At TalkDialect, older people are at the heart of everything we do.
The words carried in our memories – especially from older people – represent centuries maybe even thousands of years of living language.
These are the words we use to talk together passed down at kitchen tables, poems recited by grandmothers, sayings that mainly never made it into past dictionaries.
Well we here at Talk Dialect believe these words deserve to be heard, recorded, revitalised and celebrated.
That is why we have started this project – a new type of people-powered dictionaries – that puts old people first. With a helping hand from young people and the middle-aged ones too.
Talk Dialect is a multi-generational multi-faceted multi-lingual multi-cultural community – the world’s first centralised digital dialect dictionary community.
And we are only just beginning…
Research* consistently shows that dialect and mother-tongue language occupies a unique place in human memory. Long-term emotional and linguistic memory — the kind that holds childhood rhymes and regional phrases — is often preserved long after short-term recall begins to fade.
For people living with dementia or memory loss, hearing or speaking their native dialect can reach places that standard conversation cannot. It reduces anxiety, sparks recognition, and restores a sense of self.
Long-term semantic and procedural memory – poems, songs, childhood language – is stored differently to short-term memory and is often the last to go — this is why old people like Mum – who gave me her explicit permission to film her and use this video – can recall Yorkshire dialect verses she learned aged 5 even as she is starting to get a bit more forgetful.
It is in this golden light, we are committed to building a platform where older people feel welcome, seen, valued and get their voices restored.
Our large-print submission form, our focus on word stories and personal histories, and our drive to record living voices rather than just words — all of it reflects one belief: that the people who carry our dialects in their memories are our most important contributors, and their time with us is precious.
We look forward to working with you.
Thanks The Talk Dialect Team 🗣️💚
* Sources:
- Prof. Viorica Marian (Northwestern) links emotionally-encoded childhood language (rhymes, songs) to preserved recall even in mid-to-late stage Alzheimer’s.
- Müller & Guendouzi (2005) — showed that dementia patients maintain dialect-specific phonology and idiom long after general language deteriorates.
- Snowdon’s “Nun Study” (2001) — linguistic richness in early life (including regional language) correlated with lower dementia risk and slower decline.
- Mother tongue / heritage language
- Bialystok et al. (2007, Neuropsychologia) — bilingual and bidialectal speakers show cognitive reserve that delays symptom onset by 4–5 years on average.
- Work by Prof. Viorica Marian (Northwestern) links emotionally-encoded childhood language (rhymes, songs) to preserved recall even in mid-to-late stage Alzheimer’s.
- Poetry specifically
- Killick & Allan (2001), Communication and the Care of People with Dementia — found dialect poetry read aloud triggered engagement and recall in patients who were otherwise largely non-communicative.
Worth looking up: Dementia UK have a resource on reminiscence therapy.
#TalkDialect #OldPeopleFirst #DialectDetective
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