“The Dorset dialect is a broad and bold shape of the English language…” — William Barnes

“The Dorset dialect is a broad and bold shape of the English language, as the Doric was of the Greek.”

Defending Dorset speech as a rich and legitimate form of English rather than a corrupted one · A Dissertation on the Dorset Dialect of the English Language

William Barnes

About William Barnes

22 February 1801–7 October 1886

In the gentle folds of Dorset's Blackmore Vale, where the River Stour meanders through meadows fringed with ancient oaks and the air hums with the songs of larks and the lowing of cattle, a voice arose that would forever capture the heartbeat of rural England. William Barnes, born on February 22, 1801, at Rushay Farm…

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