ANYONE interested in learning how to write or research Forest dialect is urged to come along to a series of events this month.

The Forest Dialect Project, which forms part of the Foresters’ Forest Heritage Lottery-funded landscape partnership initiative, has several talks and volunteer workshops planned, including a talk next Tuesday, March 12, and two volunteer workshops on Tuesday, March 19.

The talk, at Ruardean Village Memorial Hall, is entitled ’How to Write in Forest Dialect’, and will be presented by Dr Michelle Straw, research fellow for the project at the University of Gloucestershire.

It will examine the tradition of dialect writing in the Forest of Dean in the past and present.

Dr Straw said: “We look at the role of dialect writing in the community and the skillful linguistic observations made by Forest writers. Perhaps, you can try some dialect writing yourself.”

Two workshops will take place at Dean Heritage Centre in Soudley a week later. The morning workshop, which runs from 11am to 1pm, explores using oral histories for dialect research.

Organiser Deb Cook said: “Volunteers will be working with the centre’s oral history collection of Foresters who were born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"We will be listening to oral histories, and collecting information about Foresters’ lives to try to uncover information relevant to researching the dialect.

“Volunteers will learn how oral history research and methods may help or hinder us in this endeavour.

"Participants will be introduced to dialect research, working with oral histories and will use their local knowledge and experiences can help enrich the research. ”

The afternoon workshop, from 2pm to 4pm, considers working with digital oral history recordings.

Deb added: “The workshop covers how to use sound editing programme Audacity with recently digitised oral history recordings which were originally recorded on cassette tape.

"Volunteers will learn about how such recordings are used for dialect research and some of the difficulties with using such material, especially when recordings are of poor quality.

"Volunteers will learn what factors are required for good quality recordings and will learn how to improve the sound quality, edit sound recordings and create sound clips.

“No prior knowledge is required for either workshop, although some ability to use a computer would be helpful.”

The talk next Tuesday takes place at 7pm as part of the Ruardean WI meeting.

For details contact Jeanette McCutcheon at [email protected]

For information or to book a place on one of the workshops, contact Deb Cook at [email protected]

Find out more about the project on Facebook or Twitter @forestdialect