Elizabeth Mary Wright

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Elizabeth Mary Wright
Elizabeth Mary Wright, 1923
Born
Elizabeth Mary Lea

10 October 1863
London, England
Died1958(1958-00-00) (aged 94–95)
Oxford, England
Occupation(s)Linguist
Folklorist
Writer
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1896; died 1930)​
Academic background
Alma materLady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Academic work
Discipline
  • English Language
Sub-disciplineDialects

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

Biography[edit]

Elizabeth Mary Lea was born in the East End of London on 10 October 1863, the eldest daughter of an Anglican clergyman.[1] After a year in Somerset, the family moved in 1873 to Tedstone Delamere in Herefordshire.[2] After a period at boarding school Elizabeth lived at home "a very easy and pleasant life, though uneventful and rather useless",[3] 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, where she was accepted, matriculating in October 1887.[4]

She first encountered Joseph Wright in her second year at Lady Margaret Hall, when she attended his Old English lectures.[5] During her third year, he enquired about her willingness "to do eventually some original work"[6] and she subsequently worked under him to prepare a grammar of the dialect of Northumbria.[7] Elizabeth and Joseph married in 1896. Together the Wrights compiled The English Dialect Dictionary 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".[8]

On 2 July 1934 Wright was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Leeds.[9]

After Joseph's death in 1930, Elizabeth published a two-volume biography of him.[7] In Joseph Wright's Dictionary of National Biography entry they are recorded as being described by contemporaries as "the happiest couple in Oxford".[8] They had two children who died in childhood. She died in 1958 and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery.[10]

Publications[edit]

Joseph and Elizabeth Wright with their children, c. 1907.

Books[edit]

  • Wright, Elizabeth Mary (1913). Rustic Speech and Folk-lore. London: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  • ———— (1932). The Life of Joseph Wright. London: Oxford University Press. (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.)

with Joseph Wright

Articles[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Wright 1932, p. 143.
  2. ^ Wright 1932, pp. 152–154.
  3. ^ Wright 1932, p. 164.
  4. ^ Wright 1932, pp. 164–165.
  5. ^ Wright 1932, p. 140.
  6. ^ Wright 1932, p. 185.
  7. ^ a b "Wright, Elizabeth Mary". A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-860766-3.
  8. ^ a b "Wright, Joseph (1855–1930)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37036. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. ^ Dickins, Bruce (1934). "Elizabeth Mary Wright: A Bibliography". Leeds Studies in English. 3. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  10. ^ "Elizabeth Mary Lea". FamilySearch. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
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