Thomas Burton

Research Interests

Early English Languages English Language Language in Time and Space Languages & Linguistics Lexicography Literary Studies Literatures in English

EPrf Thomas Burton

School of Humanities

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities

Tom Burton taught at secondary schools in East Africa and England before taking up a lectureship in the (then) Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Adelaide in 1974.Tom's chief interests are in medieval English language and literature, the history of the English language, historical and regional dialects (especially their pronunciation), semantic change, and traditional metres in English poetry. His current research is on the dialect poems of William Barnes (1801-1886).

Date Position Institution name
2014 - ongoing Life Member Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
2013 - 2014 Visiting Fellow Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
2013 - ongoing Emeritus Professor of English University of Adelaide

Language Competency
English, Middle (1100-1500) Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
English, Old (ca.450-1100) Can read
French Can read, write, speak and understand spoken

Year Citation
2017 Burton, T. L. (2017). Manuscripts of William Barnes's dialect poems in the Dorset County Museum. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 138, 46-63.
2016 Burton, T. (2016). What sex is a mare? Horses and mares in William Barnes's dialect poems. Notes and Queries, 63(2), 237-244.
DOI Scopus1
2016 Burton, T. (2016). Shrill nightingales? "shill", "shrill", and "sh'ill" in the dialect poems of William Barnes. Anglia, 134(2), 239-259.
DOI
2009 Burton, T., & Ruthven, K. (2009). Dialect poetry, William Barnes and the literary canon. ELH-English Literary History, 76(2), 309-341.
DOI WoS8
2007 Burton, T., & Ruthven, K. (2007). William Barnes's river flowers and the 1844 edition of his poems of rural life in the dorset dialect. Script & Print, 30(3), 138-154.
2007 Burton, T. (2007). What William Barnes done: Dilution of the dialect in later versions of the Poems of Rural Life. Review of English Studies, 58(235), 338-363.
DOI Scopus7
2006 Burton, T., & Ruthven, K. (2006). The English Dialect Dictionary and Dorset usages recorded by Notes and Queries. Notes and Queries, 53(4), 415-417.
DOI Scopus2
2006 Burton, T. (2006). A sporting lexicon of the fifteenth century: The 'J. B. Treatise'.. AUMLA - Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, (105), 135-137.
2005 Burton, T. (2005). "A Companion to Chaucer," edited by Peter Brown.. AUMLA - Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, (104), 151-154.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). The language and craft of William Barnes, English poet and philologist (1801-1886). AUMLA - Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, (101), 132-135.
2002 Burton, T. (2002). 'Living Words: Language, Lexicography and the Knowledge Revolution,' by Tom McArthur.. English Studies, 83(6), 565-566.
2002 Burton, T. (2002). Chaucer's open books: Resistance to closure in medieval discourse. English Studies, 83(1), 78-79.
DOI
2002 Burton, T. (2002). Mistranslation or adaptation in Medieval manuscripts: Can one tell the difference?. Lingua Humanitatis, 2(2), 129-141.
2001 Tyler, M., Burton, T., & Bauer, A. (2001). Parotoid or parotid: On the nomenclature of an amphibian skin gland. Herpetological Review, 32(2), 79-81.
Scopus14
1996 Burton, T. (1996). Review of: Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381, by Steven Justice (Berkeley: U of California P, 1994). Parergon, NS14, 292-294.
1996 Burton, T. (1996). Review of: Speaking in our tongues: Proceedings of a colloquium on Medieval dialectology and related disciplines, ed. Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson (Cambridge: Brewer, 1994). English Studies, 77(3), 280-281.
DOI
1996 Burton, T. (1996). Review of: Gender and Romance in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, by Susan Crane (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994). English Studies, 77(5), 504-505.
DOI
1996 Burton, T. (1996). Review of: Memorization in the Transmission of the Middle English Romances, by Murray McGillivray (New York: Garland, 1990). ENVOI, 4, 89-94.

Year Citation
2018 Burton, T., & Ruthven, K. (2018). The complete poems of William Barnes: volume 2: poems in the modified form of the Dorset dialect (Vol. 2). T. Burton, & K. Ruthven (Eds.), Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
2018 Burton, T., & Ruthven, K. (2018). The complete poems of William Barnes: volume 2: poems in the modified form of the Dorset dialect (Vol. 2). T. Burton, & K. Ruthven (Eds.), Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
2017 Burton, T. (2017). The sound of William Barnes's dialect poems: 3. Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect, third collection (1862). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2017 Burton, T. (2017). The sound of William Barnes's dialect poems: 2. Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect, second collection (1859). Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2013 Burton, T., & Ruthven, K. (2013). The Complete poems of Williams Barnes. Volume 1: Poems in the broad form of the Dorset dialect. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
2013 Burton, T. (2013). The sound of William Barnes's dialect poems: 1. poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect, first collection (1844). Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2011 Burton, T. (2011). Six eclogues: from William Barnes's poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (first collection, 1844). South Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
DOI
2010 Burton, T. (2010). William Barnes's Dialect Poems: A Pronunciation Guide. Provo, Utah: The Chaucer Studio Press.
2009 Burton, T. (2009). The vaices that be gone : selected poems from William Barnes's Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (first collection, 1844) : with phonemic transcripts and an audio recording from the 2009 Adelaide Fringe. The Chaucer Studio Press.
2005 Burton, T. (Ed.) (2005). Beyond free : new poems in traditional metres. Adelaide, South Australia: UniVerse Publications.
2005 Burton, T., & Plummer, J. (Eds.) (2005). "Seyd in forme and reverence" : essays on Chaucer and Chaucerians in memory of Emerson Brown, Jr.. Provo, UT: The Chaucer Studio Press.
2005 Burton, T. (Ed.) (2005). Middle English Saints’ Legends. Cambridge: D S Brewer.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). Long words bother me. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing.
2003 Burton, T., & Dennis, K. (Eds.) (2003). Beyond free : new poems in traditional metres. Adelaide, Australia: UniVerse Publications.
1999 Burton, T. (1999). Words in Your Ear. Wakefield Press.
1999 Burton, T. (1999). Sidrak and Bokkus, Volume Two. Oxford University Press.
1998 Burton, T. (1998). Sidrak and Bokkus: A parallel-text edition from Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 559 and British Library, MS Lansdowne 793. Oxford University Press.
1997 Burton, T., & Greentree, R. (1997). Chaucer’s Miller’s, Reeve’s, and Cook’s tales / edited by T.L. Burton and Rosemary Greentree ; annotations by David Briggs ... [et al.].. University of Toronto Press.
1995 Burton, T. (1995). Words, Words, Words. University Radio 5UV.

Year Citation
2015 Burton, T. L. (2015). 'BARNES, William'. In D. Felluga, P. K. Gilbert, & L. K. Hughes (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature. Wiley-Blackwell.
2012 Burton, T. (2012). Dialect poetry and the need for performance: the case of William Barnes. In S. Gingell, & W. Roy (Eds.), Listening Up, Writing Down and Looking Beyond: Interfaces of the Oral, Written and Visual (1 ed., pp. 119-122). Canada: Wilfred Laurier University Press.
2005 Burton, T. (2005). Sir Gawain and the Green Hag: The real meaning of The Wife of Bath's Tale. In T. Burton, & J. Plummer (Eds.), 'Seyd in forme and reverence' Essays on Chaucer and Chaucerians in memory of Emerson Brown, Jr. (pp. 75-80). Australia: The Chaucer Studio Press.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). Ashtrays, motorbikes, and Australian terms of abuse. In Tom Burton (Ed.), Long words bother me (pp. 7-9). Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire GLS 2BU: Sutton Publishing.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). Long words bother me. In Tom Burton (Ed.), Long words bother me (pp. 107-112). Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire GLS 2BU: Sutton Publishing.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). The old waggon and the death of English dialects. In Tom Burton (Ed.), Long words bother me (pp. 138-144). Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire GLS 2BU: Sutton Publishing.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). Precision rules, OK?. In Tom Burton (Ed.), Long words bother me (pp. 147-149). Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire GLS 2BU: Sutton Publishing.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). Pumpernickel. In Tom Burton (Ed.), Long words bother me (pp. 157-159). Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire GLS 2BU: Sutton Publishing.
2004 Burton, T. (2004). Sporting words. In Tom Burton (Ed.), Long words bother me (pp. 198-200). Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire GLS 2BU: Sutton Publishing.

Year Citation
2009 Authors: Burton T. Title: The vaices that be gone. Description: Extent : 60 minutes. This recording of live performance by Tom Burton for the 2009 Adelaide Fringe Festival was engineered by Don Balaz of Radio Adelaide. The recording consists of a selection of William Barnes' poems from his first collection, published in 1844 in the Dorset dialect, along with Tom Burton's introduction and comments on the poems.. Extent: 60 minutes.
2003 Authors: Burton T. Title: Cleanness (Audio Recording: Reader). Description: Readers: Bob Hanning (First Narrator), James Gorman, Nicole Rice, Tom Burton (Second Narrator), Michael Calabrese, Vance Smith, Jean Jost, Mary Hamel (Third Narrator), Paul Thomas, Pete Wetherbee (Fourth Narrator), Scott Kleinman, Regula Meyer Evitt. Tom Burton recorded at the 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University. CD no. : ICMS004. Extent: Audio file: 313KB.
2003 Authors: Burton T, Davies K. Title: The Second Nun's Tale (Audio Recording: Director). Description: Read by Katherine Davies. Recorded at Radio Adelaide. CD no. : OR032. Extent: Audio file: 313kb.
2003 Authors: Burton T, Thiel P. Title: The Manciple's Tale (Audio Recording: Director). Description: Reader : Philip Thiel. Recorded at Radio Adelaide. CD no.: OR033. Extent: Audio file : 313kb.
2002 Authors: Burton T. Title: Chaucer's Tale of Melibee (Audio Recording: Director). Description: Recorded at the New Chaucer Society Conference, University of Colorado at Boulder. Recorded at Boulder, Colorado in association with the 13th International Congress of the New Chaucer Society. Readers: Andrew Lynch (Chaucer), Susan F. Yager (Prudence),D.Thomas Hanks Jr. (Melibee),Tom Burton (other voices). CD no. : NCS016. Extent: N/A.
2002 Authors: Burton T. Title: Selections from Shakespeare in Early Modern English. Description: Recorded at the International Medieval Conference, University of Leeds, 2002. Thomas Burton is the director and one of several readers.. Extent: ..
2000 Authors: Burton T. Title: Beowulf: A Dramatic Reading in the Original Language. Description: Roles : reader as Wulfgar, Unferth, Scop, Messenger. Directed by Thomas Rendall. Recorded at Recorded at the Simon Fraser University Audio/Visual Centre. July, 2000. Readers: Tom Rendall (Narrator), Harvey DeRoo (Beowulf ), Robert Stevick (Hrothgar), Tom Burton (Wulfgar, Unferth, Finnsburg Scop, Messenger), Thomas Chase (Wiglaf ), Kamal Fox (Coast Guard, Last Survivor), Mary–Ann Stouck (Wealhtheow), Stephen Partridge (Hygelac). Music: Selected by Tom Chase and performed by Doug Chan. CD no. : OR027. Extent: N/A.

Year Citation
2015 BURTON, T. L. (2015). 'BARNES, William' in The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature. Wiley-Blackwell.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2003 - 2008 Co-Supervisor The Poetics of Libretti: Reading the Opera Works of Gwen Harwood and Larry Sitsky Master of Arts Master Part Time Ms Alison Wood

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