British Library Sound Archive welcomes the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects
23 July 2008
The British Library Sound Archive has acquired the audio recordings of the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects, a unique, in-depth investigation into the local vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar of English in Wales. The collection of 500 audio recordings, donated to the British Library by Dr Robert Penhallurick, Reader in English at the University of Wales, represents an important addition to the British Library's extensive accents and dialects resources.
The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (SAWD) is the only national survey of spoken English in Wales. Its founder and director was dialectologist David Parry, whose aim was to record, describe and analyse the English of Wales in a manner which would be compatible with the work of the internationally renowned Survey of English Dialects (SED). Fieldworkers for the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects sought to record the oldest living varieties of folk-speech by interviewing speakers on topics including the farm and farming, the house and housekeeping, nature, animals, social activities and the weather. Elderly informants were interviewed and tape-recorded in a network of 90 localities throughout rural Wales and speakers were encouraged to use their most natural form of English speech. The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects recordings date from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s and reflect not only ways of speaking but also ways of life that have changed forever, making the collection a treasure trove of local and social history. The collection also includes recordings made for the second, urban phase of the project, collected between 1985 and 1991 in Cardiff, Caernarfon, Wrexham, Carmarthen, and Swansea.
The full collection of recordings is now available for researchers at the British Library. Six recordings from the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects have also been made available online, supplemented with transcripts and scholarly commentary, at Sounds Familiar, the British Library's interactive, educational website that celebrates and explores spoken English across the UK.
Listeners will be intrigued by Mrs B's description of cockle picking in Penclawdd, near Swansea; or by Mr P-J's description of a traditional Welsh farmhouse, recorded in Botwnnog, Gwynedd; and Mr R's discussion of traditional farm practice in Nantglyn, Denbighshire. Their speech is peppered with Welsh vocabulary and their English pronunciation and grammar is heavily influenced by their mother tongue, Welsh. Visitors to the Sounds Familiar website will be equally fascinated by Mr and Mrs M's discussion of traditional haymaking in Marloes, Pembrokeshire; Mr W's description of itinerant labour along the Welsh borders near Knighton, Powys; and the description of Usk in Monmouthshire before the advent of the motor car. These six recordings, selected to represent a good geographic spread, illustrate a variety of Welsh accents and dialects and offer an insight into Welsh rural life in the early part of the twentieth century.
Jonnie Robinson, Lead Content Specialist: Sociolinguistics & Education, at the British Library, commented: "Despite a supposedly increasingly homogeneous society we all still take great pleasure in travelling to different parts of the country to experience the changing physical landscape and to discover the variety of architectural heritage this country has to offer. For many of us there is an equal fascination in hearing the gradual, but nonetheless perceptible change in the nature of the sounds we hear – the accents and dialects that immediately conjure up a sense of the place to which they belong."
"The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects represents an extremely important addition to the British Library Sound Archive's accents and dialects collections, greatly complementing our collection of recordings that document the rich diversity of regional speech in the UK from the start of the 20th Century to the present day, including the audio archive of the internationally renowned Survey of English Dialects (SED). We are delighted that Dr Robert Penhallurick, Reader in English at the University of Wales, Swansea, has now donated digital copies of approximately 500 audio recordings relating to the SED's counterpart in Wales, the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects. I'm sure that it will be an invaluable resource for researchers for years to come."
Robert Penhallurick, Reader in English at the University of Wales, commented: "The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (SAWD) is the only national survey of spoken English in Wales. Its founder and director was dialectologist David Parry, whose aim was to record, describe and analyse the English of Wales in a manner which would be compatible with the work of the great Survey of English Dialects (SED). The availability of the SAWD recordings via the British Library is particularly pleasing. It increases their accessibility immensely and very happily at last brings together SAWD and the SED."
Jonnie Robinson and Robert Penhallurick are both available for interviews on 24 July 2008.
For interviews, further information, broadcast quality audio extracts (MP3s) and transcripts, please contact Ruth Howlett at the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or ruth.howlett@bl.uk
Notes for Editors
The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects is available to researchers now at the British Library. Details of the recordings are available on the BL Sound Archive online catalogue (http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/cat.html) and the recordings are now available through the Listening and Viewing Service at the British Library's St Pancras site.
Six extracts from the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects, along with transcripts, can be heard online at Sounds Familiar Sounds Familiar is the BL's interactive, educational website that celebrates and explores spoken English across the UK. The site brings recordings from the Survey of English Dialects and Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects to a worldwide audience, alongside recordings from contemporary archives and contributions sent in by school students across the UK.
The Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (SAWD) is the only national survey of spoken English in Wales. Its founder and director was David Parry, whose aim was to record, describe and analyse the English of Wales in a manner which would be compatible with the work of the great Survey of English Dialects (SED).
During its active life, between 1968 and 1995, student researchers trained by David Parry travelled to all parts of Wales to collect material for their studies and for SAWD. A significant number of publications followed, and SAWD is now well known amongst dialectologists and sociolinguists.
The original materials of SAWD are held in the Archive of Welsh English (AWE), which is in the care of Robert Penhallurick at Swansea University. Further details of SAWD and AWE can be found at: http://www.swan.ac.uk/arts/research/AWE/
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