English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day | Page 2

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, plays, and ballads.
List of Romances. Caxton. Rise of the Midland dialect. "Scottish" and
"English." Jamieson's Dictionary. "Middle Scots." Quotation from
Dunbar.
VI. THE SOUTHERN DIALECT. Alfred the Great. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle. Old English Homilies. The Brut. St Juliana. The Ancren
Riwle. The Proverbs of Alfred. The Owl and the Nightingale. A Moral
Ode. Robert of Gloucester. Early history of Britain. The South-English
Legendary. The Harleian MS. 2253. The Vernon MS. John Trevisa.
The Testament of Love.
VII. THE SOUTHERN DIALECT OF KENT. Quotation from Beda.
Extract from an Old Kentish Charter. Kentish Glosses. Kentish
Sermons. William of Shoreham; with an extract. The Ayenbite of Inwyt.
The Apostles' Creed in Old Kentish. The use of e for A.S. y in Kentish.
Use of Kentish by Gower and Chaucer. Kentish forms in modern
English.
VIII. THE MERCIAN DIALECT. East Midland. Old Mercian
Glossaries of the eighth century. The Lorica Prayer. The Vespasian
Psalter. The Rushworth MS. Old Mercian and Wessex compared. Laud
MS. of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Ormulum. The English
Proclamation of Henry III. (_see the facsimile_). Robert Mannyng of
Brunne (Bourn). West Midland. The Prose Psalter. William of Palerne.
The Pearl and Alliterative Poems. Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight.
IX. FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE DIALECTS. Words from
Norman, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, etc. Celtic. List of Celtic words.
Examples of Latin words. Greek words. Hebrew words. List of
Scandinavian words. French words. Anglo-French words; gauntree.
Literary French words, as used in dialects.
X. LATER HISTORY OF THE DIALECTS. Spenser. John Fitzherbert.
Thomas Tusser. Skinner's Etymologicon (Lincolnshire words). John
Ray. Dialect glossaries. Dr Ellis on Early English Pronunciation. The
English Dialect Society. The English Dialect Dictionary. The English

Dialect Grammar.
XI. THE MODERN DIALECTS. Prof. Wright's account of the modern
English Dialects.
XII. A FEW SPECIMENS. Some writers in dialect. Specimens:
Scottish (Aberdeen, Ayrshire, Edinburgh). Northern England
(Westmorland). Midland (Lincoln, S.E. Lancashire, Sheffield,
Cheshire). Eastern (N. Essex, Norfolk). Western (S.W. Shropshire).
Southern (Wiltshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
FACSIMILE. The only English Proclamation of Henry III. Oct. 18,
1258
*** For a transcription of the Facsimile see pp. 75-6.
{Transcriber's Note: The Facsimile is not included in this e-text.}
CHAPTER I
DIALECTS AND THEIR VALUE
According to the New English Dictionary, the oldest sense, in English,
of the word dialect was simply "a manner of speaking" or
"phraseology," in accordance with its derivation from the Greek
dialectos, a discourse or way of speaking; from the verb dialegesthai,
to discourse or converse.
The modern meaning is somewhat more precise. In relation to a
language such as English, it is used in a special sense to signify "a local
variety of speech differing from the standard or literary language."
When we talk of "speakers of dialect," we imply that they employ a
provincial method of speech to which the man who has been educated
to use the language of books is unaccustomed. Such a man finds that

the dialect-speaker frequently uses words or modes of expression which
he does not understand or which are at any rate strange to him; and he
is sure to notice that such words as seem to be familiar to him are, for
the most part, strangely pronounced. Such differences are especially
noticeable in the use of vowels and diphthongs, and in the mode of
intonation.
The speaker of the "standard" language is frequently tempted to
consider himself as the dialect-speaker's superior, unless he has already
acquired some elementary knowledge of the value of the science of
language or has sufficient common sense to be desirous of learning to
understand that which for the moment lies beyond him. I remember
once hearing the remark made--"What is the good of dialects? Why not
sweep them all away, and have done with them?" But the very form of
the question betrays ignorance of the facts; for it is no more possible to
do away with them than it is possible to suppress the waves of the sea.
English, like every other literary language, has always had its dialects
and will long continue to possess them in secluded districts, though
they are at the present time losing much of that archaic character which
gives them their chief value. The spread of education may profoundly
modify them, but the spoken language of the people will ever continue
to devise new variations and to initiate developments of its own. Even
the "standard" language is continually losing old words and admitting
new ones, as was noted long ago by Horace; and our so-called
"standard" pronunciation is ever imperceptibly but surely changing,