H04055 WESSEX DIALECT QUESTIONS - 9/2/04 - HARDY FORUM ARCHIVES

From: kaffi@onetel.net.uk

Subject: Re: Wessex Dialect

Date: September 2, 2004 8:04:33 AM PDT

"If anyone at all can share, or point me in the direction of (preferably)

some phonetic transcription, accent sampler or a novel with phonetic

spelling I would be terribly appreciative."

Not a novel, but the phonetic spelling in the dialect poetry of William

Barnes gives a clear idea of the speech of the early nineteenth century

which he heard while growing up "in a secluded part of the County", ie the

Blackmore Vale. This is, of course, in the north of the county, some way

from Dorchester, but there are enough vowel sounds in the poems to give you

a single, consistent accent to use.

Cheers

K Eldron

kaffi@onetel.net.uk

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From: srogers@sju.edu

Subject: Fwd: Re: Fwd: Wessex Dialect - Thomas Hardy

Date: September 2, 2004 6:55:51 AM PDT

This was posted to Victoria and Jessie has given me permission to post it here for perhaps a better response.

Cheers,

Shannon

At 08:30 AM 9/2/2004 -0400, you wrote:

Dear List Members,

Here's one for the linguists out there!

I am currently preparing for a performance of a number of excerpts from

Victorian texts, one of which, Hardy's "The Ruined Maid" (very familiar to

all, I am sure) calls for a county dialect, preferably in whatever would

be the equivalent of the "Wessex" dialect.

I understand that the area "Wessex" was originally made up of a number

counties, and therefore, a variety of contrasting accents, but if anyone

(actor, linguist...) has worked on the speech variations of this area and

would be able to offer some advice, I should be very grateful.

I have done a lot of research, searching especially for the area around

Dorchester (in Dorset) where Hardy was born, but all I can reliably come up

with is a kind of conglomeration of local dialects! If anyone at all can

share, or point me in the direction of (preferably) some phonetic

transcription, accent sampler or a novel with phonetic spelling I would be

terribly appreciative.

I know about the various consonant substitutions (z for s, v for f...) but

more detail on the vowels is something that has thus far been difficult to

pin down.

This is one of the few issues that has proved rather a bother in my

preparation. Please feel free to email me directly if you have any

information!

Sincerely,

Jess Long

s4004698@student.uq.edu.au

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From: michael@perceptivecreation.co.uk

Subject: Re: Wessex Dialect

Date: September 4, 2004 5:42:49 PM PDT

Wessex does indeed comprise a wide number of regional accents, probably more

than one per county (eg North Devon being very different from S Devon).

Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Wiltshire would comprise the core of Hardy's

Wessex.

Within these (as per earlier discussion) you would find a working-class/

broad variant and a middle-class/ educated modification. And maybe also an

affected version spoken by rising middle-classes aspiring to gentility

(exhibited elsewhere in UK but not in fact noticed by myself within Wessex

or within Hardy's works).

The BBC used to (and maybe still do) publish dialect records. I have

"English with a Dialect" (BBC Records REC 173), which includes Devonshire,

Somerset and Wiltshire, as well as Bristol. They may have since reissued

this on CD, possibly traceable c/o www.bbc.co.uk. Hope that helps.

Michael Barry

(michael@perceptivecreation.co.uk)

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