Bront Studies, Vol.

30, March 2005

SPEECH IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS:

JOSEPHS DIALECT AND CHARLOTTES
EMENDATIONS
By Irene Wiltshire
In Wuthering Heights regional dialect is used by the author to delineate social class and
manners. Each principal character is given a distinctive form of speaking to denote his or
her social standing. The outsider Lockwood speaks received English while the servant
Joseph speaks the purest form of Yorkshire dialect. In this essay I propose to examine
Emily Bronts use of dialect speech and Charlotte Bronts response to the dialect
passages given to Joseph.1
Keywords: Emily Bront, Charlotte Bront, Wuthering Heights, Yorkshire dialect,
Dialect speech, Joseph
Wuthering Heights is characterized by its extraordinary narrative method and by the
presence of regional dialect. Moreover, these two features are inter-related. Since there is
no single narrator, events are related through a chain of witnesses, the chief of whom is
Nelly Dean; and Lockwood, who sometimes gives us his own first-hand experiences and,
on other occasions, provides us with Nelly Deans account, or events recorded in a
diary.2 A problem arising from this method of narration is one that concerns authenticity, for all the dialect passages are given to us by a non-dialect speaking character. Nonetheless, we must see the novel as a written artefact and accept the dialect passages as
having the authors blessing. So although we know that Lockwood could not accurately
speak to us in Josephs dialect, the author wants us to believe that Joseph did speak
in this manner. A further complication arises from the fact that, in reality, all the
Yorkshire-born characters would have spoken the local dialect to some extent because
the action pre-dates compulsory schooling and because they conduct their lives within a
narrow geographical location. Nonetheless, Emily Bront gives her characters distinctive
ways of speaking, according to their station in life and according to their aspirations.
As an outsider in the Yorkshire scene, Lockwoods speech stands out as received
English, based on the speech of southern England, and characterised by the predominance of Latinate abstract words. Thus, in contrast to the word wuthering, Lockwood
chooses atmospheric tumult (WH, p. 4). When reading a diary entry that records the
violence and strong feeling between Heathcliff, Hindley Earnshaw, and his sister
Catherine, Lockwoods interpretation is expressed in abstract terms: she waxed
lachrymose, (WH, p. 27). Catherine writes of crying until her head aches, but
Lockwood cannot bring himself to speak of anything as palpable as tears.
Address correspondence to Dr Irene Wiltshire, 21 Crescent Road, Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire wa15 9nb. Email:
wiltshires@aol.com

The Bront Society 2005

doi: 10.1179/147489304x18821

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Irene Wiltshire

Catherines account in this record of events is characterised by the choice of unequivocal language:
An awful Sunday! commenced the paragraph beneath. I wish my father were back again. Hindley is
a detestable substitute his conduct to Heathcliff is atrocious H. and I are going to rebel we
took our initiatory step this evening (WH, p. 24).

This language is not just hyperbole, for the ensuing action lives up to the description.
The use of the word rebel is no idle threat, for Heathcliff and Catherine hurl their
religious books into the dog kennel and escape to the moors. Nonetheless, some of the
words used in this passage, substitute, atrocious, and initiatory may strike todays
reader as rather formal for a girl of Catherines age, since she is only twelve years old.3
It is likely that this Latinate diction reflects Emily Bronts own reading matter and the
reading that she attributes to her fictional heroine.4
As a reaction to the disturbing and supernatural experiences of his first night at
Wuthering Heights, Lockwood turns to Nelly Dean for a rational account of events. Her
contribution to the narration is immediately characterized by a recitation of hard facts.
In response to Lockwoods question, You have lived here a considerable time, [. . .] did
you not say sixteen years?, Nelly replies Eighteen, sir; I came, when the mistress was
married, to wait on her; after she died, the master retained me for his house-keeper
(WH, p. 40).
Because of this factual manner of presentation Nelly Dean takes over the role of
narrator with an air of authority, lending the story of bizarre and violent events a quiet
authenticity. The surprising aspect of Mrs Deans personality is the fact that she does
not speak in the local dialect, although she is a domestic servant and at the time of her
account, 1801, without the benefit of formal schooling. Her social position is ambivalent, the daughter of the Earnshaw family nurse, running errands and helping to make
hay, but eating with the family and playing with the Earnshaw children. Following
Catherines marriage to Edgar Linton she becomes a personal maid and then housekeeper at Thrushcross Grange. Emily Bront was clearly aware of this ambivalence for
she has Lockwood comment on Mrs Deans refinement of manners: Excepting a few
provincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks of the manners that I am
habituated to consider as peculiar to your class (WH, p. 78). Mrs Deans reply is that
she has undergone strict discipline and taken advantage of the library at the Grange
where, by that time, she had resided for eighteen years. Thus her speech reflects the
influence exerted on her early life by the Earnshaw family and, crucially, her own
book-learning at the Grange.
Drawing on her time in the Earnshaw household, Mrs Dean is able to give a faithful
representation of other characters idiolects. She recalls Heathcliffs first appearance at
Wuthering Heights after he was rescued from a life on the streets of Liverpool by Mr
Earnshaw. At that time he could only speak gibberish. By the time he was thirteen and
old enough to run with Catherine to the Grange he was able to give Nelly Dean an
articulate account of events, using standard English. In this account he recalls the actions
of the Lintons servant Robert, but, unlike Joseph at the Heights, Robert speaks standard English, suggesting that the gentrified Lintons employed a better class of servant.
During Edgar Lintons years at the Grange regional dialect was not spoken there.
Heathcliff himself has been treated like a servant, referred to as a gypsy and a ploughboy. Nonetheless, it is the language of the Earnshaw family, especially Catherine, and
not the language of the servant Joseph, that Heathcliff has adopted; thus aligning

Speech in WUTHERING HEIGHTS

21

himself with the yeoman class and not the serving class that others see as his rightful
place. By the time Lockwood meets Heathcliff in 1801, Lockwoods only observation on
his landlords speech is that it is somewhat laconic.
Heathcliffs benefactor, the patriarchal Mr Earnshaw, is not given a regional dialect,
though his speech does contain the occasional dialect word as in the following conversation with his family following his return from Liverpool: And at the end of it, to be
flighted to death! (WH, p. 44). Mrs Dean is also alert to the uses of personal pronouns,
reproducing Mr Earnshaws use of the familiar thou when scolding his wayward
daughter: Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?(WH, p. 53). Mr
Earnshaws language signifies his lack of modernity, but also his superior social standing, for his speech is neither wholly dialect nor entirely standard English. His daughters
reply, however, Why cannot you always be a good man, father? includes neither dialect
words nor local accent, portending her future upward social mobility and attractiveness
to the gentrified Edgar Linton. The use of personal pronouns, thee, thou, and thy
instead of you and your, is a further aspect of dialect speech that is faithfully reproduced in this passage and throughout Wuthering Heights. The significance of these
pronouns in this novel has been commented on by K. M. Petyt in the Clarendon Edition
of Wuthering Heights (p. 512), in Bront Society Transactions, 16.4 (1974), 29193, and
in a Yorkshire Dialect Society publication, Emily Bront and the Haworth Dialect.5 It
may be helpful to readers of this essay to have some examples stated here.
The first instance of the familiar form appears in a passage already referred to when
Mr Earnshaw says to his daughter, Why cannst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?,
and she replies, Why cannot you always be a good man, father? (WH, p. 53). As
pointed out by Petyt, the parental use of the familiar thou together with Cathys reply
using the polite you is indicative of the power relationship between father and child.6
Another parent/child situation occurs in the following dialogue, which is related by
Nelly Dean:
Oh!, said he, releasing me, I see that hideous little villain is not Hareton I beg your pardon, Nell
if it be, he deserves flaying alive for not running to welcome me, and for screaming as if I were a
goblin. Unnatural cub, come hither! Ill teach thee to impose on a good-hearted, deluded father
Now, dont you think the lad would be handsomer cropped? It makes a dog fiercer, and I love
something fierce Get me a scissors something fierce and trim! Besides, its infernal affectation
devilish conceit it is to cherish our ears were asses enough without them. Hush, child, hush! well
then, it is my darling! wisht, dry thy eyes theres joy; kiss me; what! it wont? Kiss me, Hareton!
Damn thee, kiss me! By god, as if I would rear such a monster! As sure as Im living, Ill break the brats
neck (WH, p. 92).

In this passage Hindley Earnshaw alternates between the familiar thee and thy, and
the polite you and your according to which person he is addressing, Hareton or Nelly.
Because Nelly Dean, as a child, had played and eaten with the Earnshaw children, and
because she is a woman, she is addressed by Hindley in the polite form even though
she is a servant. But the way in which Hindley addresses his son, Hareton, constitutes
a deliberate use of the familiar form to indicate a power relationship. Joseph also
addresses the young Hareton in the familiar form in the following instance related by
Isabella Linton in a letter to Nelly:
Thear! he ejaculated. Hareton, thah willnt sup thy porridge tuh neeght; theyll be nowt bud lumps as
big as maw nave. Thear, agean! Awd fling in bowl un all, if Aw wer yah! Thear, pale tguilp off, un
then yahll hae done wit. Bang, bang. Its a marcy tbothom isnt deaved aht! (WH, p. 172).

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Irene Wiltshire

This passage further illustrates alternation between the familiar and the polite form,
according to the status of the person who is being addressed. When Joseph addresses his
remarks to the gentrified Isabella for her hapless cooking, he uses the polite form,
pronouncing you as yah. But although Joseph is a servant, he uses thah and thy
when speaking to Hareton, partly out of affection, but also because Hareton is a child
and one whose future status in the household is uncertain.7 It is also one of the few
opportunities for Joseph to address someone whose status is inferior to his own. This
could explain why Joseph continues to use the familiar form to Hareton when he is
no longer a child but a young man of eighteen: Niver heed, Hareton, lad dunnut be
feared he cannot get at thee! (WH, p. 306).
Hareton himself succumbs to the kind of degradation that was intended for
Heathcliff. When Isabella first meets him she describes him as a ruffianly child, strong
in limb and dirty in garb. He replies to her polite enquiry in a jargon she does not
understand. When pressed further by Isabella the childs reply is in a dialect similar to
Josephs, Now, wilt tuh be ganging (WH, p. 167). Haretons speech, and the way in
which it changes as the plot develops, is worthy of close consideration. In spite of his
degradation, or because of it, he treats those around him with contempt. When the
young Cathy Linton orders her cousin Hareton to bring a horse he replies in the familiar:
Ill see thee damned, before I be thy servant (WH, p. 239). The italicization of thy here
emphasizes Haretons deliberate insult to his socially superior cousin. Later on, when
Heathcliffs son Linton taunts Hareton about his frightful Yorkshire pronunciation and
lack of book-learning, Hareton shows his contempt for the effete Linton by replying If
thou wernt more a lass than a lad, Id fell thee this minute, I would; pitiful lath of a
crater! (WH, p. 269). Haretons dialect speech is also noted by his cousin Cathy when
she gives Nelly an account of an illicit visit to the Heights. Once again Hareton is performing the duties of a servant, taking care of Cathys horse. On being told by Cathy to
leave the horse alone she recalls that He answered in his vulgar accent (WH, p. 303).
Nelly is also alert to Haretons dialect speech: when Hareton brings food to her she
recalls that he said, rather as Joseph would, oppen tdoor! and Tak it! (WH, p. 336).
Here, Hareton is still performing the duties of servant, but his fortunes are shortly to
change for the better and this will be reflected in his speech. The catalyst for change is
his cousin Cathy and, though their conversations are initially less than harmonious, it is
through this interaction that he begins to emulate his cousins way of speaking. When
Cathy first encourages Hareton to be friends he replies, Get off wi ye! [. . .] I shall
have naught to do wi you, and your mucky pride, and your damned, mocking tricks!.
[. . .] Side out of tgait, now; this minute! (WH, pp. 37879). Significantly, Hareton is
now addressing Cathy with the polite pronoun. This indicates that in response to
Cathys overtures he is losing his former surliness and is beginning to respect his cousin
because of her social and intellectual superiority. During this conversation Cathy makes
Hareton a gift of a book and promises to teach him to read properly. At the end of the
conversation Hareton has come to see himself as Cathy does, replying to her offer of
friendship Nay! youll be ashamed of me every day of your life, [. . .] And the more, the
more you know me, and I cannot bide it (WH, p. 382). There is no hint of the former
vulgar accent here; only the regional nay and bide link him to his former manner of
speaking.8 By the time Cathy has rescued Hareton from his degradation as a servant at

Speech in WUTHERING HEIGHTS

23

the Heights he is speaking standard English. When Cathy asks him if Heathcliff is going
to join them for a meal, Hareton replies, showing all the benefits of Catherines tuition
and his own book-learning,
Nay, [. . .] but hes not angry; he seemed rare and pleased indeed; only, I made him impatient by
speaking to him twice; and then he bid me be off to you; he wondered how I could want the company
of any body else (WH, p. 400).

Hareton has cast off his regional speech almost entirely now; he is ready for marriage to
Cathy, and a life of gentility at the Grange. At the end of the novel strong dialect speech
is confined to the lower ranks of the serving class: the little herd-boy, the hostler, the
temporary woman at the Grange, and of course Joseph. Zillah, the former female
servant at the Heights, relates events to Nelly mainly in standard English. While she
uses an occasional provincialism, such as hisseln, she is not given a consistent regional
dialect.
The character whose language is closest to that of the chief narrator Lockwood, is the
gentrified Isabella Linton, and her conversation with Joseph highlights class differences,
prompting the following comment from the servant, Minching un munching! Hah can
Aw tell whet ye say? (WH, p. 168). The use of ye here is not the plural of the familiar
thou, but a phonetic pronunciation of the polite you. During this scene Isabellas
manner of speaking is further parodied when Joseph mocks her choice of the word
parlour and her pronunciation of room. In response to Isabellas request for another
room, preferably a parlour, in which to enjoy her supper, Joseph replies with a sneer,
Parlour! [. . .] parlour! Nay, weve noa parlours. In response to her demand for a bedroom, he retorts mockingly Bed-rume! [. . .] Yahs see all tbed-rumes thear is yons
mine(WH, p. 173).
This is an important passage since it illustrates very clearly the association of regional
dialect with lower-class status, and the awareness of speech difference on the part of the
servant as he deliberately mocks the speech of the gentry. In a novel that focuses so
closely on property and social mobility this self-conscious use of language is central to
the authenticity of the work. Charlotte Bront clearly appreciated the importance of
language and of the character of Joseph in her sisters novel when, in September 1850,
she wrote to the publisher Smith Elder as follows:
It seems to me advisable to modify the orthography of the old servant Josephs speeches; for though,
as it stands, it exactly renders the Yorkshire dialect to a Yorkshire ear, yet I am sure Southerns must
find it unintelligible; and thus one of the most graphic characters in the book is lost on them.9

I would now like to look at a selection of Josephs passages as they appeared in the first
edition of Wuthering Heights and as they appeared in the second edition following
Charlottes emendations. In each case the 1847 edition is given first.10
Maister Hindley! shouted our chaplain. Maister, coom hither! Miss Cathys riven thback off
ThHelmet uh Salvation, un Heathcliffs pawsed his fit intuh tfirst part uh TBrooad Way to
Destruction! Its fair flaysome ut yah let em goa on this gait. Ech! thowd man ud uh laced em
properly bud hes goan!(WH, p. 26).
Maister Hindley! shouted our chaplain. Maister, coom hither! Miss Cathys riven thback off
ThHelmet o Salvation, un Heathcliffs pawsed his fit into tfirst part o TBrooad Way to
Destruction! Its fair flay-/some that ye let em go on this gait. Ech! thowd man wad ha laced em
properly but hes goan! (WH, Appendix ii, pp. 44849).

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Irene Wiltshire

With regard to Emilys choice of lexis in this passage, there are five dialect words that
remain unchanged in the 1850 edition. They are riven meaning torn; pawsed meaning
kicked; flaysome meaning fearful; gait meaning way; and laced meaning to flog.11
Fit is a phonetic spelling of feet.
The changes made by Charlotte in this passage are principally phonological, so that
uh Salvation becomes oSalvation, an alteration which changes the vowel sound of
uh, robs it of its final aspirate and, by giving o an apostrophe, indicates the abbreviation of of as the source of uh. This removal of final aspirates is repeated in changing
intuh to into; yah to ye and uh to ha. The amendment of vowel sounds is
evident in the dropping of the a in goa. In Northern accents this word is pronounced
to rhyme with gore, while the amended spelling indicates the standard pronunciation as
in go. Another form of alteration in this passage is the devoicing of the final consonant
in bud by changing it to but. Where the initial consonant sounds are omitted by Emily
they are put in by Charlotte so ut becomes that and ud becomes wad. The puzzling
aspect of this kind of alteration is that the amended ut represents a complete change to
the standard form, but in changing ud to wad, the vowel sound is altered, in addition
to adding an initial consonant, but the word is still not a standard form. The other
amendment that is puzzling is the insertion by Charlotte of the hyphen and oblique sign
in flay-/some, although this does highlight flay as the root of the word.
Charlottes alterations in this passage are fairly representative of her approach and
similar examples can be found in all the dialect passages. A longer extract taken from a
later chapter in the novel reveals the amendments that one comes to expect but also
some surprising examples of non-alteration. The following speech of Josephs is related
by Nelly Dean:
Running after tlads, as usuald! croaked Joseph, catching an opportunity, from our hesitation, to
thrust in his evil tongue. If Aw wur yah, maister, Awd just slam tboards i their faces all on em,
gentle and simple! Never a day ut yahre off, but yon cat uh Linton comes sneaking hither and Miss
Nelly, shoos a fine lass! shoo sits watching for ye i tkitchen; and as yahre in at one door, hes aht at
tother Und, then, wer grand lady goes a coorting uf hor side! Its bonny behaviour, lurking amang
tfields, after twelve ut night, wi that fahl, flaysome divil uf a gipsy, Heathcliff! They think Awm
blind; but Awm noan, nowt ut tsoart! Aw seed young Linton, boath coming and going, and Aw seed
yah (directing his discourse to me), yah gooid fur nowt, slattenly witch! nip up and bolt intuh thhahs,
tminute yah heard tmaisters horse fit clatter up troad (WH, pp. 10708).

This passage is a crucial one. At this stage of the novel the reader has learned that
Catherine Earnshaw is caught up in an intense personal drama. She has confided to
Nelly Dean that Heathcliff is her true love and that she is marrying Edgar Linton for
social advancement. She has made her famous statement about her spiritual affinity with
Heathcliff, Nelly, I am Heathcliff hes always, always in my mind (WH, p. 102).
When Nelly tells Catherine that Heathcliff is missing and that he had heard a good part
of what Catherine had been saying, Catherine exposes herself to the wind and rain in an
attempt to find Heathcliff. To the reader this is high drama indeed, one of the most
powerful episodes in the novel, but, to the unimaginative Joseph, Catherine is no more
than a flighty young girl running after the boys. Charlotte was wise enough to know that
Joseph fulfilled a vital function here, and elsewhere in the novel, by providing an
alternative and prosaic version of events. Nonetheless, her concern about the ability of
Southerns to appreciate this passage led her to make only modest amendments as
shown in the following 1850 version:

Speech in WUTHERING HEIGHTS

25

Running after tlads, as usuald! croaked Joseph, catching an opportunity, from our hesitation, to
thrust in his evil tongue. If I war yah, maister, Id just slam tboards i their faces all on em, gentle and
simple! Never a day ut yahre off, but yon cat o Linton comes sneaking hither; and Miss Nelly, shoos
a fine lass! shoo sits watching for ye i tkitchen; and as yahre in at one door, hes out at tother; and,
then, wer grand lady goes a coorting of her side? Its bonny behaviour, lurking amang tfields, after
twelve ot night, wi that fahl, flaysome divil of a gipsy, Heathcliff! They think Im blind; but Im noan:
nowt ut tsoart! I seed young Linton boath coming and going, and I seed yah (directing his discourse
to me), yah gooid fur nowt, slattenly witch! nip up and bolt into thhouse, tminute yah heard
tmaisters horse fit clatter up troad. (WH, Appendix ii, p. 455).

The changes made to this passage are again restricted to phonology, although even this
aspect was not always altered. Phonological changes are as follows: uh becomes o,
intuh becomes into, Aw becomes I, aht becomes out, Und becomes and, uf
becomes of, hahs becomes house and wur becomes war.
There are, however, cases of non-standard spellings remaining unchanged. These are
usuald (usual), t (the), amang, fahl, divil, gooid, shoo, yah, noan, maister,
and coorting. While the last two of these words would not be expected to present serious problems to non-Yorkshire people, some of the other words in that particular form
would not be easily understood. No changes to grammar can be found in this passage.
The non-standard seed remains unaltered. Neither is there any lexical change.
Josephs position as servant at the Heights does not change as the novel progresses.
An example from one of the closing chapters demonstrates how Josephs perception of
events remains unchanged. Lockwood is making a return visit to the Heights and learns
from Nelly Dean that Heathcliff has died. While Nelly fetches ale and Lockwood makes
himself comfortable, Joseph comically and inappropriately asks whether
it warnt a crying scandal that she should have fellies at her time of life? And then, to get them jocks out
uh tMaisters cellar! He fair shaamed to bide still and see it (WH, p. 374).

This is from Emilys 1847 edition. The same passage from the 1850 edition reads as
follows:
it warnt a crying scandal that she should have followers at her time of life? And then, to get them jocks
out o tmaisters cellar! He fair shaamed to bide still and see it (WH, Appendix II, p. 474).

Charlottes amendments here are restricted to three minor changes: fellies becomes
followers; uh tMaisters becomes otmaisters; and bide, acquiring an apostrophe,
becomes bide. Apart from the change to the word fellies, Charlottes amendments here
would not have been much help to the Southerns she was so concerned about. Interestingly, this appears to be the only passage of Josephs in which Charlotte substituted a
standard word for a non-standard word.
The foregoing analyses show that Charlotte only changed a small proportion of
Josephs dialect speech, and that her concerns were mainly restricted to aspects of
phonology. Moreover, these changes were not only limited but also inconsistent. On
pages 12 and 26 of Wuthering Heights goa is changed to go, but on page 18 it remains
unchanged. On page 12 Awll becomes Ill, but on page 18 Aw remains unchanged.
Bud frequently occurs and is usually changed to but though not always, for on page
104 it remains the same. Und is often changed to and but not in the passages on pages
104 and 249. Nur sometimes becomes nor, though on page 128 there are instances of
nur remaining unchanged and of nor becoming nur. On pages 174 and 176 un
becomes un (without the apostrophe), but on page 175 un remains as it is. On page

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Irene Wiltshire

12 dahn becomes down but on page 104 the word remains unchanged. Heathcliffs
name is often pronounced by Joseph as Hathecliff; on page 104 Charlotte changes this
to Heathcliff but on other occasions leaves it unchanged. Little change to grammar can
be detected. The alteration of yah to yeve on page 175 introduces an auxiliary verb
where it had been absent. But even this change could be phonological if yah is taken to
be a non-standard spelling of you have. Changing theys to theres, on pages 172 and
173, is almost certainly a phonological alteration.
Charlottes amendments rarely extended to the lexis of the dialect speech in
Wuthering Heights. A list of dialect words appearing in Wuthering Heights is appended
to the end of this essay. The OED gives the origin of most of these words as Old English
and/or Old Norse. Words of Scandinavian origin reflect the significant influence of
Viking settlements in the ninth and tenth centuries in this part of the country.12 Although
many Scandinavian words have etymologies that are quite distinct, language historians
also point out that in some cases the Scandinavian loan words were similar to the native
Old English words. A further point of interest is the considerable number of dialect
words in Wuthering Heights which appear one hundred years later in Ortons Survey of
English Dialects.13 Moreover, those words in the appended list which do appear in the
Survey have Scandinavian etymology and most of these have no parallel in Old English.
It is evident, therefore, that dialect words do not easily fall into disuse and that the
Viking settlers brought a language that was to become incorporated into the indigenous
speech in areas such as Yorkshire which were covered by the Danelaw.
The appended list of dialect words also demonstrates the fact that dialect words are
predominantly Old English or Scandinavian in origin, pre-dating the later influences of
Latin and French on the English language. As such they would have been in normal use
by the working classes in the North of England and would, therefore, have been words
that both Emily and Charlotte Bront would have heard around them in West Yorkshire. Charlotte seldom made changes to the lexis in Wuthering Heights, either because
she was unaware of the regional character of these dialect words, or because she did not
see this particular aspect of language as a problem.14
Neither was Charlotte concerned with problems of authenticity which arose from
Emilys narrative method, nor was she concerned by the use of thee, thou and thy,
for she made no changes to these aspects of the novel. Charlottes emendations were
restricted almost entirely to accent. The question of what was lost or gained by such
changes must depend on the individual reader. Anyone who was familiar with the
Haworth dialect in the nineteenth century, especially if nurtured in the area, may have
been offended by the diluted accent, seeing it as counterfeit. Readers who were not, or
are not, familiar with this particular accent might still find the amended dialect passages
daunting because of the inconsistent and incomplete nature of the alterations, which still
present the reader with non-standard spellings. There is also the problem with arises
from the unfamiliarity of regional dialect words. The inescapable conclusion, therefore,
is that any possible gain is not substantial enough to offset the loss.
Just why Charlotte carried out the kind of alterations that she did must remain open
to speculation. She and her sisters were familiar with the Yorkshire dialect through their
daily intercourse with servants at the parsonage and with local people in the village.
Charlotte, however, had, by 1850, spent more time away from Haworth than her sisters
had done. Her concern about the unintelligibility of Josephs speech to Southerns was
probably fostered by her recent visits to London. Towards the end of the previous year,

Speech in WUTHERING HEIGHTS

27

1849, she had spent two weeks in London as a guest of Mr Smith, her publisher, at his
home in Paddington. During this time the Southerns she met included Thackeray;
Harriet Martineau; the actor Macready; and literary critics John Forster and Henry
Chorley. In the early summer of 1850 she had paid a further visit to London, again as a
guest of her publisher, but this time at his new home in Hyde Park Gardens. During this
stay she visited the opera, the Royal Academy, and the Ladies Gallery at the House of
Commons. She also accepted an invitation to Thackerays house, where she met more
literary folk.15 These then were the Southerns that Charlotte had in mind when she
thought of Josephs Yorkshire dialect in Wuthering Heights. They were influential
people, at the heart of literary society; people whose opinions might have an impact on
the fate of her sisters novel. It might also be added that in August 1850 Charlotte first
met Mrs Gaskell, who, in spite of her Cheshire associations, may have had difficulty
with the Haworth dialect. None of this, however, explains the kind of alteration that
Charlotte made to her sisters work. She may have believed that selected changes to the
orthography were all that were necessary to render the dialect passages more widely
understood. The inconsistencies indicate either carelessness or uncertainty. With regard
to lexis she might have been unaware of the regional aspect of many of the dialect
words. On the other hand, she might have intended only marginal changes because she
wished to retain some local flavour while making the dialect speech more accessible to
non-Yorkshire readers. If this kind of compromise was Charlottes aim then it must be
said that she fell between two stools. It is of immense value that the 1847 edition of
Wuthering Heights has remained available to readers.
Charlottes concerns also encompassed the role of Joseph; she described him as one
of the most graphic characters in the book.16 The loss to the reader who skips Josephs
passages of dialogue is considerable, not least because of the very problem that
Charlotte recognized, for his regional speech contributes to the realism of the novel. The
creation of Joseph is a complete cameo, for he has all the attributes of a dialect speaker:
male, manual, non-conformist religious background, and, in spite of his Bible knowledge, resistant to book-learning. Josephs speech constitutes linguistic verisimilitude
and Emily Bront was not deterred by the possible problems encountered by southern
readers, or else she was less aware of the difficulty, since she had spent less time in
London than her sister had done. Nonetheless, a faithful rendering of Haworth, or at
least West Yorkshire, had to contain some dialect speech. By restricting strong dialect
speech to one central character and giving standard speech to the chief narrators, the
main strand of the narrative remains accessible. Joseph escapes being at total variance
with the social milieu through the inclusion of very minor dialect parts such as the
herd-boy, the hostler and the old woman at the Grange; important touches that add
credibility to the speech of Joseph. Given that Emilys intention was to include dialect
speech as an intrinsic part of the social scene, this was done with eminent success.
Joseph is the one central character who, unlike Hareton, retains his regional speech. For
this very reason he cannot be transplanted to the Grange, but must remain at Wuthering
Heights. Joseph also performs a delicate balance between credibility and reductiveness.
The balance is achieved because his perception of incidents can seldom, if ever, be
shared by the reader. While we see, through Joseph, an alternative and more prosaic
interpretation of events, we see, not only the value of this perception, but also its
limitations. Joseph is real to us but so are the passions of the other characters.

28

Irene Wiltshire

Dialect Words in Wuthering Heights

Page numbers are for the Clarendon edition of Wuthering Heights.
Page

Word

Meaning

134
387
383
388
69/281
104
172
188
18
12
44
172
53
26
167
128
172
411
374
26
26
12
26
173
174
370
387
172
172
26
175
388
374
104
26
26
379
305
116
172
353
104
51

Barn
Barthen
Bide
Brust
Cant/Canty
Chimbley
Deaved
Dree
Faishion
Flaysome
Flighted
Flitting
Frame
Gait
Ganging
Girn
Guilp
Harried
Jocks
Laced
Laiking
Laith
Lugs
Meeterly
Mells
Mensful
Mun
Neive/Nave
Ortherings
Pawsed
Plisky
Quean
Reaming
Riggs
Riven
Scroop
Side (out)
Skift
Sough
Thible
Thrang
War
Wick

Child
Shelter
Stay/Wait
Burst
Pleasant/Brisk
Chimney
Deafened
Cheerless
Make/Dare
Fearful
Frightened
Moving house
Make progress/Get on with
Way/Path
Going
Snarl/Grimace
Scum from porridge
Robbed
Food
Flogged
Playing
Barn
Ears
Moderately
Interferes
Proper
Must
Fist
Orderings
Kicked
Mischief/Rage
Woman
Foaming/Frothy
Ridges
Torn
Back of book
Move away
Move quickly
Ditch
Porridge stick
Busy
Worse
Wicked/lively

Notes
1 Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847 by Thomas Cautley Newby. In 1850 Smith Elder brought out the
second edition incorporating Charlottes revisions. All page references in this essay are to the Clarendon edition, ed.