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

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, 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