English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day

English Dialects From the Eighth
Century to the Present Day

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Title: English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day
Author: Walter W. Skeat
Release Date: May 3, 2005 [EBook #15755]
Language: English
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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
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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 Cædmon. Cædmon's hymn. The Leyden
Riddle. The Ruth well Cross. Liber Vitæ. 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