As long ago as the 1720s, Daniel Defoe wrote about the eccentricities of English dialects. To historians the dialects used in the Yorkshire Dales and rural East Anglia are as important in understanding the living heritage of Britain as the study of ancient buildings. This book describes the most significant features of regional dialects, including the medieval Norse that has infiltrated the vocabulary of the north, the important north/north midland dialect boundary, old forms of nouns and the remaining traces of extinct Cornish. A final chapter examines occupational and specialized vocabularies that developed around traditional industries like mining and fishing. Ideal for linguistics students and anyone interested in the evolution of the English language.