English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day

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English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day

The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Dialects From the Eighth Century to
the Present Day, by Walter W. Skeat This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day
Author: Walter W. Skeat
Release Date: May 3, 2005 [EBook #15755]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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{Illustration: Decorative Title Page encompassing all text from "English Dialects" through "1912"}
ENGLISH DIALECTS
From the Eighth Century to the Present Day
by the
REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, Litt.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Ph.D., F.B.A. Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fel- low of Christ's College. Founder and formerly Director of the English Dialect Society
"English in the native garb;" K. Henry V. V. 1. 80
Cambridge at the University Press 1912
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With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521
First Edition 1911. Reprinted 1912.
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PREFACE
The following brief sketch is an attempt to present, in a popular form, the history of our English dialects, from the eighth century to the present day. The evidence, which is necessarily somewhat imperfect, goes to show that the older dialects appear to have been few in number, each being tolerably uniform over a wide area; and that the rather numerous dialects of the present day were gradually developed by the breaking up of the older groups into subdialects. This is especially true of the old Northumbrian dialect, in which the speech of Aberdeen was hardly distinguishable from that of Yorkshire, down to the end of the fourteenth century; soon after which date, the use of it for literary purposes survived in Scotland only. The chief literary dialect, in the earliest period, was Northumbrian or "Anglian," down to the middle of the ninth century. After that time our literature was mostly in the Southern or Wessex dialect, commonly called "Anglo-Saxon," the dominion of which lasted down to the early years of the thirteenth century, when the East Midland dialect surely but gradually rose to pre-eminence, and has now become the speech of the empire. Towards this result the two great universities contributed not a little. I proceed to discuss the foreign elements found in our dialects, the chief being Scandinavian and French. The influence of the former has long been acknowledged; a due recognition of the importance of the latter has yet to come. In conclusion, I give some selected specimens of the use of the modern dialects.
I beg leave to thank my friend Mr P. Giles, M.A., Hon. LL.D. of Aberdeen, and University Reader in Comparative Philology, for a few hints and for kindly advice.
W. W. S.
Cambridge
3 March 1911

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
I. DIALECTS AND THEIR VALUE. The meaning of dialect. Phonetic decay and dialectic regeneration. The words twenty, madam, alms. Keats; use of awfully. Tennyson and Ben Jonson; use of flittermouse. Shakespeare; use of bolter and child. Sir W. Scott; use of eme. The English yon. Hrinde in Beowulf.
II. DIALECTS IN EARLY TIMES. The four old dialects. Meaning of "Anglo-Saxon." Documents in the Wessex dialect.
III. THE DIALECTS OF NORTHUMBRIA; TILL A.D. 1300. The Anglian period. Beda's History and "Death-song." The poet C?dmon. C?dmon's hymn. The Leyden Riddle. The Ruth well Cross. Liber Vit?. The Durham Ritual. The Lindisfarne and Rushworth MSS. Meaning of a "gloss." Specimen.
IV. THE DIALECTS OF NORTHUMBRIA; A.D. 1300-1400. The Metrical Psalter; with an extract. Cursor Mundi. Homilies in Verse. Prick of Conscience. Minot's Poems. Barbour's Bruce; with an extract. Great extent of the Old Northern dialect; from Aberdeen to the Humber. Lowland Scotch identical with the Yorkshire dialect of Hampole. Lowland Scotch called "Inglis" by Barbour, Henry the Minstrel, Dunbar, and Lyndesay; first called "Scottis" by G. Douglas. Dr Murray's account of the Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland.
V. NORTHUMBRIAN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Northumbrian of Scotland and of England in different circumstances. Literature of the fifteenth century; poems, romances,