Dr Mike Pearce has begun a research project on the visual representation of North East dialect in the public domain. So far, most research on the language of the road signs, advertising hoardings, street names, shop signs and other written messages which make up the linguistic landscape of a given area has focused on issues surrounding multilingualism. In contrast, Mike's project will focus on the use of vernacular North East English lexis, grammar and orthography in public settings. There is a 'crowd-sourcing' element to the project: if you see any instances of dialect use, please consider sending a photo to mike.pearce@sunderland.ac.uk (with details of where it was taken) and I'll add it to the project website.
