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

on 10 October 1863, the eldest daughter of an Anglican clergyman. After a year in Somerset, the family moved in 1873 to Tedstone Delamere in Herefordshire. 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 formall ...

, where she was accepted, matriculating in October 1887. She first encountered Joseph Wright 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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

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. 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 from the 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 The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

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.

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