ABSTRACT
Unlike the other chapters, this chapter focuses exclusively on data from the BWC. The justification for this focus is that there are parts of the BWC data where it is evident that the observers made a clear attempt to capture Bolton dialect when they transcribed the speech they heard. Although the borders between vernacular language and regional or local dialect may be porous, there is sufficient evidence of local forms in the BWC data to merit consideration of selected features of Bolton dialect. A study of aspects of the dialect is of particular interest to us because dialect studies typically raise questions of continuity, change and identity, themes which run throughout this book. It is worth emphasising at the outset that the dialect data is for the most part concentrated specific parts of the BWC, primarily in boxes 2 and 6 (pub data) and box 4 (sports data). In addition, there is valuable data from a dialect perspective gathered from the Labour Exchange. The Labour Exchange data, some of which we sampled in Chapter 4 in relation to swearing, appears in various boxes. For the purposes of this chapter, I have created a 25,000-word sub-corpus from the data in boxes 2, 4 and 6, which I refer to as the dialect corpus (DC). It is important to note that the division between the DC and the rest of the BWC is not absolute: Standard English (SE) can be found in parts of the DC just as occasional snippets of dialect can be found in the rest of the BWC i.e. the difference is a question of concentration or proportion of dialect data in the parts which constitute the DC.
