Katie Wales

The existence of English dialects comes always as a shock to foreigners accustomed to received pronunciation. While Irishmen and Scotsmen can get away with their accents, Englishmen, at least in an education or university context, are expected to speak properly. "Would you like a mill?" was a Cambridge dustman's question about a meal (whose son's room I rented for summer language school, the son being provided board and breakfast at a correctional facility.). Further up north, the accessibility of English dialects becomes even more difficult to understand. It came as a surprise to me that due to the perceived friendliness (and the cheap wages) many UK call centers are located in Northern England (Strangely, while the Irish Tiger roared, many German call centers operated out of Ireland.). Northern England remained for me a big unknown region of "kannitverstan".

Katie Wales has written an accessible introduction (with not too much phonetic mumbo jumbo) to Northern English. Chapter 1 deals with the North-South divide and the difficulties of declarative boundaries. Chapter 2 introduces the Scottish and Scandinavian influences upon Northern English. After all, these regions were under the Danelaw (roots of which survive in names such as Yorkshire's Ridings). Chapter 3 and 4 present the emergence of a demographic working class industrial powerhouse in the 19th century out of a sparsely populated rural region. The perception of Northern English is thus not only a geographic but most often a class reference, especially as losing the accent is seen as a rite of passage (or treason). Chapter 5 discusses the effect of modern media (Coronation Street, Wallace and Gromit) and interchange upon dialects which results in broader regional unifications.

Overall, a valuable read that only lacks an international comparison. Bavaria, the conservative German industrial powerhouse, or the Ruhr, its red counterpart, would have offered excellent mirrors to the Northern English situation.… (mais)