Peter
B. Draper, who signs himself as a linguistics student, a member of the
Students Union, Bangor, but whose local address is St. Ive’s Close,
Pontefract, writes of a death "that does not qualify for a mention in
the obituary column - the Knottingley dialect."
He
recalls that when he was a boy (not so very long ago) his father was the
licensee of the Railway Hotel in Knottingley. "Well do I remember the
sounds of the clientele - those harsh but nonetheless beautiful tones of
true Yorkshiremen."
"When
I returned to my home town this year I went into the same pub, expecting
to hear those Knottingley tones but where were they? All I could make out
were attempts at imitation by people from North of the Border - the
Yorkshire border. Obviously the pits are to blame, but we need modern pits
and the people to work them, even if they have to be imported; that’s
progress."
"The
same thing is happening all over the country; regional dialects are being
replaced by socio-regional ones. What a loss that is to the country as a
whole. I appeal to those natives of Knottingley who are left and whose
accents are free from foreign influence to make a conscious effort to
preserve a waning dialect - keep for Knottingley a linguistic
heritage..."
