Arthur Ransome and the Dialect of Norfolk

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Published: Oct 14, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5750/bjll.v1i0.1085

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Graeme Davis
The University of Buckingham

Abstract

Arthur Ransome provides information about the dialect of the English county of Norfolk as it was actually spoken in the 1930s. Two of his novels (Coot Club and The Big Six) are set on the Norfolk Broads. In these he offers some Norfolk vocabulary within the reported speech of some of his characters, along with some direct reflection on the dialect. However his masterpiece of Norfolk dialect is within Coots in the North (his unfinished novel, not published during his lifetime) where he presents what is in effect an extended Norfolk dialogue of over two-hundred lines. Ransome was an astute observer of language, and records the Norfolk dialogue with apparent accuracy and without contrivance.

Article Details

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Vol. 8 (2015)
Section
Articles
Author Biography

Graeme Davis, The University of Buckingham

DR GRAEME DAVIS is lecturer in English and Applied Linguistics at the Open University. Previously Head of English as a Foreign Language and Head of Modern Languages at Northumbria University, his research is in dialectology, lexicography and both historical and applied linguistics with a focus on the Germanic North Atlantic region. He co-edits the monograph series Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics and Studies in Historical Linguistics, both published by Peter Lang, Oxford, and is an editor for the journals Literary and Cultural Studies (University of Zagreb) and Glossa (Universidad del Turabo), as well as a reviewer for The Linguist List.