Bibliography - Social and family topics: Dialect
Bibliography Home

Old Speech and Old Manners in Sussex, by Mark Antony Lower, M.A., F.S.A., published 1861 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 13, article, pp.209-236) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2098] & The Keep [LIB/500232] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Old Sussex Harvest Custom and Peculiarities of Speech in use at Hastings, by James Rock, alderman, published 1862 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 14, article, pp.186-190) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2099] & The Keep [LIB/500233] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect and Collection of Provincialisms in Use in the County, by Rev. William D. Parish, published 1875 (iv + 148 pp., Lewes: Farncombe & Co.) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2345][Lib 14042] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries   View Online

Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect and Provincialisms in Use in the County of Kent, by Rev. William D. Parish and W. F. Shaw, published 1887 (London: Tribner & Co.)

Glossary of Sussex Dialectal Place-Nomenclature., by Frederick E. Sawyer, published 1887 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 35, article, pp.165-172) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2120] & The Keep [LIB/500253] & S.A.S. library   View Online

The Sussex Dialect, by E. V. Lucas with illustrations by Frederick L. Griggs, published 1904 in Highways and Byways in Sussex (Chapter XLI, London: Macmillan & Co.) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 41][Lib 12792][Lib 15825] & The Keep [LIB/500142]   View Online

Some local words not mentioned in Parish's "Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect", by J. C. Stenning, published 1907 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 50, notes & queries, pp.180-181) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2135] & The Keep [LIB/500268] & S.A.S. library   View Online

"Sussex Dialect" addenda, by Frederick Harrison, published February 1929 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. II no. 5, note, pp.156-158) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8951] & The Keep [LIB/500204] & S.A.S. library

De Good News according to Mark, put into de Sussex dialect, by Jim Cladpole, published 1934 (2nd edition, iv + 71 pp., Tunbridge Wells: James Richards, 85 Camden Road) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14045]

De Song of Songs by Soloman, put into de Sussex dialect, by Jim Cladpole, published 1935 (iv + 20 pp., Tunbridge Wells: James Richards, 85 Camden Road) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Fuller Lib 78]

De Letter of James, put into de Sussex dialect, by Jim Cladpole, published 1935 (ii + 12 pp., Tunbridge Wells: James Richards, 85 Camden Road) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Fuller Lib 79]

Summat 'Bout Sussex an Sum Sussexers, by Jim Cladpole, published c.1935 (20 pp., Tunbridge Wells: James Richards, 85 Camden Road) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14044] & East Sussex Libraries

De Love Letters of Old John, put into de Sussex dialect, by Jim Cladpole, published 1936 (ii + 18 pp., Tunbridge Wells: James Richards, 85 Camden Road) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Fuller Lib 80][Lib 14050]

A Sussex Alphabet, by Eleanor Farjeon, published 1939 (vol. 1, Bognor Regis: Rear Tree Press) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13716] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Dialect, by E. R. B. [E. R. Burder], published May 1953 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XIII nos. 13 & 14, note, p.292) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8231] & The Keep [LIB/500215] & S.A.S. library

Dialect - "Tott", by Fred Lester, published November 1953 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XIII nos. 15 & 16, note, p.324) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8231] & The Keep [LIB/500215] & S.A.S. library

A Dictionary of The Sussex Dialect and Collection of Provincialisms in use in the County of Sussex - together with some Sussex sayings and crafts, by Rev. W. D. Parish and expanded, augmented and illustrated by Helena Hall, published 1957 (xxii + 185 pp., Bexhill: Gardeners Books) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2344] & The Keep [LIB/500165] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

It is very welcome to have Parish's work - long out of print - not only re-issued, but augmented with care and attention with material collected throughout the life of the present Editor - now over eighty - and her late brother, John Henry Sussex Hall (who died in 1949), in whose memory this edition is published. It is a book which every Sussex lover should have. It is possible to suggest additions in a future issue: "Mounter" (S.N.Q. xiii, 271 and 322) appears confined to Sussex; "Tarr" (S.N.Q. xii, 161, and xiii, 228) is a common Sussex word; "Bad Books" was a list of irrecoverable rates frequently used by overseers. "Waywarden" (pp. 80 and 149) far from being confined to private roads, was another name for the surveyors of highways and is so used in the Wisborough Green Parish Records in 1675-6 and 1833 and was officially substituted for surveyors in the Highway Act, 1862. "Toat" (pp. 142-3) can mean a look-out or observation post, and "Pad" (p. 173) a small horse, such as smugglers used.
It is a pity that more attention was not given to the legal side - the list of authorities (p. xv) contains no reference to any law dictionary, such as Jacob's as reference to one would have obviated several inaccuracies. "Borough English" (p. 163) is a species of socage tenure, is freehold without either military or servile services and never applied to copyholds, though the same type of descent obtained as the custom of some Manors for the descent of copyholds. "Bench" (p. 8) was the copyhold counterpart of Dower (which only applied to freeholds) and was a right given by law to a widow, but a "jointure" was a provision made for a wife by contract or marriage settlement. A Court of Pie Powder existed at most fairs (a notable one was at Bristol) and that at Chichester (p. 94) is merely an instance. "Geldable" (pp. 171) is applicable to any system of taxation and is not confined to Pevensey; coroners (p. 27) though officers of the Crown were not Crown appointments, but were elected by county freeholders - in towns the mayor was frequently the coroner ex-officio.

Local Lore, by M. J. Leppard, published September 1971 in Sussex Archæological Society Newsletter (no. 3, article, pp.1-2) accessible at: S.A.S. library   Download PDF

Sussex Dialect and Family History, by Phyl & Stan Excell, published March 1984 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 6 no. 1, article, pp.19-20) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 9788] & The Keep [LIB/501258] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Customs South of the Downs. West Wittering., by E V Lucas, published December 1996 in Midhurst Magazine (Volume 9 Number 2, article, pp.23-24, Winter 1996) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15969]

Extract from West Sussex Highways and Byways published in 1937. Describes West Wittering and the Selsey Peninsula as a very isolated area, and explores some of the local terms used for everyday things. For example, if someone was lonely, they were 'unked'!

Sussex as She Wus Spoke: A Guide to the Sussex Dialect, by Tony Wales, published 1 September 2000 (112 pp., Seaford: S. B. Publications, ISBN-10: 1857702093 & ISBN-13: 9781857702095) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14316] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect and Collection of Provincialisms, by W. D. Parish, edited by Dick Richardson and illustrated by Frederick Landseer Maur Griggs, published 2001 (192 pp., Derbyshire: Country Books, ISBN-10: 1898941688 & ISBN-13: 9781898941682) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Wunt be Druv!, a Salute to the Sussex Dialect, by David Arscott, published 25 October 2006 (96 pp., Berkshire: Countryside Books, ISBN-10: 1846740061 & ISBN-13: 9781846740060) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, by Rev W. D. Parish and Lynne Truss, published 1 April 2008 (96 pp., Snake River Press, ISBN-10: 1906022151 & ISBN-13: 9781906022150) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16000] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Traditional Dialect of Sussex: A Historical Guide, Description, Selected Texts, Bibliography and Discography, by Richard Coates, published 23 August 2010 (349 pp., Pomegranate Press, ISBN-10: 1907242090 & ISBN-13: 9781907242090) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Ever since the Rev W.D. Parish's seminal A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, first published in 1875, there have been attempts - some more convincing than others - to replicate, codify and explain the way our forefathers spoke, but never until now has a professional linguist explored the subject with such magisterial comprehensiveness as Richard Coates has achieved in this long-awaited study.
A research professor at the University of Sussex, and professor of linguistics at the University of the West of England, Coates presents no fewer than 40 examples of the dialect for detailed analysis, from the Anglo- Saxon period to the present day.
The book also includes a description of what was special about the dialect in its various local forms, an extensive bibliography of works relevant to the Sussex dialect and a discography of recorded material with Sussex voices.

The Dialect of our Sussex Ancestors, by Dr Graeme Davis, published March 2016 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 22 no. 1, article, pp.25-30) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/509161]

Our Sussex ancestors spoke with a Sussex dialect. This is a part of their everyday life we can seek to understand, and additionally, information about their manner of pronouncing names may even help us trace records of them. Today the Sussex dialect is effectively extinct. There are a very few people whose speech retains a Sussex accent (the sound-system of Sussex). The place names around us are full of Sussex words: down (chalk hill), dean (down-land valley), bostal (steep, down-land footpath). A handful of genuine Sussex words may be used in some people's speech. Most Sussex born-and-bred residents today speak not Sussex but Standard English. This Standard English may have a regional twist, but this local identity frequently comes as much from the general South-Eastern Home Counties English of the polo-mint around London as from Sussex. Many in Sussex like to add the occasional Sussex word as an expression of their self-identity as Sussex people. For example twitten (an alleyway between two hedges or walls) has become popular in recent years. It is indeed genuine Sussex, but it had all but died out by the mid nineteenth century and was deliberately revived in 1957, at first by Brighton Council and subsequently elsewhere in Sussex. Many today make a conscious decision to speak not of an alley but rather of a twitten. Save for a very few survivals and revivals, Sussex is dead.

More about The Sussex Dialect, by Anne Capewell, published June 2016 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 22 no. 2, article, pp.59-60) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/509232]

I read with interest the recent article by Dr Graeme Davis regarding the Sussex dialect (Sussex Family Historian, Volume 22 No 1, Page 25). My mother can remember many of the words (and more) being spoken at home by her parents and other family members. However we do disagree with the author on a couple of points.