.03.1916 Duration: 1.10 64. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Thomas Sneddon (b.1896; Falkirk, Stirlingshire)

Recording location: Gustrow, Germany Recording date: 13.07.1917 Duration: 0.45 65. Annie Laurie by William Douglas Speaker: Angus Kelly (b.1887; Glasgow) Recording location: Ruhleben, Germany Recording date: 16.11.1918 Duration: 0.57 66. Peck o Maut by Robert Burns Speaker: Thomas Finnie (b.1887; Bathgate, Linlithgowshire) Recording location: Quedlinburg, Germany Recording date: 14.06.1917 Duration: 0.52 67. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Archibald Cochrane (b.1882; Gordon, Berwickshire) Recording location: Quedlinburg, Germany Recording date: 15.06.1917 Duration: 0.47 68. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: Robert Scott (b.1879; Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire) Recording location: Dyrotz, Germany Recording date: 17.03.1917 Duration: 0.59

Northern Ireland
69. The Pride of Liscarroll Speaker: John McCrary (b.1879; Belfast) Recording location: Gieften, Germany Recording date: 27.09.1917 Duration: 1.01 70. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: David MacAteer (b.1884; Dungannon, County Tyrone) Recording location: Quedlinburg, Germany Recording date: 14.06.1917 Duration: 0.32 71. Norah Carney Speaker: Patrick MacNamee (b.1879; Sixmilecross, County Tyrone) Recording location: Berlin, Germany Recording date: 26.09.1917 Duration: 0.59

Scotland
59. Parable of the Prodigal Son Speaker: William Gunn (b.1877; Watten, Caithness) Recording location: Dyrotz, Germany Recording date: 16.02.1916 Duration: 0.44

DISC TWO
England - the North
1. Farming with horses Speaker: Ian Tait (b.1958, hill farmer) Recording location: Stannington, Northumberland Recording date: 01.12.1998 Duration: 1.10 2. Marriage Speaker: Mark James (b.1939, labourer) Recording location: Newcastle upon Tyne Recording date: 08.01.1999 Duration: 1.03 3. Family Sundays Speaker: Janice McGorrell (b.1962, hairdresser) Recording location: Sunderland Recording date: 08.03.1999 Duration: 0.56 4. Corporal punishment Speaker: Keith Matthews (b.1943, lorry driver) Recording location: Workington, Cumbria Recording date: 12.11.1998 Duration: 1.06 5. Television Speaker: Kelly Hugill (b.1976, trainee nurse) Recording location: Hartlepool, County Durham Recording date: 24.02.1999 Duration: 1.03 6. Family Speaker: Susan McGrath (b.1960, part-time student) Recording location: Middlesbrough Recording date: 26.01.1999 Duration: 1.10 7. Deposit bottles Speaker: Harold Stratton (b.1924) Recording location: York, North Yorkshire Recording date: 02.11.1998 Duration: 1.03

8. Fish market Speaker: Bob Carver (b.1948, fish merchant) Recording location: Hull Recording date: 27.10.1998 Duration: 1.13 9. Class divide Speaker: Six teenage girls (b.1984, schoolgirls) Recording location: Leeds Recording date: 10.03.1999 Duration: 1.06 10. Prison service Speaker: Andrew Briggs (b.1961, prison officer) Recording location: Doncaster, South Yorkshire Recording date: 22.01.1999 Duration: 1.06 11. Community spirit Speaker: Pete Cawthorn (b.1966) Recording location: Sheffield Recording date: 09.10.1998 Duration: 1.15

12. Burnley football matches Speaker: Arthur English (b.1928, millworker) Recording location: Nelson, Lancashire Recording date: 17.11.1998 Duration: 1.19 13. Decline of mills Speaker: Vincent Newton (b.1934, mill engineer) Recording location: Oldham, Greater Manchester Recording date: 17.12.1998 Duration: 1.10 14. Pigeon racing Speaker: Barry Ashcroft (b.1950) Recording location: Manchester Recording date: 20.10.1998 Duration: 1.14 15. Football pools Speaker: Mary Jenkins (b.1940, pools clerk & barmaid) Recording location: Liverpool Recording date: 09.11.1998 Duration: 1.01

England - the Midlands

16. First wages Speaker: Roy Gibney (b.1954, sheet metal worker & stonemason) Recording location: Grimsby, Lincolnshire Recording date: 25.01.1999 Duration: 1.07 17. Housing in St Anns Speaker: Frances Conway (b.1919, caterer) Recording location: Nottingham Recording date: 12.03.1999 Duration: 1.09 18. Modern car manufacture Speaker: Felise Massey (b.1969, quality assurance officer) Recording location: Derby Recording date: 20.02.1999 Duration: 1.04 19. Childhood errands Speaker: Vera Archer (fish & chip shop assistant) Recording location: Swadlincote, Derbyshire

Recording date: 14.12.1998 Duration: 1.00 20. Youth work Speaker: Rachael Hopewell (b.1971, youth worker) Recording location: Loughborough, Leicestershire Recording date: 19.02.1999 Duration: 1.07 21. Shoe factory wages Speaker: Brian Basford (b.1934, shoe manufacturing engineer) Recording location: Leicester Recording date: 06.01.1999 Duration: 1.07 22. Wrestling Speaker: Jane Drosdzowski (b.1962, community youth co-ordinator) Recording location: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Recording date: 06.01.1999 Duration: 1.08 23. Architectural salvage Speaker: Les Oakes (b.1938, farmer & dealer) Recording location: Cheadle, Staffordshire Recording date: 19.02.1999 Duration: 1.02

24. Family outings Speakers: Muriel Painter (b.1925, nurse) & Colin Brown (b. 1931, telecoms engineer) Recording location: Shrewsbury, Shropshire Recording date: 15.01.1999 Duration: 1.06 25. Childhood in the 1950s Speaker: Sue Long (b.1949, telephone directory enquiries operator) Recording location: Birmingham Recording date: 26.03.1999 Duration: 1.02 26. Miners snap Speaker: Roy Bunn (b.1928, miner & scrap yard foreman) Recording location: Dudley, West Midlands Recording date: 01.02.1999 Duration: 0.57

Recording location: Norwich, Norfolk Recording date: 08.03.1999 Duration: 1.07 28. Ipswich Speaker: Ken Leighton (b.1926, railway engineer) Recording location: Ipswich, Suffolk Recording date: 12.01.1999 Duration: 1.11 29. Music Speaker: Will Wright (b.1972, DJ and promoter) Recording location: Colchester, Essex Recording date: 05.02.1999 Duration: 1.04 30. The Cutteslowe walls Speaker: Evelyn Johnson (b.1914, Careworker) Recording location: Oxford Recording date: 19.11.1998 Duration: 1.24 31. Ridley Road market Speaker: Freddie Sherrif (b.1951, street market trader) Recording location: Hackney, London (north) Recording date: 27.01.1999 Duration: 1.11

England - East Anglia & the South East

27. Saturday night dances Speaker: Pamela Alden (b.1932, Shoe factory worker)

32. Deprived childhood Speaker: Bob Turney (b.1944, probation officer) Recording location: Carshalton, London (south) Recording date: 21.04.1999 Duration: 1.00 33. Computers Speaker: Natasha Biggs (b.1982, student) Recording location: Chatham, Kent Recording date: 06.05.1999 Duration: 0.56 34. Portsmouth FC in the 1940s Speaker: Michael Brook (b.1932) Recording location: Portsmouth Recording date: 26.10.1999 Duration: 0.56 35. Early stages of a brain tumour Speaker: Wayne Vincent (b.1963) Recording location: Southampton Recording date: 09.11.1998 Duration: 1.00

West Country & South West

36. Daily routine Speaker: Selina Simms-Juke (b.1980) Recording location: Gloucester, Gloucestershire Recording date: 31.03.1999 Duration: 1.11 37. Evacuated to Cornwall Speaker: Pat Dallimore (b.1937, hospital worker) Recording location: Bristol Recording date: 10.11.1998 Duration: 0.55 38. Truancy Speaker: George Gregory (b.1927) Recording location: Melksham, Wiltshire Recording date: 25.11.1998 Duration: 1.11 39. The gloving trade Speaker: John Cornelius (b.1949, gardener) Recording location: Yeovil, Somerset Recording date: 10.03.1999 Duration: 1.04

40. Devons north-south divide Speaker: Stan Dibble (b.1933, police superintendent) Recording location: Barnstaple, Devon Recording date: 08.03.1999 Duration: 0.49 41. Airraid Speaker: Laura Lidstone (b.1931) Recording location: Plymouth Recording date: 09.11.1998 Duration: 1.12 42. Home ownership Speaker: Edward George (b.1922, fisherman) Recording location: Penberth, Cornwall Recording date: 30.03.1999 Duration: 1.04

44. Trefor Brass Band Speaker: Morgan Jones (b.1972) Recording location: Trefor, Gwynedd Recording date: 09.11.1999 Duration: 0.51 45. Wrexham Speaker: D.W. (b.1936, fire officer) Recording location: Wrexham, Clwyd Recording date: 1986 Duration: 1.03 46. Carmarthen Speaker: H.S. (b.1942, librarian) Recording location: Carmarthen, Dyfed Recording date: 1986 Duration: 1.02 47. Self-sufficiency Speaker: lorwerth Jones (b.1922, huntsman) Recording location: Aberhosan, Powys Recording date: 05.11.1998 Duration: 0.58 48. Home cooking Speaker: M.C. Recording location: Blaenrhondda, Mid Glamorgan Recording date: 10.11.1980 Duration: 0.45

Wales
43. Bilingualism Speaker: Michael Crane (b.1964, painter & decorator) Recording location: Bangor, Gwynedd Recording date: 27.04.1999 Duration: 1.07

49. West Indian miners in Wales Speaker: Alfred Lawes (b.1918, plumber) Recording location: Maerdy, Rhondda Cynon Taff Recording date: 05.11.1998 Duration: 0.51 50. Holidays on the Cower Speaker: Julia Williams (b.1945, shop assistant) Recording location: Swansea Recording date: 01.02.1999 Duration: 0.54 51. Rugby Speaker: Rhodri Lewis (b.1983, student) Recording location: Neath, Neath Port Talbot Recording date: 08.11.1999 Duration: 0.58 52. Allotments Speaker: Graham Willis (b.1934) Recording location: Cardiff Recording date: 02.11.1998 Duration: 0.47

Scotland
53. Guising at New Year Speaker: Margaret Sinclair Recording location: Lerwick, Shetland Recording date: 14.08.1998 Duration: 1.01 54. Leaving school Speaker: Stephen Duguid (b.1967, farmer) Recording location: Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire Recording date: 30.12.1998 Duration: 1.06 55. Shinty Speaker: Hector McKenzie (b.1976) Recording location: Uig, Isle of Skye Recording date: 05.08.1998 Duration: 0.50 56. Religion Speaker: Malcolm Rifkind (b.1946, Member of Parliament) Recording location: Edinburgh (Morningside) Recording date: 22.10.1998 Duration: 0.53

57. Butlins Redcoats Speaker: Cormack O'Hara Recording location: Glasgow Recording date: 06.10.1998 Duration: 1.12 58. A misunderstanding Speaker: John Borland (b.1938, miner) Recording location: Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire Recording date: 26.06.1998 Duration: 1.18 59. Childrens games Speaker: Janet McConnachie (b.1922) Recording location: Dalmellington, Ayrshire Recording date: 04.06.1998 Duration: 1.17 60. Agricultural change Speaker: Walter Elliott (b.1930) Recording location: Selkirk, Borders Recording date: 18.05.1998 Duration: 1.05

Northern Ireland
61. Local history Speaker: James Mclllhatton (b.1941, labourer) Recording location: Ballymoney, County Antrim Recording date: 12.12.1998 Duration: 1.03 62. Wilkinson's shirt factory Speaker: Rita McLoughlin (b.1940, embroiderer) Recording location: Derry Recording date: 25.03.1999 Duration: 0.49 63. Moving house Speaker: Terry O'Neill (b. 1931, docker) Recording location: Belfast Recording date: 19.01.1999 Duration: 0.42 64. Discrimination Speaker: Paul Anderson (b.1962, peer educator) Recording location: Bangor, North Down Recording date: 08.03.1999 Duration: 1.07

65. Parental influence Speaker: Barry Greene (b.1980, student) Recording location: Downpatrick, County Down Recording date: 30.03.1999 Duration: 1.05 66. Car accident Speaker: Bernice Rafferty (student) Recording location: Newry, Newry & Mourne Recording date: 30.03.1999 Duration: 1.12 67. Apple orchards Speaker Josie Mohan (b.1934, housewife) Recording location: Bleanish Island, County Fermanagh Recording date: 03.03.1999 Duration: 0.52

Recording date: 16.02.1999 Duration: 1.02 69. Historic buildings Speaker: Julian Orbach (b.1953, Inspector of Historic Buildings) Accent: mainstream RP Recording date: 11.01.1999 Duration: 1.02 70. Gap year Speaker: Michelle Levene (b.1973, management consultant) Accent: contemporary RP Recording date: 27.05.1999 Duration: 0.56 71. Indian food Speaker: Sir Gulam Noon (b.1937. Chairman of Noon Products) Dialect: Indian English Recording date: 03.03.1999 Duration: 1.08 72. First impressions of the UK Speaker: Joseph Douglas (b.1935, bus driver) Dialect: Jamaican English Recording date: 04.11.1998 Duration: 1.07

Curator: Jonathan Robinson Producer: Richard Fairman Audio mastering: Nigel Bewley This compilation 2010 The British Library Board The British Library acknowledges the support of the copyright holders of the four collections: Phoneme Archive, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin (Berliner Lautarchiv British & Commonwealth Recordings) English Language, The University of Leeds (Survey of English Dialects) Robert Penhallurick on behalf of the Archive of Welsh English (Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects) BBC (Millennium Memory Bank) CD1 Tracks 1-3; 13-15; 26-28; 41-43; & 59-71 from Berliner Lautarchiv British & Commonwealth Recordings (BL ref. C1315). 2010 Phoneme Archive, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin

Tracks 4-12; 16-25; 29-40; 44-52 & 58 from Survey of English Dialects (BL ref. C908). 2010 English Language, The University of Leeds Tracks 53-57 from Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (BL ref. C1314). 2010 Archive of Welsh English CD2 Tracks 1-44; 47; & 49-72 from Millennium Memory Bank (BL ref. C900). 2010 BBC Distributed under licence from the BBC Tracks 45-46 & 48 from Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (BL ref. C1314). 2010 Archive of Welsh English The recordings and/or works included on these discs are in copyright and may not be copied, published, or transmitted to the public in any way, including via the Internet or radio or television broadcast, without the permission of the copyright holders

Other
68. Life at Holkham Hall Speaker: Lady Sylvia Combe (b.1909, nurse) Accent: conservative RP

Accents and Dialects of English British Library online resources

The British Library collections contain recordings that are particularly appropriate for studying accents, dialects, discourse or language variation and change. We are committed to developing access to these collections and initiatives such as Sounds Familiar, Archival Sound Recordings and Voices of the UK provide enhanced remote access and open up the research potential of our collections.

Sounds Familiar
Interactive, educational website celebrating regional English at www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar 78 excerpts from recordings across the UK, sourced from Survey of English Dialects, Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects and Millennium Memory Bank Transcripts and linguistic commentaries 600+ audio-clips exploring language variation and change Interactive maps Interpretation and learning activities Case studies on 3 specific varieties of English - Geordie, RP and English as spoken by minority ethnic communities in the UK Opportunity to submit original contributions

Voices of the UK
The Voices of the UK project, funded by The Leverhulme Trust, will improve access to the 312 BBC Voices Recordings b),C, ,ine: The Leverhulme Trust expanded catalogue entries for all recordings on the British Library's Sound Archive Catalogue http://cadensa.bl.uk detailed linguistic commentaries for 200+ recordings that systematically summarise key lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactic features found in each recording a searchable dataset of the linguistic content of the recordings that will serve as a tool to permit identification of recordings of interest to particular researchers The expanded catalogue entries will allow full, free-text search of the subject matter of the recordings. The dataset will be searchable by fine-grained linguistic feature, such as vowel and consonant realisation, or morphological and syntactic variation, and allow researchers to find all recordings containing the features they are looking for.

Archival Sound Recordings

Online dialects of England archive at http://sounds.bl.uk Extracts of recordings sourced from 288 Survey of English Dialects localities 267 excerpts from similar locations in Millennium Memory Bank (MMB) 115 recordings from additional urban sites sourced from MMB Extracts accompanied by descriptive information and summaries of relevant lexical, phonological and grammatical features Browse by map, by date or by county Audio is streamed via the webpage or may be opened in your preferred media player

LIBRARY H SIilH S

Voices of the UK
A unique record of authentic regional speech
Do you call a 'bread roll' a bap, batch, cob, scuffler or stottie? Do you pronounce the word plant to rhyme with ant ? Are you sitting on a sofa or sat on a settee ? From Scots to Scouse and Geordie to Cockney, this double CD features 143 recordings from internationally acclaimed linguistic surveys of the last 100 years. The areas covered include: England - East Anglia & the South East England - the Midlands England - the North England - the West Country & South West Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Includes 32-page booklet giving full details of the location and date of each recording
NSACD 74-75 2 discs Duration: 153 minutes
Some recordings on these discs are historic and the technical quality does not equal present-day recordings

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