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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 t... More

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 vi 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.

CONTENTS:

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.

Dialects in Early Times. The four old dialects. Meaning of "Anglo-Saxon." Documents in the Wessex dialect.

The Dialects of Northumbria; till A.D. 1300. The Anglian period. Beda's History and "Death-song." The poet Caedmon. Caedmon's hymn. The Leyden Riddle. The Ruth well Cross. Liber Vit�. The Durham Ritual. The Lindisfarne and Rushworth MSS. Meaning of a "gloss." Specimen.

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.

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.

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.

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.