Publication news: Matt Townend on The Victorians and English Dialect

Posted on 3 September 2024

Congratulations to Matt Townend, who has just published The Victorians and English Dialect: Philology, Fiction, and Folklore (Oxford University Press).

Cover of Matthew's Townend's new book: The Victorians & English Dialect: Philology, Fiction and Folklore. Fisherman sitting in a rural Victorian village.

Matt’s book tells the story of the Victorians’ discovery of English dialect, and of the revaluation of regional language that was brought about by the new, historical philology of the nineteenth century. Drawing extensively on both published and archival sources, the book shows how Victorian dialectology was a profoundly medievalist endeavour, as it was the new knowledge of Old English and Old Norse that enabled collectors and scholars to understand the historical roots of local language for the first time.

The Victorians and English Dialect - Matthew Townend - Oxford University Press (oup.com)

Matt Townend will be giving the CMS Semester One York Medieval Lecture on Tuesday 12 November (5:30pm in K/133) on:
''Our peculiar northern antiquity of speech': Mary Powley of Langwathby (1811-1882), the Vikings in England, and Local Dialect'.
Registration details to follow soon.