Name Index

To

The Book Dialect of North Devon

Trans. Devon Assoc., vol 49, (1917), pp. 320-340.

by

R. Pearse Chope, B.A.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The Paper was presented at the Association’s Barnstaple meeting, 25th July, 1917. The author (1862–1938) was a civil servant in the Patent Office, an antiquarian and printer in Devon. He edited the Transactions of the Devonshire Association between 1928 and 1930. North Devon provides the settings of our county’s three dialect literature classics: (a) The Exmoor Scolding and Courtship; (b) A Devonshire Dialogue; and (c) Jim and Nell. They together cover a period extending from the early part of the 18th century to the latter part of the 19th, and derive from three separate localities in the northern division of the county - South Molton, Torrington, and Barnstaple. The Association’s 1917 meeting in the most central and largest town of the division presented Mr Chope with an opportunity to examine the characteristics of the dialect presented in these books, and ascertain in what respects they agree with, or differ from one another and the current "mouth - speech" of the district. His Paper may be found in a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal that can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.