That's How It Happened

Due to high levels of migration, Britain has apparently been steadily losing dialects since the industrial revolution. The problem is so bad that even Cornish had to be artificially resusciated, at the end of the 19th century. One entirely lost tongue is the Berkshire Dialect, quoted here from the OED:

"I be got rid o' the doctor, an' I be a-veelin' quite veatish now."

Due to the influx of bankers, hobby farmers, and golf professionals it disappeared in the 1960s. Fortunately a rather prescient Professor of the English Language, Harold Orton, organised a Survey of the English Dialects during the 50's that captured these fading patterns of speech. Some of the recordings from that survey are assembled in the British Library English Accents and Dialects Collection. Now though the BBC are repeating the survey, with their Voices project. It has a great map interface so you can explore the different contributions by region:I can't think of a better use of the license fee.

Labels: bbc, berkshire, dialect