English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day

st Mi

. On the east coast it reached from the mouth of the Humber to that of the Thames. On the western side it seems to have inclu

ssex. We must also certainly include, if not Oxfordshire, at any rate the city of Oxford. This is by far the most important group of counties, as it was the East Midland that finally prevailed over the rest, and was at last accepted as a standard, thus rising from the position of a dialect to be the language of the Empire. The Midland prevailed over the Northern and Southern dia

it is only of late years that the MSS. containing it have been rightly understood. Practica

than was at first suspected; and it

n Glossaries. The first is now at Epinal, in France (in the department Vosges); the second, at Erfurt, near Weimar, in Germany; the third, in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; and the fourth, at Leyden, in Holland. The Corpus MS. may be take

lum . ad

. haes

iecit. Absida

s .

e ?tate .

zel-nut." And again, Abies, which usually means "a fir-tree," is here glossed by "etspe." But this is certainly a false spelling, as we see by comparing it with the following glosses in Epinal and Erfurt (Nos. 37,1006):-"Abies. saeppae-s?pae"; and "Tremulus. aespae-esp?." This shows that the scribe ought to have explained Abies by "saeppae," meaning the tree full of sap, called in French sapin

fford a considerable number of interesting results, and are therefore valuable,

idge University Library) as the "Lorica Glosses," or the glosses which accompany a long Latin prayer, really a charm, called "lorica" or "breast-plate," because it was r

o thonne fiorthan sithe thin hleor thriga to iorthan, fore alle Godes cirican, and sing thas fers: domini est salus, saluum fac populum tuum, domine, praetende misericordiam tuam. Sing thonne pater noster. Gebide thon

in l. 2 in place o

t i

use-of their intercession. Bow-down then, at the fourth time, thy face thrice to the earth before all God's church, and sing these verses: The Lord is my salvation, save Thy people, O Lord: show forth Thy mercy. Sing then a pater-noste

alter is accompanied throughout with glosses which were at first mistakenly thought to be in a Northumbrian dialect, and were published as such by the Surtees Society in 1843. They were next, in 1875, wrongly supposed to be Kentish; but since they were printed by Sweet in 1885 it has been shown th

of the names of persons and places. There are, however, some later Charters, from 836 to 1058 in the Mercian dial

ose language, accordingly, was Mercian. In my Principles of English Etymology, First Series (second edition, 1892), p. 44, I gave a list of words selected from these glosses, in order to show how much nearer they stand, as a rule, to modern English than do the corresponding Anglo-Saxon forms. I here repeat this list, as it is very instructive. The references, suc

Mercian W

l, 5.

19. 28 (

twix, 27.

ēke, 5.

ald, 10.

k, 5.

efan, 28.

e, 5.

lleth, 10.

.pl. fellun,

-fold) -fald,

galla, 27.

half, 20

. halt, 1

.s. (ge)hērde,

ies) līgan,

. līht, 5

. liht, 11

aru, 7.

áld, 9.

ēp, 25.

s, 10. 10

lfur, 10.

pl. sleptun,

p. sald, 1

spittan, 2

ll, 21.

) ierd, 1

y) iara, 2

ioc, 11.

uth, 19.

2; but it is a mere mistake. In l. 20, the accent over the a in á

h, especially when another consonant follows. We find accordingly such Wessex forms as eall, ceald, fealleth, -feald, gealla, healf, healt, nearu, eald, seald, weall, gearo, where the Old Mercian has simply all, cald, falleth, -fald, galla, half, halt, naru, ald, sald, wall, iara. Si

that prevailed, and there is scarcely any Mercian (or Midland) to be found except in the Laud MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was writte

and the sole existing MS. is probably in the handwriting of Orm himself, who employed a phonetic spelling of his own invention which he strongly recommends. Owing to this circumstance and to the fact that his very regular metre leaves no doubt as to his grammatical forms, this otherwise uninviting poem has a high philological value. In my book entitled The Chaucer Canon, published at Oxford in 1900, I quote 78 long lines from the Ormulum, reduced to a simpler system of spelling, at pp. 9-14; and, at pp. 15-18,I give an analysis of the suffixes employed by Orm t

ewhat from that of Essex and Middlesex; but the general characteristics of all three sub-dialects are very much alike. As time went on, the speech of the students of Oxford and Cambridge was

the king, from which we may conclude that the Proclamation was issued by Henry rather by compulsion than by his own free will. There is a note at the end which tells us that a copy was sent to every shire in England and to Ireland. If every copy had been preserved, we should have a plentiful supply. As it is, only two copies have survived. One is the copy which foun

: th?t witen ye wel alle, th?t we willen and unnen th?t, th?t ure r?desmen alle, other the moare d?l of heom th?t beoth ichosen thurgh us and thurgh th?t loandes folk on ure kuneriche, habbeth idon an

beon to makien, thurgh than to-foren iseide r?desmen, other thurgh the moare d?l of hem, alswo also hit is biforen iseid; And th?t ?hc other helpe th?t for to done bi than

om healden deadliche ifoan. And for th?t we willen th?t this beo stedef?st and lestind

enthe day on the monthe of Octobre, in the

e, Richard of Clare, eorl on Glowchestre and on Hurtforde, Roger Bigod, eorl on Northfolke and marescal on Engleneloande, Perres of Sauveye, Willelm of Fort, eorl on A

?vrihce othre shcire over al th?re kuneric

sents the pronunciation of that period. The grammar is perfectly intelligible, and this is the surest mark of similarity of language; we may, how

rman origin entered our language, displacing many words of native origin that thus became obsolete; though some were exchanged for other native words. We may notice, for example, fultume, "assistance"; hold

nd lasting in all things without end. And we command all our true-men, in the truth that they us owe, that they steadfastly hold, and swear to hold and to defend, the statutes that be made and be to make, through the aforesaid councillors, or through the more deal of them, even as it is before said; and that each help other that for to do, by the same oath, against all men, right for to do and to receive. And (let) none take of land nor of property, wherethrough this provision may be let or worsened in any wise. And if any-man or any-

nto every other shire over all the ki

land verse, giving to his translation the title of Handling Synne. Many of the verses are easy and smooth, and the poem clearly shows us that the East Mi

hone that sa

ers, that ne

dernise the spelling

ch one that

ierce, that n

s that could b

lines that would puzzle no one. It is needless to pursue the history of this dialect further. It had, by this time, become almost the standard language, differing from Modern English chiefly in date, and consequently in pron

est M

divisions of the Mercian diale

Northumbrian, especially in the Northern part of the Midland area. The East Midland usually employs -ende or -inge instead. In the West Midland, the prefix i- or y- is seldom used for the past participle, whilst the East Midland admits it more freely. In the third person singular of the pres

to the former half of the fourteenth century, which was edited

lliterative verse about 1350-60, and edited by me for the E.E.T.S. in 1867, seems to be in a

ities of the dialect were discussed. Dr Morris showed that the grammatical forms are uniform and consistent throughout, and may be safely characterised as being West Midland. Moreover,

ently written by the same author; so that this poem also may be considered as a specimen of West Midland. For further particulars, see th

r date, and the task is hardly necessary. It was soon superseded in