Northern/North Midlands Dialect Border Research
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Northern/North Midlands Dialect Border Research
Classmark: LAVC/NSP/37
Creator(s): Röhrer, Fritz
Date(s): 1949-1952
Size and medium: 1 file of typed papers, ms., photocopied and printed maps, and a newspaper extract; 2 over-sized ms. maps.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/410451
Collection group(s): Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Description
The papers in this file relate to Fritz Röhrer's investigation of the Northern/North Midland dialect border, the results of which were published in the 'Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society' in 1950. They include a typed list of informants visited (listing place-name, map number and informant name and address); photocopied ms. maps showing the northern and southern boundaries of pronunciation for the words foal, to eat, cow, bone and spoon (maps 2 and 3 in the published article; 3 copies of southern boundaries map); a photocopied ms. map showing the distribution of Northern and Midland forms of to go (5 copies); coloured ms. maps of Yorkshire showing variations in the pronunciation of corn and morning; and a printed map, 'The Humber-Ribble Belt', with 195 localities marked. The file also includes an article extracted from the 'Yorkshire Post' for 20 April 1950, detailing Röhrer's dialect investigation. The papers from this file were originally housed in a folder labelled Rohrer
N.-N. Midl.
Accompanying these papers are two A3 maps drawn by Röhrer, showing Yorkshire, Lancashire, North Lincolnshire and southern Westmorland. The first is a photocopy of an ms. map drawn by Röhrer, dated Leeds, March 1950, and showing numbered localities and the names of towns and rivers (3 copies).
The second map is an original coloured ms. map drawn by Röhrer, dated Leeds/Zurich January 1952. It also shows numbered localities, and the names of towns and rivers, but the localities are additionally marked according to when field recordings were made. It is possible that this map relates to fieldwork for the SED. There is a tear to the right hand side of the map, but text and data are unaffected.
Biography or history
Fritz Röhrer was an assistant to Eugen Dieth at the University of Zurich (Universität Zürich), and involved in the development of the Questionnaire for the Survey of English Dialects (SED) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. His work on the Northern/North Midlands dialect border was undertaken during the year 1950, whilst based in the Department of English Language and Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds, and was suggested and supervised by Harold Orton. His aim was to ascertain the continued existence of the old linguistic boundary between the North and the Midlands in modern times. 195 localities were included in the investigation, based on a questionnaire of 120 questions. The questionnaire, according to Röhrer, owed much to the questionnaire devised by Professors ... Dieth and Orton for use in the English Dialect Survey.
Access and usage
Reproduction
Access
All items in this subfonds are available for consultation.
Material in this collection is in copyright. Photocopies or digital images can only be supplied by the Library for research or private study within the terms of copyright legislation. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available on tracing copyright status and ownership.
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