Dialect Writing and the North of England

This book aims to offer a comprehensive investigation of dialect writing in the North of England. It brings together a wide range of contributors, investigating everything from the cultural positioning and impact of dialect writing to the mechanics of how authors produce dialect spellings (and what this can tell us about the structure of the dialects represented). Case studies focus on dialect writing from all over the North of England and consider many types of text, including dialect poetry, translations into dialect, letters, tweets, direct speech in novels, humorous localised volumes, written reports of conversations and cartoons in local newspapers. The North of England is a compelling geographical and dialectological focus: it is coherent part of the English-speaking world with considerable dialectal diversity and there are long traditions of dialect writing in the area. Contributions in the book also focus on broad questions about dialect writing in general: What is it? Who does it? What types of dialect writing exist? How can linguists interpret it? How does it interact with speakers’ linguistic knowledge?