Book Description

The dialect of the English county of Surrey was recorded towards the end of the Victorian age by the antiquarian Granville Leveson Gower in a volume for the English Dialect Society. This present Dictionary makes available a new edition of his work, along with materials setting out the characteristics, history and current position of Surrey English. Today little remains of the traditional Surrey dialect, though those familiar with the county will nonetheless find echoes of it in the speech of many present inhabitants. In recent years the dialect has influenced the speech patterns of the Home Counties, and the new southern English standard has been influential worldwide. Surrey English has its place as one of the many distinctive forms of English worldwide, with its own unique words and forms of expression which are part of the rich heritage of the English language.