Dialect Test

The Dialect Test was created by Joseph Wright in February 1879. It first appeared in the works of A.J. Ellis, to whom Wright dictated the test.^[1] It stands as one of the earliest methods of identifying vowel sounds and features of speech. The aim was to capture the main vowel sounds of an individual dialect by listening to the reading of a short passage. All the categories of West Saxon words and vowels were included in the test so that comparisons could be made with the historic West Saxon speech as well as with various other dialects.

“

So I say, mates, you see now that I am right about that little girl coming from the school yonder. She is going down the road there through the red gate on the left hand side of the way. Sure enough, the child has gone straight up to the door of the wrong house, where she will chance to find that drunken deaf shrivelled fellow of the name of Thomas. We all know him very well. Won't the old chap soon teach her not to do it again, poor thing! Look! Isn't it true?

”

The test consists of seventy-six words, although some of the words are repeated. The pronunciation of each word or the substitution of another word [for example, many dialects would use "See!" rather than "Look!"] should be noted for the test to be of use.^[2] In On Early English Pronunciation, A.J. Ellis distinguished forty-two different dialects in England and the Scottish Lowlands.

In A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill, Joseph Wright said of Ellis' work, "If his rendering of the dialect test of other dialect speeches is as inaccurate as that of the Windhill dialect, the value of these tests for phonetic and philological purposes is not very great."^[3] However, Wright did commend the dialect categorisations and boundaries that Ellis determined.^[4]

Footnotes

1. ^ page 8 of On Early English Pronunciation, Part V. The existing phonology of English dialects compared with that of West Saxon speech, A.J. Ellis, Truebner & Co, London, 1889 http://www.openlibrary.org/details/onearlyenglishpr00elliuoft
2. ^ A full guide to the subtleties of how each word might be pronounced is listed on pages 8-15 of On Early English Pronunciation, Part V. The existing phonology of English dialects compared with that of West Saxon speech, A.J. Ellis, Truebner & Co, London, 1889 http://www.openlibrary.org/details/onearlyenglishpr00elliuoft
3. ^ Joseph Wright, A Grammar of the Dialect of Winhill, Truebner & Co, London, 1892, page 174
4. ^ Joseph Wright, English Dialect Grammar, Truebner & Co, London, 1905, page 1