Project to study city accents across time

The Sheffield Voices Across Time study will explore how the local dialect has been represented in newspapers, novels, poetry, reports and letters and how this dialect has changed over the last two centuries.

A Finding Guide will be produced, using the academics' research, which will include samples of Sheffield's dialect from a number of case studies dating back to the early 1800's. The guide will be made available for members of the public to browse at the city's local studies library and Sheffield Archives.

A Sheffield University spokesman said yesterday (weds): "The new project will explore what features of dialect are strongly associated with Sheffield English, how these are represented and for which audiences.

The project will continually add to the Finding Guide over the coming months and the research team will be gathering contributions and additional materials throughout.

Dr Jane Hodson, from Sheffield University's school of English, said: "From Abel Bywater in the nineteenth century to Fred Pass in the 21st century, there's a fascinating tradition in Sheffield of representing the way that people speak.

"We're already finding some great material, and we look forward to identifying more in the coming months."