An examination of the northern lancashire and yorkshire dialects through the works of mrs. gaskell’s north and south and emily brontë’s wuthering heights

Abstract

The present research work deals with dialect use in Mrs. Gaskell North and South and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Chapter one deals with the study underlying theories that would be useful and functioned as the basic tool in doing the analysis. Chapter two introduces Mrs. Gaskell and Emily Brontë’s awareness of literary dialect use in their novels besides a description of the geography and dialect features of Lancashire and Yorkshire dialects. The aim is to present and highlight dialect use by the different dialect speakers in both North and South and Wuthering Heights which help us to gather dialect data. Chapter three is concerned with data analysis extracted from the selected novels and interpretation of literary dialect in North and South and Wuthering Heights. The analysis of the data is at the phonological and syntactical level highlighting grammatical variations as opposed to the use of the standard form. Besides dialect data analysis a summary of some of the privileges and criticisms of dialect use in the novel mainly Lancashire and Yorkshire dialects in the selected literary pieces of writing. The interpretation of these dialectal elements is related sometimes to society and another time to culture, this is what chapter four is going to elucidate. Chapter four deals with the analysis of the sociolinguistic and the cultural aspects of dialect use in North and South and Wuthering Heights. Aspects of class distinction and class conflict are analysed in addition to elements of folklore as the ghosts, superstitions and beliefs and popular songs. The chapter ends with the interpretation of similarities and differences between Mrs. Gaskell and Brontë’s literary dialect.