BRITISH DIALECTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 108, 10 May 1933, Page 7

BRITISH DIALECTS

GRAMOPHONE RECORDS. "GIFT TO PROSPERITY.” LONDON, March 31. The British Drama League is issuing a series of dialect gramophone records with the object of helping stage producers, actors and teachers when called upon to deal with an unfamiliar dialect. Twenty-four dialects in all will be represented, including four from Scotland, two from Yorkshire, and one each from Wales, Ulster, and the Irish Free State. The old dialects have been dying for some time, and broadcasting, by popularising a standardised accent, seems likely to hasten their end. Mr. Geoffrey Whitworth, secretary of the league, has described how the speakers were selected. “Naturally, they must be natives of tho districts concerned.” he said. “It was after much deliberation that wo decided not to employ professional artists. Nor could we bring a rustic to face the microphone in a London studio without inducing that nervous self-conscious-ness which would spoil his dialect The speakers we have pressed into the service are of the mor<» educated type, and at the same time they have a life long 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 tho dialect with which his pupils keep him familiar to-day. “There are at least 190 varietior of dialect in Yorkshire alone,’’ said Mr. Whitworth, “so *you can imagine that it is a tricky business to cover tho characteristic speech of tho districts which are richest in tho vernacular. Each of our records starts with a short monologue based on a. paragraph comprising all (ho sounds in the English phonetic alphabet This is followed by typical extracts of local speech or literature. “Tho whole of English history,” Mr Whitworth added, “is linked with the living sounds stored in our discs They express a 'iulG r.haraeter which is dying before our eves, and will remain as a gift from the present to posterity.”