Village Voices
- A project on local accent and dialect
In conjunction with the University of Leicester and the East Midlands Oral History Archive, the Village Voices Project explored aspects of local accent and dialect in Leicestershire. The findings are becoming part of a wider study of the East Midlands. Largely completed during 2011-12, but still accepting recordings and looking to cover unrecorded parts of the County.
To take part:
The project registration form can be downloaded, and emailed or posted back to us as per the instructions on the sheet. You can download the Word document version or the pdf document version.
What's involved:
- Recording speakers from different generations reading word lists and a given text (provided)
- Collecting data on words and expressions and responses to a questionnaire (we will again give guidance, materials and suggestions)
- Conducting, if possible, two or more oral history interviews with people from your village
Guidance and materials will be given for all the above (including advice on technical issues and how to conduct an oral history interview). We can send a training pack by post to anyone who registers. The data you collect will eventually form part of a corpus of East Midlands English to be created at the University of Leicester, and will be archived by the East Midlands Oral History Archive.
To register your interest, please complete the ‘Village Voices’ registration form and return it to Liz Blood. Once you are registered on the project we can also loan you a digital voice recorder to use.
Page Last Updated: 12 December 2012
