Cheshire dialect

The Cheshire dialect is a North-west Midlands English dialect which lies between the dialects of the surrounding counties of Lancashire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Derbyshire.

History

The dialect has existed for centuries, distinct from standard English; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the other works of the 14th-century Gawain poet are written in this dialect, as is the religious poem St. Erkenwald, which dates from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century.Wallace D. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, p. 627 (Cambridge University Press; 1999) (ISBN 0521890462) Cheshire author Alan Garner states "Of course has changed, as all living language changes, since the time of the Gawain poet. But when I read sections of the poem aloud to my father, he knew, and used, more than 90% of the vocabulary; and the phonetics of the vowels have scarcely changed."

Early references include English proverbs and dialect words collected by John Ray in the 17th century, and a glossary of Cheshire words, compiled by Roger Wilbraham in 1817 and expanded in 1826.Wilbraham R. An Attempt at a Glossary of Some Words Used in Cheshire, 2nd edn (T. Rood; 1826) These sources were expanded by Egerton Leigh in a glossary published posthumously in 1877, which was an attempt...
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