The 'survival' of traditional dialect lexis

To what extent does traditional dialect lexis survive in the contemporary English of North East England? In order to answer this question in as systematic a manner as possible, I used the Survey of English Dialects (carried out in the 1950s and 60s) as a benchmark (you can read about SED here).

I identified 671 questions from the survey which had been include to elicit lexical information. For 516 of these notions there was at least one non-standard 'local' dialect word attested for locations in either Northumberland or County Durham. I searched RTG to see if these words could be found in this contemporary data-set, and discovered variants for 104 of the 516 SED notions: a survival rate of 20.1 per cent. Here are examples of some of these words in use in RTG.

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that present-day Northumbrians are still using traditional lexis found in the speech of rural Northumbrians born in the Victorian age and recorded at the start of the reign of Elizabeth II.

The graph shows categorized 'survivals' for each thematic section of the SED questionnaire. So, for example, only two out of the 50 lexical notions in FARMING which had generated a local variant also had a variant in RTG: dottles and docken. At the other end of the scale the figure for THE HUMAN BODY is 24 out of 80, and includes such items as lugs, oxter and blebs.

RTG also contains traditional dialect words not found in the SED for Northumbrian locations but attested in the most complete record of English traditional dialects: the monumental English Dialect Dictionary (1899-1906). Listed below are examples of such survivals on RTG. You can look them up in the online version of the dictionary here.

Abed, Afore, Ahint, Ally, Back-shift, Baff, Bewer, Bleezer, Booler, Brattle, But and ben, Chare, Clemmy/clem, Cob(s), Cockle, Crake, Dant, Deek, Dud, Fadge, Fash, Fettle, Foisty, Fret, Galloway <gallower>, Gissy, Goaf, Glaiky, Gleg, Gully, Hack(y), Haway/howay, Halfer(s), Hinny, Hoggers, Hopping(s), Hunkers <honkers>, Jarp, Kep, Knacker(s), Knooled <nooled>, Law(e), Lignie <liggy>, Logger <logga>, Mafted, Mizzle, Mortal, Mot, Noration, Palatic, Pate <pyet>, Pet, Pish, Pittle, Plodge, Plook, Poss, Proggy mat, Radgy <radgie>, Rax, Rickle, Rive, Scud, Shan, Skeg, Skem, Skinch, Skitters, Skimmering, Slavver, Sleck, Snib, Springed, Spuggy, Stife, Stithe, Stone(s), Stowed (off), Throstle, Twist, Vine, Wean, Welt, Yark, Yarp