English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day | Page 9

tha witgo tha the weron ær iuih gee persecuti sunt prophetas
qui fuerunt ante uos. 13. Uos
sint salt eorthes thæt gif salt forworthes in thon gesælted bith to estis
sal terrae quod si sal euanuerit in quo sallietur ad

nowihte vel nænihte mæge ofer thæt nihilum ualet ultra
buta thæt gesended bith vel geworpen út nisi ut mittatur foras
and getreden bith from monnum et conculcetur ab hominibus
gie aron vel sint leht middangeardes 14. Uos estis lux mundi
ne mæg burug vel ceastra gehyda vel gedeigla ofer mor geseted non
potest ciuitas abscondi supra monte posita.
ne ec bernas thæccille vel leht-fæt 15. neque accendunt lucernam
and settas tha vel hia unther mitte et ponunt eam sub
vel under sestre ah ofer leht-isern and lihteth allum tha the in modio sed
super candelabrum et luceat omnibus qui in
hus bithon vel sint domo sunt.
The history of the Northern dialect during the next three centuries, from
the year 1000 to nearly 1300, with a few insignificant exceptions, is a
total blank.
CHAPTER IV
THE DIALECTS OF NORTHUMBRIA; A.D. 1300-1400
A little before 1300, we come to a Metrical English Psalter, published
by the Surtees Society in 1843-7. The language is supposed to represent
the speech of Yorkshire. It is translated (rather closely) from the Latin
Vulgate version. I give a specimen from Psalm xviii, 14-20.
14. He sent his arwes, and skatered tha; Felefalded levening, and
dreved tham swa. 15. And schewed welles of watres ware, And
groundes of ertheli world unhiled are, For thi snibbing, Laverd myne;
For onesprute of gast of wreth thine. 16. He sent fra hegh, and uptoke
me; Fra many watres me nam he. 17. He out-toke me thare amang Fra
my faas that war sa strang, And fra tha me that hated ai; For samen

strenghthed over me war thai 18. Thai forcome me in daie of twinging,
And made es Layered mi forhiling. 19. And he led me in brede to be;
Sauf made he me, for he wald me; 20. And foryhelde to me Laverd sal
After mi rightwisenes al. And after clensing of mi hende Sal he yhelde
to me at ende.
The literal sense is:--"He sent His arrows and scattered them;
multiplied (His) lightning and so afflicted them. And the wells of
waters were shown, and the foundations of the earthly world are
uncovered because of Thy snubbing (rebuke), O my Lord! because of
the blast (Lat. _inspiratio_) of the breath of Thy wrath. He sent from on
high, and took me up; from many waters He took me. He took me out
there-among from my foes that were so strong, and from those that
alway hated me; for they were strengthened together over me. They
came before me in the day of affliction, and the Lord is made my
protection. And He led me (so as) to be in a broad place; He made me
safe, because He desired (lit. would) me; and the Lord shall requite me
according to all my righteousness, and according to the cleanness of my
hands shall He repay me in the end."
In this specimen we can already discern some of the chief
characteristics which are so conspicuous in Lowland Scotch MSS. of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The most striking is the almost
total loss of the final _-e_ which is so frequently required to form an
extra syllable when we try to scan the poetry of Chaucer. Even where a
final _-e_ is written in the above extract, it is wholly silent. The words
ware (were), are (are), myne, thine, toke, made, brede, hende, ende, are
all monosyllabic; and in fact the large number of monosyllabic words is
very striking. The words onesprute, forcome, foryhelde are, in like
manner, dissyllabic. The only suffixes that count in the scansion are
_-en_, _-ed_, and _-es_; as in _sam-en_, _skat'r-èd_, _drev-èd_,
_hat-èd_, etc., and _arw-ès_, _well-ès_, _watr-ès_, etc. The curious
form sal, for "shall," is a Northern characteristic. So also is the form
hende as the plural of "hand"; the Southern plural was often _hond-en_,
and the Midland form was _hond-ès_ or _hand-ès_. Note also the
characteristic long _a_; as in swa for swo, so; gast, ghost; fra, fro; faas,
foes. It was pronounced like the a in father.

A much longer specimen of the Metrical English Psalter will be found
in Specimens of Early English, ed. Morris and Skeat,
Part II,
pp. 23-34, and is easily accessible. In the same volume, the Specimens
numbered VII, VIII, X, XI, and XVI are also in Northumbrian, and can
easily be examined. It will therefore suffice to give a very brief account
of each.
VII. Cursor Mundi, or Cursor o Werld, i.e. Over-runner of the World;
so called because it rehearses a great part of the world's