A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2015) |
A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area is a two-part
Shorrocks's technique was to get to know his informants well so that they would speak to him naturally, as they would with their friends and families.
Shorrocks concluded that the extent of decline in traditional dialect presented by many sociolinguists was exaggerated, and that all the grammatical features of the Bolton dialect found by the early dialectologist Joseph Wright were still present at the time of his research in addition to a few features that Wright had not recorded.[9]
Shorrocks stated that the dialect of Bolton, and Greater Manchester in general, has been highly stigmatised.
A great many people in the area feel ashamed of their speech - to a degree that goes beyond what is generally appreciated. I have personally known those who would avoid, or could never enjoy, a conversation with a stranger, because they were literally too ashamed to open their mouths. It has been drummed into people - often in school, and certainly in society at large - that dialect speech is incorrect, impure, vulgar, clumsy, ugly, careless, shoddy, ignorant, and altogether inferior. Furthermore, the particularly close link in recent English society between speech, especially accents, and social class and values has made local dialect a hindrance to upward social mobility.[10]
The concept of a "Northern Regional Standard", which Shorrocks attributes to the
The phonemes described for the Bolton dialect are shown in the table below.[12] /h/ is shown as a marginal phoneme in the dialect, used only when stressing words or attempting to modify speech towards a standard form, and /x/ is shown as a phoneme that existed in the dialect until the mid-20th century as a pronunciation of the sequence gh.[13] There is no phoneme /ŋ/ in the Bolton dialect, although [ŋ] occurs as an allophone of /n/ before /k, g/.[14]
Group | Phonemes in Bolton |
---|---|
Long vowels | i: ʏ: e: ɛ: æ: ɔ: o: ɵ: |
Short vowels | ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ ɵ |
Diphthongs | ɛɪ aɪ ɔɪ ɜʏ ɪɵ ɔɵ oɵ ʏɵ |
Consonants | p b t d k g t͡ʃ d͡ʒ f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ m n l w r j [h] [x] |
The books were given positive reviews in the Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society by Stanley Ellis: the first book reviewed in the 1998 edition[15] and the second book reviewed in the 1999 edition.[16]
Graham Shorrocks passed away in 2023.[17]
Publication details
- Shorrocks, Graham (1998). A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area. Pt. 1: Phonology. Bamberger Beiträge zur englischen Sprachwissenschaft; Bd. 41. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. ISBN 3-631-33066-9.
- Shorrocks, Graham (1999). A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area. Pt. 2: Morphology and Syntax. Bamberger Beiträge zur englischen Sprachwissenschaft; Bd. 41. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. ISBN 3-631-33066-9.
References
- ^ a b "Rev. of Shorrocks, A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area". Gazette. Memorial University of Newfoundland. 23 April 1998. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), p.84
- ^ a b Shorrocks (1998), p.vii
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), pp.101-103
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), pp. 110-113
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), p.133
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), pp.41-46
- ^ Shorrocks (1999), pp.19-20
- ^ Shorrocks (1999), pp.257-258
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), p.90
- ^ a b Shorrocks (1998), pp.55-56
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), pp.157-405
- ^ Shorrocks (1998), pp.402-403
- ^ Shorrocks (1999), p.viii
- ^ Ellis, Stanley (1998). "Reviews: A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area, Part 1, Introduction and Phonology". Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society. XIX (XCVIII): 53–55.
- ^ Ellis, Stanley (1999). "Reviews: A Grammar of the Dialect of the Bolton Area, Part 2, Morphology and Syntax". Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society. XIX (XCIX): 52–55.
- ^ Upton, Clive (2023). "Obituary, Professor Graham Shorrocks". Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society: 42.