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Northumbrian Language Society
Hon. Sec. Mrs. Kim Bibby-Wilson, Westgate House, Dogger
Bank, Morpeth, NE61 1RE Tel.:
01670 513308
E-mail: kim@northumbriana.org.uk
A QUARTER-CENTURY OF PROMOTING
NORTHUMBERLAND’S DIALECTS
There’ll be a muckle
fligarishon (big celebration) at 2 pm on Saturday 20th
October in the
historic ballroom of Morpeth Town Hall, when the
Northumbrian Language Society marks its first 25 years with
its annual free lecture and a very special book launch.
This special year sees a change of format, with two
speakers, Hazel Dickson and Alex Swailes MBE, each giving a
mini-lecture. Hazel
Dickson of Ashington will chart the work of the Language
Society, of which she is treasurer, recalling its beginnings
and the involvement of enthusiastic experts such as Sid
Chaplin, Fred Reed, Roland Bibby and Robert Allen.
She promises to touch on an extensive range of
activities and themed events including dialect church
services, Burns-night-style Reed Supper and Yule Meet, and
to provide extracts from publications and recordings
produced by this volunteer-run organisation. Then well-known
speaker and performer Alex Swailes, now a resident of
Rothbury, will explain how he takes the language, music and
culture of Northumberland to the wider world, with no doubt
a song or two to keep the audience entertained.
The annual event was established ten
years ago as the Roland Bibby Memorial Lecture to
commemorate the Northumbrian Language Society’s founding
chairman. It
was the Morpeth historian Roland Bibby who began the process
of publishing Amble-born Thomas Moody’s hand-written
700-page illustrated manuscript of “The Mid-Northumbrian
Dialect”, a fascinating dictionary and reference book of
local dialect and life in the early 20th century.
After several years in preparation, with Roland’s
daughter Kim Bibby-Wilson having taken up the challenge to
continue the task, the long-awaited book is now released,
and it is fitting that the launch should be during the
memorial lecture. Funders
for the limited edition volume include Northumberland County
Council (Amenities Division and Alnwick Area Committee), the
Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, Catherine Cookson
Foundation (Newcastle University) and Mr Moody’s daughter
Mrs. Shirley Coughlan.
Members of the public are invited to
this free event, starting with drinks from 1.30 pm and a
chance to chat or browse through the Society’s
publications and recordings, including the Moody Book,
before the talks begin.
Further details of the event can
be had by ringing 01670 513308.
BACKGROUND TO THE MOODY
BOOK
Thomas Moody (1901-1970), musician,
teacher, artist, sportsman and a world expert on spiders,
was born in Amble. His
dictionary, written from 1951-1967, long after he had moved
to East Anglia and once he had retired from teaching, is a
scholarly but user-friendly treasure-house for locals,
linguists and social historians.
Besides the glossary, there are detailed sections on
the history and grammar of Northumbrian speech, particularly
of the area from Coquet to Wansbeck, and appendices on
children’s games and north-eastern literature and songs.
The author drew his own illustrations and even bound
the original two-volume book by hand.
A full facsimile of the original two-colour book has
proved impossible to fund, but
it was resolved to word-process the whole text as and when
volunteer time allowed, which happened over several years
through the kindness of Barbara and Grahame Binless in
Leeds. The design of the dust jacket for the
publication is based on a water-colour by Thomas Moody,
showing Cheviot.
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