BRITISH DIALECTS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1933, Page 3

BRITISH DIALECTS

G ramophone records

“GIFT TO POSTERITY.”

LONDON, May 2.

The 'British Dra,ms League is issuing a series of dialect gramophone records 'with the object of 'helping .stage producers, actors and teachers when called upon to deal witli an unfamiliar dialect. Twenty-four dialects in a,.*]. will be represented, including four from Scotland, two from Yorkshire, and one each from Wales, Ulster, and the Irish; I Free State. The old dialects have been dying for some time, and broadcasting, by popul rising a standardised accent, seems likely to hasten their end. I 'M r Geoffrey Whitworth, secretary ol the league, hag described ho w the speakers were selected. “Naturally,' j they must be natives of the districts | concerned,” he said. “It was after ' much deliberation that we decided not to embody .profession#,! artists. Nor'could we bring a rustic to face the microphone in. a London studio, without inducing th t nervous self-conscious-, ness which would spoil his dialect. The speakers we have 'pressed into the service are of the..more educated type, and at the same time they have a lifelong familiarity with the dialect they reproduce.” The rich tones of a dialect of the West Riding of Yorkshire were reproduced by a country schoolmaster who had spoken in childhood the di. lect with which his pupils keep him familiar to-day. “There are at least 100 varieties of dialect in Yorkshire alone,” said Mr Whitworth, “so you can imagine that it a tricky business to c°ver the characteristic speech of the districts which rre richest in the vernacular. Each of our records starts with a short monologue based on a paragraphl comprising all the sounds in the Engh’sh phonetic alphabet. This is followed by typica] of .local speech or liter.'.ture. “Tlie whole of English history,” Mr Whitworth added, “is linked w 1 th the. living sounds stored in our discs. The,y' express a local character which js dying before our eves, and will remain as a: gift from the'present to posterity.”