Dieth-Orton Questionnaire
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Dieth-Orton Questionnaire
Classmark: LAVC/SED/2/1
Creator(s): Orton, Harold (1898-1975); Dieth, Eugen (1893-1956)
Date(s): 1931-1953
Size and medium: 3 boxes with 28 files of typed, photocopied and printed papers, and 1 ms. notebook; 4 magazine files with 22 ms. response books and 1 ms. notebook; 1 box of ms. index cards.; 1.79 linear metres.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/409588
Collection group(s): Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Description
This subseries consists of items relating to the compilation and testing of the Dieth-Orton Questionnaire, which forms the basis of the fieldwork for the SED. The subseries includes drafts of the Questionnaire; response books recording the testing of Questionnaire drafts; and a number of linguistic and cultural questionnaires apparently consulted during its compilation.
Biography or history
Planning for the Dieth-Orton Questionnaire began in 1946, although work did not commence on its compilation until the summer of 1947. The first version of the Questionnaire, consisting of 1100 questions (based on 800 notions) focussing on farming and the home, appeared in the autumn of 1947 and was tested in the field by John Lloyd Bailes. Following a break in work, Orton and Dieth made the decision to develop the Questionnaire with a view to collecting responses that were strictly comparable regardless of where they were collected or the fieldworker collecting them. The wording of each individual question was set to determine the precise words and manner in which it should be asked. Questions were devised to have a phonological, morphological, syntactical or lexical purpose, lexical questions being predominant. Revisions of the Questionnaire were ready in August 1949 (version 2), October 1949 (version 3) and October 1950 (version 4). Research Assistants Peter Wright and Fritz Röhrer
were involved with Dieth and Orton in making and improving drafts. Each version of the Questionnaire was subject to testing in the field by Orton, Dieth, Wright and Röhrer.
The first published version of the Questionnaire, 'A Questionnaire for a Linguistic Atlas of England', (version 5) was produced in 1952 with the backing of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. This version was further revised, and republished as part of the introductory volume to the Survey of English Dialects (SED) Basic Material in 1962. The published Questionnaire contains 1092 numbered questions (comprising over 1300 individual questions) divided into nine books: I. The Farm; II. Farming; III. Animals; IV. Nature; V. The House and Housekeeping; VI. The Human Body; VII. Numbers, Time and Weather; VIII. Social Activities; and IX. States, Actions and Relations.
System of arrangement
The subseries has been arranged in the following sub-subseries, which are largely chronological:
- Questionnaire Version 1
- Questionnaire Version 2
- Questionnaire Version 3
- Questionnaire Version 4
- Published Versions of the Questionnaire
- Other Questionnaires Consulted
Access and usage
Reproduction
Access
Access to the manuscript and printed items in this subfonds is unrestricted. Mini disc copies of the audio tape recordings are available for consultation in the searchroom of Special Collections, University of Leeds. Access copies of the gramophone disc recordings are not available.
Copyright in all Survey of English Dialects material resides with the University of Leeds.
© University of Leeds
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