Perceptions of Border Dialects project
This project, which was funded by the ESRC (grant number PTA-026-27-1956) and completed at the University of Edinburgh, focussed on the perception of language variation in Great Britain from the perspective of five locations along the Scottish-English border, shown in the map below. Its aim was to examine mental maps of variation from these locations in order to assess the possible effect of the border.
View Fieldwork locations in a larger map
The main research findings from the perception of border dialects project supported many of those discussed in more detail in my PhD research. So, there was seen to be a large effect of proximity on the perception of dialect areas. This meant that 'closeness' to an area would increase its recognition levels. The effect of proximity was not however universal, and the Scottish-English border was seen to have a large effect on perception. Respondents on the Scottish side of the border had a detailed mental map of language variation in both Scotland and England, but respondents from England only had detailed mental maps of English dialects, with a large, generalised perception of Scottish dialects. The maps below, from Scottish (top) and English (bottom) respondents, show this border effect.
Scottish respondents' composite map
English respondents' composite map
For more information on the processing techniques used to complete the maps above, see my PhD thesis, or Betsy Evans' website, which details a similar project to that described above.