Industry and Identity: How Labor Migration Reshaped Culture in 19th Century Britain

The installation of a cotton industry in the 1870s and its expansion after the 1880s all but wiped out the local dialect when country people moved into small industrial centers

Internal migration from farm to factory led to long term social impacts, tracked by the decline of the local accents as intermingling of people’s from different regions smoothed out the differences in the way people speak. Fascinating essay on how technology revolutions make profound change to society; it’s become cliche to say it, but we’re at an analogous moment today (tho I think ours will go in reverse, in a forced retreat back to the village...)