In the process of constructing this website I have received much invaluable help, advice and support from a great many people, not least of whom is my long-suffering wife, Maureen. My grateful thanks to her for her patience and understanding. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my son, Stuart, who has provided me with with a great deal of technical support in matters relating to IT and, indeed, continues to do so.

A special thanks also to Dr Sushie Dobbinson (late of the College of York St John), my friend and mentor, who brought the subject of dialect alive for me. A similar expression of appreciation is due to my good friend Professor Clive Upton (University of Leeds) and to Professor John Widdowson (late of the University of Sheffield) who not only gave freely of their time to talk to me, but whose book, An Atlas of English Dialects, first awoke my interest in the subject.

I wish to convey my thanks to Dr Gerry Knowles (University of Lancaster) who had the original notion of featuring Northern Dialects on the World Wide Web and who also advised me regarding the basic framework of this site. Also deserving of a special mention are Drs David Greatorex, Kate Trott (both of the College of York St John) and Dom Watt (University of Aberdeen). My thanks to David for the continuing provision of help, advice and support in the upgrading of this website.

With regard to the Historical Development pages, a great deal of help was provided by a number of people. Professor David Burnley, Dr Geoff Lester and Brian Donaghey (all of the University of Sheffield) generously provided me with bibliographies, books and other reading material relating to the history of the English, particularly Old and Middle English. Regarding the creation of the Middle English sound files, advice and guidance was provided by Professor Anthony Warner (University of York), and the recorded extract from Garwain and the Green Knight is reproduced with the kind permission of the directors of the Chaucer Studio, Professors Tom Burton (University of Adelaide) and Paul Thomas (Brigham Young University).

In relation to Definite Article Reduction I am greatly indebted to Dr Mark Jones of the University of Cambridge not only for provision of written material on the subject but also for the advice and support freely given.

I wish to express my appreciation to John Dagnell of Park Records and Allan Dann of Peer UK for allowing me to reproduce part of Steeleye Span’s version of .the Lyke Wake Dirge (see “Texts of the 19th Century and earlier”)

Other individuals to whom I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation are:

Keith Adkins (College of York St John)

Don Bembridge (The East Riding Dialect Society)

John Bennett (College of York St John)

Aileen Bloomer (College of York St John)

Louise Cunningham

Sue Howard (Yorkshire Film Archive)

Dr Arnold Kellett

Dr Andrew Merrison (College of York St John)

Paddy Morrison (College of York St John)

David Paynter (The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition)

Dr Oliver Pickering (The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds)

Doreen Putnam (The East Riding Dialect Society)

Shirley Reay (College of York St John)

Dr Sali Tagliamonte (University of York)

Robin Wiltshire (The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition)

Finally, I am greatly indebted to everybody else, including the staff of the various public libraries throughout the Yorkshire region, who supplied material for this site.

Barry Rawling

January 2003