Anna-Liisa Vasko's dialect research began in the early 1970s upon joining the Dialect Syntax Group in Helsinki, which was
coordinated by Professor Tauno F. Mustanoja, University of Helsinki. The group's aim was to collect a corpus of continuous spontaneous
speech, which would in time supplement the Leeds Survey of English Dialects (SED). Anna-Liisa Vasko was assisted in the project
by Harold Orton, Clive Upton and Stewart Sanderson (University of Leeds), and she also had the opportunity to listen to the SED tapes from
Elsworth that had been recorded by Stanley Ellis. Vasko took particular care in adhering to the selection criteria
and documented thoroughly any background information on the informants.
[It] was extremely interesting to be intimately involved with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds,
and to respond to challenges that one would never confront when collecting research material in a library
(Vasko 2005: 260).
The Cambridgeshire dialect area was of particular interest, because the SED material
includes only one locality from within the area (Elsworth, see map below). The lack of material
was perhaps because of the generally held view that the speech of Cambridgeshire is less non-standard
than, for example, the speech of Yorkshire. However, Cambridgeshire is considered to be part of a relic area and thus less
susceptible to the influence of the standard than some of its neighbouring counties. In addition, Cambridgeshire has characteristics
of a transitional area (Vasko 2005: 1-4).
The region used in the Cambridgeshire Corpus adheres to pre-1974 county borders (see map below). This distinction is
now historical, since the county reorganisation of 1974 integrated Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely and Huntingdonshire into the Cambridgeshire county
known today.
The Cambridgeshire dialect
The earliest works about speech in the Cambridgeshire area are centred on the University, the landmark
of the county. However, those records focused on words and forms of the standard language or were spoken
by Received Standard speakers (Coates 1976: 2 in Vasko 2005: 10). Thus they serve little purpose in studying the folk speech
of the area, but they do provide an interesting point of comparison for lexical studies and diachrony. Serious
work in dialectology did not begin until the late 19th century, and any records of rural or folk speech before
then have to be derived from, for example, spellings in documents, local glossaries, travel literature and
comments of antiquaries, orthoepists and grammarians.
Another problem in finding out any historical evidence of the Cambridgeshire dialect was that it had been
neglected or, at most, very poorly covered in early dialectal studies. It was often overshadowed by its neighbouring
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Some aspects of the dialect were, however, recorded in Forby's Vocabulary
of East Anglia (1830).
The reasons for a lack of interest in the dialectal study of Cambridgeshire speech can be formulated into, and
attributed to, three assertions: Firstly, Cambridgeshire speech doesn't differ much from the standard language or, secondly, that
of its neighbouring counties. Thirdly, it has been said that Cambridgeshire speech is similar to Cockney. Although
these assertions are historically founded, recent study has proven them to be inconclusive and in need of
further research (see Vasko 2005 for a detailed account on the assertions).
The corpus
In its present state, the Ojanen-Vasko Cambridgeshire Corpus of the speech of 44 informants from
26 villages. The total word count is 239,206 and the stripped word count (i.e.
words spoken by the informants only) is 190,462.
The corpus is still a work-in-progress, with a large amount of tape-recorded speech yet to be transcribed
and included in the corpus as an extension.
Map of Cambridgeshire Proper and the localities visited. The
county borders are those of pre-1974. Cambridgeshire is split into two shires or jurisdictions:
Cambridgeshire Proper (as depicted on the map below) and Isle of Ely (covered
in the Tammivaara-Balaam Corpus).
E.S. from Willingham. Recorded in 1974. Age, sex: 82, male. Occupation: Farmworker. Description: E.S. tells in a dialect typical of North-West Cambridgeshire speech about "ol' Charlie" the donkey.
Yeah. Oh yes, I got to riding ol' Charlie. [CHUCKLE] Yeah, well, I 'm been right down Merrills and down Tent 'Ill
an' = I 'm gone back two hours. I couldn't find him an' I = I thought myself I was to get a raidin' if I go 'ome without him an'
I suddenly dawn and I wonder if he 's down Lord's Ground Drove, and I went down Lord's Ground Drove and he were near the bottom end o'
Lord's Ground Drove. And I walked up to him, I got on his back, start him off.
Download the sound clip by right-clicking here and choosing Save As
from the menu. MP3 2:08 1,94mb.
Sample #2
E.T. from Willingham. Recorded in 1972. Age, sex: 72, female. Occupation: Housewife. Description: E.T. tells about her memories of her father from the wartime.
So. Anyway we go' on with the sweepin' but I always remember that. 'Cause Dad would, you know a = he didn't disturb,
as long as he had a happy time. And I always remember saying t' 'im = when he come 'ome from the war. You know, he come 'ome that Feast
Sunday night. An' I often used to stan' and look up them stars. You know, Dick and his Plough. One = one, two, three. One, two, three,
four...
Download the sound clip by right-clicking here and choosing Save As
from the menu. MP3 1:03 1mb.
Sample #3
A hand-drawn illustration (drawn by E.W.)
of a turf spade.
E.W. from Swaffham Prior. Recorded in 1975. Age, sex: 72, male. Occupation: Farmer. Description: E.W. explains turf-cutting.
Yes, uset' = I er I kept the cows, I kept the cows in the Burwell Fen area, when I 'way from = when I was 'leven, till
I was fourteen to sixteen, you can say. I used to go out with 'em like in the daytime an' = old turf cutters what used to dig the peat
then out the fenland, they used to be down there an' they used to be a-diggin'...
Download the sound clip by right-clicking here and choosing Save As
from the menu. MP3 1:59 1,67mb.
