The Contribution of Angelina Parker to the "English Dialect Dictionary"

Abstract

This article explores the contribution of Angelina Parker to the making of the English Dialect Dictionary. Relying on EDD Online (Markus 2019a), the aim is to analyze the impact of Parker on the Oxfordshire element of the dictionary by scrutinizing the entries where Wright relied on her first-hand knowledge of the dialect for ascriptions, definitions, and senses. The article is framed within forensic dictionary analysis (Coleman and Ogilvie 2009) and takes a quantitative and qualitative approach to the data retrieved from EDD Online, with particular reference to the entries that include Parker's initials and those in which Wright quoted from the manuscript words she sent to him (now Bodl. MS Eng. lang. d. 69–74). The findings indicate that Wright reproduced faithfully from Parker's material, which he employed for citation purposes, and relied on her as the sole authority for a significant number of words, senses, and examples of the Oxfordshire distribution of an item. A connoisseur of the Oxfordshire dialect, Parker undertook her own lexicographical projects and collaborated with other dialectologists, including Alexander John Ellis and Thomas Hallam. This article seeks to cast further light on the role of correspondents in the English Dialect Dictionary, while giving Parker a deserved place in the histories of English dialectology, the Oxfordshire dialect, and women's lexicography more generally.