A selection of some the best dialect and language resources.The influence of Viking language on the regional speech varieties of northern and eastern England is well documented. It is not surprising, therefore, that numerous 'Viking' lexical items are to be found in the traditional dialects of places such as Yorkshire and this page presents many of these.
Website devoted to the description of traditional Yorkshire dialect
The vagaries of the Yorkshire dialect are many and various, but there exists a band of enthusiasts (Colloquially known as Tykes) who are determined to see it continue by the creation of original Yorkshire Dialect Verse
Language ideological debates on the interactive website of the BBC Voices project. A forty-month research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council via Leeds University Faculty of Arts.
Journey with BBC radio journalists around the country and listen to hundreds of conversations.
Encompassing the Survey of English Dialects, and the Archives of the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies, School of English; held by Leeds University Library
A single page site describing a three-year project that will culminate in an online resource allowing users to search the BBC Voices Recordings (&opy BBC, 2005) by individual linguistic feature (e.g. Where do speakers say ‘I were’? Where do speakers use definite article reduction? etc.). There is a fortnightly project blog and at the end of the project it is hoped it will be the start of an online UK dialect database.
The British Library's interactive educational resource with access to a smaller set of recordings from the SED and MMB and interpreted for a non-specialist audience. In addition there are hundreds of audio-clips that illustrate individual words, grammatical constructions or pronunciations that characterise contemporary dialects of the UK.
The British Library's online dialect archive currently features 31 Survey of English Dialects recordings from Yorkshire and 57 recordings from Yorkshire sourced from the Millennium Memory Bank © BBC, 1999.
The Northumbrian Language Society has existed since 1983 to promote, preserve, research, publish and enjoy those rich dialects from Northumberland to NW Durham (including Tyneside), descendants of the speech of the Angles, which have survived particularly in the Northumbrian 'burr' area.
Glossary of the dialect of the Lower Tees area, and how the dialect relates to the North Yorkshire dialects to the south, Durham dialects to the north and Teesdale dialect to the west.
Website promoting Lancashire dialect, culture and heritage
Website promoting the Lakeland dialect
The Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group arose out of local history and language publications in East Durham in the 1990s. A newsletter circle was established in 2000, and local enthusiasts joined Bill Griffiths in arranging the first major project, a dialect questionnaire, in mid 2001, leading on to the publication of 'A Dictionary of North-East Dialect' in 2004.
The English Fellowship and Cultural Society is based in the West of England and strongly support English History and Culture as far back as Anglo-Saxon times and also the Old English language and the dialects which link to the shires of England.
