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

forthon in caelis sic enim
ge-oehton 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