The Geoffrey Bullough Collection - Temporary Home Page ...

5f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
Working class, male and female. It is worth noting that many working-class
characters are depicted as dialect speakers in this novel which deals with issues of
poverty in rural (as well as urban) areas. The rural dialect represented seems to be
the same throughout.
5g. Consistency of representation
Consistent; male and female characters accorded same markers of local dialect.
Code-switching dscussed, but not seen in actual dialogue. Wharton, a Standard
English speaker, assumes the dialect of the cottagers when angered:
Wharton cared for none of them. His blood was up; his fatigue thrown off.
Standing there in front of them, his hands in his pockets, pale with the
excitement of speaking, his curly head thrown out against the whitened wall of
the chapel, he lashed into the men before him, talking their language, their
dialect even; laying bare their weaknesses, sensualities, indecisions; painting in
the sombrest colours the grim truths of their melancholy lives.
6. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
Several remarks suggest the idea that dialect will become more marked at times of
high emotional tension:
Hallin roused himself from his fatigue to play the peace-maker. But some of
the things Wilkins had been saying had put up the backs of the two workmen,
and the talk flamed up unmanageably--Wilkins's dialect getting more
pronounced with each step of the argument (p. 371)
But Mrs. Brunt, much flurried, retreated amid a shower of excuses,
pursued by her enemy, who was soon worrying the whole little company, as a
dog worries a flock of sheep, snapping here and teasing there, chattering at
the top of her voice in broad dialect, as she got more and more excited (p. 86)
7. Other points of interest
None noted
Bullough Collection No. 493 The Rise and Progress of Sir Timothy Buncombe:
an Extra-moral Biography by Alexander Wilson
1. Publication details
Author: Alexander Johnstone Wilson
Author dates: 1841-
Title: The Rise and Progress of Sir Timothy Buncombe: an Extra-moral Biography
Publication: Manchester: John Dale; London: Hamilton Adams, 1886
First published:
Library reference: 200351077
2. Genre / subgenre
Literary fiction
3. Brief Synopsis
Tracks the rise to power of unlikely MP Timothy Buncombe and his family.
Buncombe, an unremarkable freight clerk, works, takes chances, and has some lucky
breaks, which result in him becoming an MP and being knighted.
4. Overview of varieties / dialects
Wilson uses dialect to represent minor, peripheral, and incidental working-class
characters as is often seen; however, he also marks the dialogue of Timothy
http://librarysupport.shef.ac.uk /bullough.pdf
Copyright © 2007, The University of Sheffield
97