Lancashire Dialect Examination in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton

Abstract

Dialect and sociolinguistics have a mutual relationship considering language, with its varieties, a tool of characterization; one’s speech expresses one’s age, cultural and educational level, gender, social class, ethnic group, etc. Literature is the artistic field that holds all existing language diversities. Hence, some authors (like Dickens and Gaskell, and many others) embrace dialect employment in standard literary works stressing on its aesthetic function. The concern in this paper is on the novel Gaskell Mary Barton (1848), where Lancashire’s dialect is generously used. So, what does literary dialect means? What is the scope of Lancashire, and what are its features? How did Gaskell employ it? This paper aims at highlighting the phenomenon of literary dialect and how authors use it to achieve authenticity.