Provincial Newspapers as Vehicles for Dialect Spread and Enregisterment: 19th-Century Devon as Introductory Example

Abstract

This paper takes provincial newspapers as the basis for a discussion on dialect spread and enregisterment during the 19th century. It departs from the premise that, during this era of nationwide diaspora and industrial advancement, periodicals served as the main means of entertainment and identity expression. For this purpose, it takes two letters submitted by R. Giles to the North Devon Journal in 1885, where his use of the Devonshire dialect is available for analysis. It aims to explore the most remarkable dialectal features documented in his submissions in an attempt to justify my claim that provincial press could have contributed to an early process of enregisterment in dialects