Elizabeth Mary Wright (10 October 1863 – 1958) was an English

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Biography

Elizabeth Mary Lea was born in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have univ ...

on 10 October 1863, the eldest daughter of an Anglican clergyman. After a year in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

, the family moved in 1873 to

Tedstone Delamere Tedstone Delamere is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, north-east of Bromyard. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 138. The etymology of the name derives from the Anglo-Saxon, Teodic after whom the villages ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouths ...

. After a period at boarding school Elizabeth lived at home "a very easy and pleasant life, though uneventful and rather useless", until Sophie Weisse, the older sister of her brother's schoolfriend, encouraged her to "aim at more profitable employment of my time and such talents as I possessed." At her father's suggestion she applied to

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more form ...

, where she was accepted, matriculating in October 1887. She first encountered

Joseph Wright Joseph Wright may refer to: *Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–1797), English painter *Joseph Wright (American painter) (1756–1793), American portraitist *Joseph Wright (fl. 1837/1845), whose company, Messrs. Joseph Wright and Sons, became the Metro ...

in her second year at Lady Margaret Hall, when she attended his

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

lectures. During her third year, he enquired about her willingness "to do eventually some original work" and she subsequently worked under him to prepare a grammar of the dialect of

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

. Elizabeth and Joseph married in 1896. Together the Wrights compiled ''

The English Dialect Dictionary ''The English Dialect Dictionary'' (''EDD'') is the most comprehensive dictionary of English dialects ever published, compiled by the Yorkshire dialectologist Joseph Wright (1855–1930), with strong support by a team and his wife Elizabeth Mar ...

'' in six volumes between 1898 and 1905. Elizabeth undertook most of the secretarial work for the dictionary which included numerous letters and "50,000 prospectuses". On 2 July 1934 Wright was awarded an honorary degree of

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...

from the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. After Joseph's death in 1930, Elizabeth published a two-volume biography of him. In Joseph Wright's Dictionary of National Biography entry they are recorded as being described by contemporaries as "the happiest couple in Oxford". They had two children who died in childhood. She died in 1958 and was buried in

Wolvercote Cemetery Wolvercote Cemetery is a cemetery in the parish of Wolvercote and district of Cutteslowe in Oxford, England. Its main entrance is on Banbury Road and it has a side entrance in Five Mile Drive. It has a funeral chapel, public toilets and a small a ...

Publications

Books

* *
Vol. 1
an
Vol. 2
) with Joseph Wright * * (Abridgement of preceding work.) * *

Articles

* * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Elizabeth Mary 1863 births 1958 deaths Linguists from England Women linguists Historical linguists English philologists Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Women folklorists