The Phonology of a South Durham Dialect
Descriptive, Historical, and Comparative
Routledge Library Editions: The English Language Series

This book, first published in 1933, examines the dialect of the people of Byers Green in County Durham. Orton explores the possible reasons behind why the dialect has signs of external influences, and the ways in which it differs to the dialects of other populations in County Durham. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

Preface; Abbreviations; List of phonetic symbols used in this book; Introduction; Part 1; 1. Descriptive account of the sounds of the present-day dialect 2. The development of Middle English sounds in the living dialect – vowels of stressed syllables 3. The development of Middle English sounds in the living dialect – vowels of unstressed syllables 4. Consonantal sounds – changes from the Old and Middle English periods down to the present day 5. Tabular summary of the Old English, Middle English, Scandinavian, and Old French equivalents of the stressed vowels in the living dialect; Appendix: specimens of the present-day dialect; Part 2; 6. The history of the stressed vowel-sounds in the Northern English dialects during the modern period; Word-list; Bibliography; Index of subjects

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