Founded in 1897, the Society was born out of the committee set up to gather additional information for Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary (see Bibliography)

The Society is interested in both speech and literature and has produced a number of publications including audio cassette tapes. Dialect speech and literature may also be experienced at the Society’s meetings which are held four times yearly. Additionally there are two annual publications: Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and Summer Bulletin, both of which usually contain examples of written dialect.

The Society is currently employed in a joint venture with The National Centre for English Cultural Traditional (NATCECT) at Sheffield to gather dialect from all locations within both the current and former boundaries of Yorkshire. Further details of this project, named the Survey of Yorkshire Dialect, are contained in the NATCECT webpage.

Further information about the Yorkshire Dialect Society, its meetings and publications, and how to apply for membership is held in the Society's website. An alternative website is YDS Publications.