The Scotch-Irish Dialect Boundaries in the Province of Ulster by Robert J. Gregg (review)

HUMANITIES 251 Au plan de la structure narrative, la double ecriture du recit oral donne parfois lieu a la mise en place de reseaux narratoriels rivalisant de complexiM avec ceux d'un Barbey d'Aurevilly. Les postes de la parole, souvent occupes par un 'je' it identites multiples (personnage-temoin ala Maupassant, conteur oral, premier scripteur, second scripteur, etc), sont en outre pris en charge par un narrateur omnipotent qui n'hesite pas a s'ingerer dans la pensee du personnage, a jouer Ie jeu de-la CTI~ance (modalisations, questions demeurees sans reponses, etc), bref atenter I'impossible pour 'embarquer' son leeteur, brodant I'ceuvre du conteur oral qui lui, se soucie bien peu des sources de son savoir ou d'une quelconque logique de representation. Somme toute, ce recueil est un tour de force triple: ilcaptive son lecteur; il preserve la simplicite, la naivete, Ie charmeinherents Harne insulaire; et enfm, et surtout, il realise son intention profonde, qui etait de 'preserver Ie patrimoine et l'identite d'un peuple' (p 16). Une ombre au tableau (c'est litteralement I'inverse!): la couverture de Contes, recits et legendes annonce une atmosphere degagee, sereine, ensoleillee: iconographie qui rend assez mal compte d'un pays depuis toujours assiege par ces memes brouillards oppressifs, par ces mers belliqueuses, par ces grisailles lancinantes qui ont inspire tant de songes d'epouvante. lci, on aura bien raison de dire, a la fa~on de nos voisins de palier: 'you cannot judge a book by its cover.' (GABRIELLE GOURDEAU-WILSON) Robert J. Gregg. The Scotch-Irish Dialect Boundaries in theProvinceof Ulster P.O. Meany for Canadian Federation for the Humanities. 515. $15.95 paper Robert J. Gregg, professor emeritus of Linguistics at the University of British Columbia, is well known for his contributions to the study of Canadian English. He was a co-author of the Gage series of Canadian desk dictionaries, wrote at least six articles on the English spoken in Vancouver and environs, and since his retirement in 1977 has been the principal researcher for the well-funded Survey of Vancouver English. At the same time, he has kept an abiding interest in the dialects of his Northern Irish homeland, which he left in 1954 to join the UBC faculty. His chapteron Ulster dialects in Patterns ofFolk Speech in the British Isles (ed M.F. Wakelin, Athlone Press 1972) remains the standard description of rural speech for that province. The Scotch-Irish Dialect Boundaries in the Province of Ulster supplies a voluminous appendix to the earlier article. The offset typescript is a record Jf the data elicited by Gregg in 1960-3 from 125 older, rural speakers in :ounties Down, Antrim, Derry, and Donegal. The common basis for the ~licitations was a questionnaire consisting of 661 words expected to reveal :lialeetdifferences primarily in the pronunciations of the vowels. The bulk of the typescript (286 pages) consists of tables of vowel transcriptions indicating each speaker's response for each of the words. A set of maps (91 pages) plots the geographic distribution of variant pronunciations of particular words. The accompanying text is relatively slight (138 pages), and most of it is devoted to explicating the survey techniques that yielded the data and the expository devices used in the book. Only the first 26 pages discuss Ulster history, geography, and dialectology. Readers will have to look elsewhere in order to satisfy their curiosity about such topics - and the most likely sources will prominently include Gregg's 1972 article. This book obviously has a different purpose: it is a distinguished scholar's compendium of his data-base. (J.K. CHAMBERS) Timothy J. McGee. Medieval and Renaissance Music: A Performer's Guide University of Toronto Press. 304. $27.95 Up to now, there has never been abook which attempts to speakabout the performance of Medieval and Renaissance music in a comprehensive manner, striding boldly along that hazy line of reconciliation which separates the often conflicting fields of musical scholarship and musical practicality. Baroque music has been served by the writings of Dolmetsch (1915), Dart (1954), and DOnington (1963 and 1974), but music of the more remote eras, with even greater need, has languished without such ecumenical counsel...