"John highte that oon and Aleyn highte that other:Ofootoun were thei born that highte Strother,Ffer in the north I can not tellen where.This Aleyn maketh redy al his gere—And on an hors the sak he caste anoon.Fforth goth Aleyn the clerk and also John,With good swerde and bokeler by his side.John knewe the weye—hym nedes no gide;And atte melle the sak a down he layth.Aleyn spak first: Al heyle, Symond—in fayth—How fares thi fayre daughter and thi wyf?Aleyn welcome—quod Symkyn—be my lyf—And John also—how now, what do ye here?By God, quod John—Symond, nede hasnapere.Hym bihovestoserve him self that has na swayn;Orellishe is a fool as clerkes sayn.Oure maunciple I hope he wil be ded—Swawerkes hymay the wanges in his heed.And therefore is I come and eek Aleyn—To grynde oure corn, and carye ithamagayne,I pray yowspedes[77]ushethenthat ye may.It shal be done, quod Symkyn, by my fay!What wol ye done while it is in hande?By God, right by the hoper wol I stande,Quod John, and seehow gatesthe corn gas inne;Yitsaugh I never, by my fader kynne,How that the hoper wagges til and fra!Aleyn answerde—John wilyeswa?Than wil I be bynethe, by my crown,And sehow gatesthe mele falles downIn til the trough—that sal be my disport.Quod John—In faith, I is of youre sort—I is as ille a meller asareye.* * * * * *And when the mele is sakked and ybounde,This John goth out and fynt his hors away—And gan to crie, harow, and wele away!—Our hors is lost—Aleyn, for Godde's banes,Stepe on thi feet—come of man attanes!Allas, oure wardeyn has his palfrey lorn!This Aleyn al forgat bothe mele and corn—Al was out of his mynde, his housbonderie.What—whilke way is he goon? he gan to crie.The wyf come lepyngeinat a ren;She saide—Allas, youre hors goth to the fenWith wylde mares, as faste as he may go.Unthank come on this hand thatbandhim so—And he thatbetsholde have knet the reyne.Alas! quod John, Alayn, for Criste's peyne,Lay down thi swerde, and Iwilmyn alswa;I is fulswift—God wat—as is a ra—By Goddeshertehe sal nought scape us bathe.Why ne hadde thou put the capel in the lathe?Il hayl, by God, Aleyn, thouisfonne."
"John highte that oon and Aleyn highte that other:Ofootoun were thei born that highte Strother,Ffer in the north I can not tellen where.This Aleyn maketh redy al his gere—And on an hors the sak he caste anoon.Fforth goth Aleyn the clerk and also John,With good swerde and bokeler by his side.John knewe the weye—hym nedes no gide;And atte melle the sak a down he layth.Aleyn spak first: Al heyle, Symond—in fayth—How fares thi fayre daughter and thi wyf?Aleyn welcome—quod Symkyn—be my lyf—And John also—how now, what do ye here?By God, quod John—Symond, nede hasnapere.Hym bihovestoserve him self that has na swayn;Orellishe is a fool as clerkes sayn.Oure maunciple I hope he wil be ded—Swawerkes hymay the wanges in his heed.And therefore is I come and eek Aleyn—To grynde oure corn, and carye ithamagayne,I pray yowspedes[77]ushethenthat ye may.It shal be done, quod Symkyn, by my fay!What wol ye done while it is in hande?By God, right by the hoper wol I stande,Quod John, and seehow gatesthe corn gas inne;Yitsaugh I never, by my fader kynne,How that the hoper wagges til and fra!Aleyn answerde—John wilyeswa?Than wil I be bynethe, by my crown,And sehow gatesthe mele falles downIn til the trough—that sal be my disport.Quod John—In faith, I is of youre sort—I is as ille a meller asareye.* * * * * *And when the mele is sakked and ybounde,This John goth out and fynt his hors away—And gan to crie, harow, and wele away!—Our hors is lost—Aleyn, for Godde's banes,Stepe on thi feet—come of man attanes!Allas, oure wardeyn has his palfrey lorn!This Aleyn al forgat bothe mele and corn—Al was out of his mynde, his housbonderie.What—whilke way is he goon? he gan to crie.The wyf come lepyngeinat a ren;She saide—Allas, youre hors goth to the fenWith wylde mares, as faste as he may go.Unthank come on this hand thatbandhim so—And he thatbetsholde have knet the reyne.Alas! quod John, Alayn, for Criste's peyne,Lay down thi swerde, and Iwilmyn alswa;I is fulswift—God wat—as is a ra—By Goddeshertehe sal nought scape us bathe.Why ne hadde thou put the capel in the lathe?Il hayl, by God, Aleyn, thouisfonne."
"John highte that oon and Aleyn highte that other:
Ofootoun were thei born that highte Strother,
Ffer in the north I can not tellen where.
This Aleyn maketh redy al his gere—
And on an hors the sak he caste anoon.
Fforth goth Aleyn the clerk and also John,
With good swerde and bokeler by his side.
John knewe the weye—hym nedes no gide;
And atte melle the sak a down he layth.
Aleyn spak first: Al heyle, Symond—in fayth—
How fares thi fayre daughter and thi wyf?
Aleyn welcome—quod Symkyn—be my lyf—
And John also—how now, what do ye here?
By God, quod John—Symond, nede hasnapere.
Hym bihovestoserve him self that has na swayn;
Orellishe is a fool as clerkes sayn.
Oure maunciple I hope he wil be ded—
Swawerkes hymay the wanges in his heed.
And therefore is I come and eek Aleyn—
To grynde oure corn, and carye ithamagayne,
I pray yowspedes[77]ushethenthat ye may.
It shal be done, quod Symkyn, by my fay!
What wol ye done while it is in hande?
By God, right by the hoper wol I stande,
Quod John, and seehow gatesthe corn gas inne;
Yitsaugh I never, by my fader kynne,
How that the hoper wagges til and fra!
Aleyn answerde—John wilyeswa?
Than wil I be bynethe, by my crown,
And sehow gatesthe mele falles down
In til the trough—that sal be my disport.
Quod John—In faith, I is of youre sort—
I is as ille a meller asareye.
* * * * * *
And when the mele is sakked and ybounde,
This John goth out and fynt his hors away—
And gan to crie, harow, and wele away!—
Our hors is lost—Aleyn, for Godde's banes,
Stepe on thi feet—come of man attanes!
Allas, oure wardeyn has his palfrey lorn!
This Aleyn al forgat bothe mele and corn—
Al was out of his mynde, his housbonderie.
What—whilke way is he goon? he gan to crie.
The wyf come lepyngeinat a ren;
She saide—Allas, youre hors goth to the fen
With wylde mares, as faste as he may go.
Unthank come on this hand thatbandhim so—
And he thatbetsholde have knet the reyne.
Alas! quod John, Alayn, for Criste's peyne,
Lay down thi swerde, and Iwilmyn alswa;
I is fulswift—God wat—as is a ra—
By Goddeshertehe sal nought scape us bathe.
Why ne hadde thou put the capel in the lathe?
Il hayl, by God, Aleyn, thouisfonne."
"Excepting the obsolete formshethen(hence),swa,lorn,whilke,alswa,capel—all the above provincialisms are still, more or less, current in the north-west part of Yorkshire.Na,ham(e),fra,banes,attanes,ra,bathe, are pure Northumbrian.Wang(cheek or temple) is seldom heard, except in the phrasewang tooth,dens molaris.Ill, adj., forbad—lathe(barn)—andfond(foolish)—are most frequently and familiarly used in the West Riding, or its immediate borders."
Now this indicates a class of writings which, in the critical history of our local dialect, must be used with great caution and address. An imitation of dialect may be so lax as to let its only merit consist in a deviation from the standard idiom.
In the Lear of Shakspeare we have speeches from a Kentish clown. Is this the dialect of the character, the dialect of the writer, or is it some conventional dialect appropriated to theatrical purposes? I think the latter.
In Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub, one (and more than one of the characters) speaks thus. His residence is the neighbourhood of London, Tottenham Court.
Is it no sand? nor buttermilk? if't be,Ich 'am no zive, or watering-pot, to drawKnots in your 'casions. If you trust me, zo—If not,praforme 't your zelves, 'Cham no man's wife,But resolute Hilts: you'll vind me in the buttry.ActI.Scene1.
Is it no sand? nor buttermilk? if't be,Ich 'am no zive, or watering-pot, to drawKnots in your 'casions. If you trust me, zo—If not,praforme 't your zelves, 'Cham no man's wife,But resolute Hilts: you'll vind me in the buttry.
Is it no sand? nor buttermilk? if't be,
Ich 'am no zive, or watering-pot, to draw
Knots in your 'casions. If you trust me, zo—
If not,praforme 't your zelves, 'Cham no man's wife,
But resolute Hilts: you'll vind me in the buttry.
ActI.Scene1.
ActI.Scene1.
I consider that this represents the dialect of the neighbourhood of London, not on the strength of its being put in the mouth of a man of Tottenham, but from other and independent circumstances.
Not so, however, with the provincialisms of another of Ben Jonson's plays, the Sad Shepherd:—
—— shew your sellTu all the sheepards, bauldly; gaing amang hem.Be mickle in their eye, frequent and fugeand.And, gif they ask ye of Eiarine,Or of these claithes; say that I ga' hem ye,And say no more. I ha' that wark in hand,That web upon the luime, sall gar em thinke.ActII.Scene3.
—— shew your sellTu all the sheepards, bauldly; gaing amang hem.Be mickle in their eye, frequent and fugeand.And, gif they ask ye of Eiarine,Or of these claithes; say that I ga' hem ye,And say no more. I ha' that wark in hand,That web upon the luime, sall gar em thinke.
—— shew your sell
Tu all the sheepards, bauldly; gaing amang hem.
Be mickle in their eye, frequent and fugeand.
And, gif they ask ye of Eiarine,
Or of these claithes; say that I ga' hem ye,
And say no more. I ha' that wark in hand,
That web upon the luime, sall gar em thinke.
ActII.Scene3.
ActII.Scene3.
The scene of the play is Sherwood Forest: the language, however, as far as I may venture an opinion, is not the language from which the present Nottinghamshire dialect has come down.
§ 691.Caution.—Again, the wordold, as applied to language, has a double meaning.
The language of the United States was imported from England into America in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The language of South Australia has been introduced within the present generation. In one sense, the American English is older than the Australian. It was earliest separated from the mother-tongue.
The language, however, of America may (I speak only in the way of illustration, and consequently hypothetically), in the course of time, become the least old of the two; the wordoldbeing taken in another sense. It may change with greater rapidity. It may lose its inflections. It may depart more from the structure of the mother-tongue, and preserve fewer of itsoldelements. In this sense the Australian (provided that it has altered least, and that it retain the greatest number of theoldinflections) will be the older tongue of the two.
Now what may be said of the language of two countries, may be said of the dialects of two districts. The one dialect may run its changes apace; the other alter but by degrees.Hence, of two works in two such dialects, the one would appear older than the other, although in reality the two were cotemporary.
Hence, also, it is a lax expression to say that it is the old forms (the archaisms) that the provincial dialects retain. The provincial forms are archaic only when the current language changes more rapidly than the local idiom. When the local idiom changes fastest, the archaic forms belong to the standard mode of speech.
The provincial forms,goand,slepand, forgoingandsleeping, are archaic. Here the archaism is with the provincial form.
The formsalmost,horses,nought but, contrasted with the provincialismsommost,hosses,nobbot, are archaic. They have not been changed so much as they will be. Here the archaism (that is, the nearer approach to the older form) is with the standard idiom. A sequestered locality is preservative of old forms. But writing and education are preservatives of them also.
§ 692. With these preliminaries a brief notice of the English dialects, in their different stages, may begin.
The districts north of the Humber.—There is so large an amount of specimens of the dialects of this area in the Anglo-Saxon stage of our language, the area itself so closely coincides with the political division of the kingdom of Northumberland, whilst the present arrangement (more or less provisional) of the Anglo-Saxon dialects consists of the divisions of them into the, 1, West-Saxon; 2, Mercian; and 3, Northumbrian, that it is best to give a general view of the whole tract before the minuter details of the different counties which compose them are noticed. Thedatafor the Northumbrian division of the Anglo-Saxon dialects are as follows:—
1.Wanley's Fragment of Cædmon.—The north-east of Yorkshire was the birth-place of the Anglo-Saxon monk Cædmon. Nevertheless, the form in which his poems in full have come down to us is that of a West-Saxon composition. This indicates the probability of the original work having first been re-cast, and afterwards lost. Be this as it may, thefollowing short fragment has been printed by Wanley, from an ancient MS., and by Hickes from Bede, Hist. Eccl., 4, 24, and it is considered, in the first form, to approach or, perhaps, to represent the Northumbrian of the original poem.
Translation.
2.The death-bed verses of Bede.
From a MS. at St. Gallen; quoted by Mr. Kemble,Archæologia, vol. xxviii.
3.The Ruthwell Runes.—The inscription in Anglo-Saxon Runic letters, on the Ruthwell Cross, is thus deciphered and translated by Mr. Kemble:—
"The dialect of these lines is that of Northumberland in the seventh, eighth, and even ninth centuries. The first peculiarity is in theæforein the oblique cases, and which I have observed in the cotemporary MS. of Cuðberht's letter at St. Gallen. This, which is strictly organic, and represents the uncorrupted Gothic genitive in-as, and dative in-a, as well as the Old Saxon forms of the substantive, is evidence of great antiquity. But that which is, perhaps, the most characteristic of the Northumbrian dialect is the formation of the infinitive in-aand-æ, instead of-an(hældæ,gistiga). The Durham Book has, I believe, throughout but one single verb, which makes the infinitive in-an, and that is the anomalous wordbean=to be; evenwosaandwiorthafollowing the common rule. The wordungketis another incontrovertible proof of extreme antiquity, having, to the best of my knowledge, never been found but in this passage. It is the dual of the first personal pronounIc, and corresponds to the very rare dual of the second personal pronounincit, which occurs twice in Cædmon."[78]
4.The Cotton Psalter.—This is a Latin Psalter in the Cotton collection, accompanied by an Anglo-Saxon interlineation. Place uncertain. Time, ninth century or earlier. The following points of difference between this and the West-Saxon are indicated by Mr. Garnett, Phil. Soc. No. 27.
5.The Durham Gospels—Quatuor Evangelia Latine, ex translatione B. Hieronymi, cum glossâ interlineatâ Saxonica.Nero,D. 4.
Matthew, cap. 2.
6.The Rituale Ecclesiæ Dunhelmensis.—Edited for the Surtees Society by Mr. Stevenson. Place: neighbourhood of Durham. Time:A.D.970. Differences between the Psalter and Ritual:—
a.The form for the first person is in the Psalter generally-u. In the Ritual it is generally-o. In West Saxon,-e.
Psalter.—Getreow-u, I believe;cleopi-u, I call;sell-u, I give;ondred-u, I fear;ageld-u, I pay;getimbr-u, I build. Forms in-o;sitt-o, I sit;drinc-o, I drink.
Ritual.—Feht-o, I fight;wuldrig-o, I glory. The ending in-uis rarer.
b.In the West Saxon the plural present of verbs ends in-að:we lufi-að,ge lufi-að,hi lufi-að. The Psalter also exhibits this West Saxon form. But the plurals of the Ritualend in-s: as,bidd-as=we pray;giwoed-es=put on;wyrc-as=do.
c.The infinitives of verbs end in the West Saxon in-an, ascwed-an=to say. So they do in the Psalter. But in the Ritual the-nis omitted, and the infinitive ends simply in-a:cuoetha=to say;inngeonga=to enter.
d.The oblique cases and plurals of substantives in West Saxon end in-an: asheortan=heart's;heortan=hearts. So they do in the Psalter. But in the Ritual the-nis omitted, and the word ends simply in-aor-e; asnome=of a name(West Saxonnam-an);hearta=hearts.
7.The Rushworth Gospels.—Place, Harewood in Wharfdale, Yorkshire. Time, according to Wanley, the end of the ninth century.
Here observe—
1. That the Ruthwell inscription gives us a sample of the so-called Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon, and that as it is spoken in Scotland,i.e., in Galloway. For the bearings of this see Part II., c. 3.
2. That the Rushworth Gospels take us as far south as the West Riding of Yorkshire.
3. That there are no specimens from any Cumberland, Westmoreland, or North Lancashire localities, these being, most probably, exclusively Celtic.
§ 693. The most general statements concerning this great section of the Anglo-Saxon, is that—
1. It prefers the slenderer and more vocalic to the broader and more diphthongal forms.
2. The sounds ofkands, to those ofchandsh.
3. The forms without the prefixge-, to those with them. Nevertheless the formge-cenned(=natus) occurs in the first line of the extract from the Durham Gospels.
§ 694. The Old and Middle English MSS. from this quarter are numerous; falling into two classes:
1. Transcriptions with accommodation from works composed southwards. Here the characteristics of the dialect are not absolute.
2. Northern copies of northern compositions. Here the characteristics of the dialect are at the maximum. Sir Tristram is one of the most important works of this class; and in the wider sense of the termNorthumbrian, it is a matter of indifference on which side of the Border it was composed. See§ 190.
§ 695. Taking the counties in detail, we have—
Northumberland.—Northern frontier, East Scotland; the direction of the influence being from South to North, rather than from North to South,i. e., Berwickshire and the Lothians being Northumbrian and English, rather than Northumberland Scotch.
West frontier Celtic—the Cumberland and Westmoreland Britons having been encroached upon by the Northumbrians of Northumberland.
Present dialect.—Believed to be nearly uniform over the counties of Northumberland and Durham; but changing in character in North Yorkshire, and in Cumberland and Westmoreland.
The Anglo-Saxon immigration considered to have been Angle (so-called) rather than Saxon.
Danish admixture—Very great. Possibly, as far as the marks that it has left on the language, greater than in any other part ofEngland.[79]—See§ 152.
Cumberland, Westmoreland, North Lancashire.—Anglo-Saxon elements introduced from portions of Northumbria rather than directly from the Continent.
Celtic language persistent until a comparatively late though undetermined period.
Northern frontier, West-Scotland—the direction of the influence being from Scotland to England, rather thanvice versâ; Carlisle being more of a Scotch town than Berwick.
Specimens of the dialects in the older stages, few and doubtful.
Topographical nomenclature characterized by the preponderance of compounds of-thwaite; asBraithwaite, &c.
NorthLancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, "exhibit many Anglian[80]peculiarities, which may have been occasioned in some degree by the colonies in the south, planted in that district by William Rufus (Saxon Chronicle,A.D.1092.) A comparison of Anderson's ballads with Burns's songs, will show how like Cumbrian is to Scottish, but how different. We believe that Weber is right in referring the romance of Sir Amadas to this district. The mixture of the Anglian formsgwo,gwon,bwons,boyd-word(in pure Northumbrian),gae,gane,banes,bod-worde, with the northern terms,tynt,kent,bathe,mare, and many others of the same class, could hardly have occurred in any other part of England."[81]
Yorkshire, North and part of West Riding.—The Anglo-Saxon specimens of this area have been noticed in§ 692.
The extract from Chaucer is also from this district.
The modern dialects best known are—
1.The Craven.—This, in northern localities, "becomes slightly tinctured with Northumbrian."—Quart. Rev.ut supra.
2.The Cleveland.—With not only Northumbrian, but even Scotch characters. Quart. Rev.ut supra.
Danish admixture—Considerable.
All these dialects, if rightly classified, belong to the Northumbrian division of the Angle branch of the Anglo-Saxon language; whilst, if theprimâ facieview of their affiliation or descent, be the true one, they are the dialects of§ 692, in their modern forms.
§ 696. The classification which gives this arrangement now draws a line of distinction at the river Ribble, in Lancashire, which separatesSouthfrom North Lancashire; whilst in Yorkshire, the East Riding, and that part of the West which does not belong to the Wapentake of Claro, belong to the class which is supposed to exclude the previous and contain the following dialects:—
§ 697.South Lancashire and Cheshire.—Sub-varieties ofthe same dialects, but not sub-varieties of the previous ones.
The plural form in-enis a marked character of this dialect—at least of the Lancashire portion.
Supposed original population—Angle rather than Saxon.
Original political relations—Mercian rather than Northumbrian.
These last two statements apply to all the forthcoming areas north of Essex. The latter is a simple historical fact; the former supposes an amount of difference between the Angle and the Saxon which has been assumed rather than proved; or, at any rate, which has never been defined accurately.
The elements of uncertainty thus developed, will be noticed in§§ 704-708. At present it is sufficient to say, that if the South Lancashire dialect has been separated from the north, on the score of its having beenMercianrather thanNorthumbrian, the principle of classification has been based uponpoliticalrather thanphilologicalgrounds; and as such is exceptionable.
§ 698.Shropshire, Staffordshire, and West Derbyshire.—Supposing the South Lancashire and Cheshire to be the Mercian (which we must remember is apoliticalterm), the Shropshire, Staffordshire, andWestDerbyshire are Mercian also; transitional, however, in character.
Shropshire and Cheshire have a Celtic frontier.
Here, also, both thea prioriprobabilities and the known facts make the Danish intermixture at itsminimum.
§ 699.East Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.—Here the language is considered to change from the mode of speech of which the South Lancashire is the type, to the mode of speech of which the Norfolk and Suffolk dialect is the type.
Danish elements may now be expected, Derbyshire being the most inland Danish area.
Original political relations—Mercian.
Specimens of the dialects in their older stages, preeminently scanty.
Hallamshire.—This means the parts about Sheffieldextended so as to include that portion of the West Riding of Yorkshire which stands over from§ 696. Probably belonging to the same group with theSouthLancashire.
East Riding of Yorkshire.—It is not safe to say more of this dialect than that its affinities are with the dialects spoken to thenorthrather than with those spoken to the south of it,i.e., that of—
Lincolnshire.—Frontier—On the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire frontier, passing into the form of speech of those counties. Pretty definitely separated from that of Norfolk. Less so from that of North Cambridgeshire. Scarcely at all from that of Huntingdonshire, and North Northamptonshire.
Danish admixture.—The number of towns and villages ending in the characteristic Danish termination-by, at itsmaximum; particularly in the neighbourhood of Spilsby.
Traditions Danish,e. g., that of Havelok the Dane, at Grimsby.
Physiognomy, Danish.
Language not Danish in proportion to the other signs of Scandinavian intermixture.
Specimens of the dialects in its older form—Havelok[82]the Dane (?), Manning's Chronicle (supposing the MS. to have been transcribed in the county where the author was born).
Provincial peculiarities (i.e., deviations from the written language) nearly at theminimum.
Huntingdonshire, North Northamptonshire, and Rutland.—Anglo-Saxon period.—The latter part of the Saxon Chronicle was written at Peterboro. Probably, also, the poems of Helena and Andreas. Hence, this area is that of theoldMercian in its most typical form; whilst South Lancashire is that of thenew—a practical instance of the inconvenience of applyingpoliticalterms to philological subjects.
§ 700.Norfolk, Suffolk, and the fen part of Cambridgeshire.—Here the population is pre-eminently Angle. The political character East-Anglian rather than Mercian.
Specimens of the dialects in the Anglo-Saxon stage.—The Natale St. Edmundi, in Thorpe's Analecta Anglo-Saxonica.
Early English—The Promtuarium Parvulorum.
§ 701.Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and South Northamptonshire.—Mercian (so-called) rather than West-Saxon (so-called).
Probably, approaching the written language of England more closely than is the case with the dialects spoken to the south of them.
Certainly, approaching the written language of England less closely than is the case with the dialect of Huntingdonshire, North Northamptonshire, and South Lincolnshire.
§ 702. These remarks have the following import. They bear upon the question of the origin of thewrittenlanguage of England.
Mr. Guest first diverted the attention of scholars from the consideration of the West Saxon of the chief Anglo-Saxon writers as the mother-dialect of the present English, to the Mercian; so turning their attention from the south to the centre of England.
The general principle that acentrallocality has thea priorilikelihood in its favour, subtracts nothing from the value of his suggestion.
Neither does the fact of the nearest approach to the written language being found about the parts in question; since the doctrine to which the present writer commits himself, viz., that in the parts between Huntingdon and Stamford, the purest English is most generally spoken, is, neither universally recognised, nor yet part of Mr. Guest's argument.
Mr. Guest's arguments arose out of the evidence of the MSS. of the parts in question.
That the dialect most closely allied to the dialect (or dialects) out of which the present literary language of England is developed, is to be found either in Northamptonshire or the neighbouring counties is nearly certain. Mr. Guest looks for it on the western side of that county (Leicestershire); the present writer on the eastern (Huntingdonshire).
§ 703. It is now convenient to pass from the dialects ofthe water-system of the Ouse, Nene, and Welland to those spoken along the lower course of the Thames.
These, to a certain extent, may be dealt with like those to the north of the Humber. Just as the latter were, in the first instance, and in the more general way, thrown into a single class (the Northumbrian), so may the dialects in question form the provisional centre of another separate class. For this we have no very convenient name. The dialects, however, which it contains agree in the following points.
1. These are considered to be derived from that variety of the Anglo-Saxon which is represented by the chief remains of the Anglo-Saxon literature,i.e., the so-called standard or classical language of Alfred, Ælfric, the present text of Cædmon, &c.
2. About half theirpresent easternarea consists of thecountiesending in-sex; viz., Sussex, Essex, and Middlesex.
3. Nearly thewholeof theiroriginalarea consisted inkingdoms(or sub-kingdoms) ending in-sex; viz., the districts just enumerated, and the kingdom of Wessex.
Hence they are—
a.—Considered with reference to their literary history.—They are dialects whereof the literary development began early, but ceased at the time of the Norman Conquest, being superseded by that of the central dialects (Mercianso-called) of the island. The truth of this view depends on the truth of Mr. Guest's doctrine noticed in page555. If true, it is by no means an isolated phænomenon. In Holland the present Dutch is the descendant of some dialect (or dialects) which was uncultivated in the earlier periods of the language; whereas the Old Frisian, which wasthenthe written language, isnowrepresented by a provincial dialect only.
"In speaking of the Anglo-Saxon language, scholars universally intend that particular form of speech in which all the principal monuments of our most ancient literature are composed, and which, with very slight variations, is found in Beowulf and Cædmon, in the Exeter and Vercelli Codices, in the translation of the Gospels and Homilies, and in the worksof Ælfred the Great. For all general purposes this nomenclature is sufficiently exact; and in this point of view, the prevalent dialect, which contains the greatest number of literary remains, may be fairly called the Anglo-Saxon language, of which all varying forms were dialects. It is, however, obvious that this is in fact an erroneous way of considering the subject; the utmost that can be asserted is, that Ælfred wrote his own language, viz., that which was current in Wessex; and that this, having partly through the devastations of heathen enemies in other parts of the island, partly through the preponderance of the West-Saxon power and extinction of the other royal families, become the language of the one supreme court, soon became that of literature and the pulpit also."—Kemble. Phil. Trans. No. 35.
b.—Considered in respect to their political relations.—Subject to the influence of theWessexportion of the so-called Heptarchy, rather than to theMercian,
c.—Considered ethnologically—Saxonrather thanAngle. The exceptions that lie against this class will be noticed hereafter.
§ 704.Kent—Theoretically, Kent, is Jute rather than Saxon, and Saxon rather than Angle.
Celtic elements, probably, at theminimum.
Predominance of local terms compounded of the word-hurst; as, Penshurst, Staplehurst, &c.
Frisian hypothesis.—The following facts and statements (taken along with those of§§ 15-20, and§§ 129-131), pre-eminently require criticism.
1. Hengest the supposed father of the Kentish kingdom is a Frisian hero—Kemble'sSächsische Stamtaffel.
2. The dialect of the Durham Gospels and Ritual contain a probably Frisian form.
3. "The country called by the Anglo-Saxons Northumberland, and which may loosely be said to have extended from the Humber to Edinburgh, and from the North Sea to the hills of Cumberland, was peopled by tribes of Angles. Such, at least, is the tradition reported by Beda, who adds that Kent was first settled by Jutes. Who these Jutes were isnot clearly ascertained, but from various circumstances it may be inferred that there was at least a considerable admixture of Frisians amongst them. Hengest, the supposed founder of the Kentish kingdom, is a Frisian hero, and Jutes, 'ëotenas,' is a usual name for the Frisians in Bëówulf. Beda, it is true, does not enumerate Frisians among the Teutonic races by which England was colonized, but this omission is repaired by the far more valuable evidence of Procopius, who, living at the time of some great invasion of Britain by the Germans, expressly numbers Frisians among the invaders. Now the Anglo-Saxon traditions themselves, however obscurely they may express it, point to a close connection between Kent and Northumberland: the latter country, according to these traditions, was colonized from Kent, and for a long time received its rulers or dukes from that kingdom. Without attaching to this legend more importance than it deserves, we may conclude that it asserts an original communion between the tribes that settled in the two countries; and consequently, if any Frisic influence is found to operate in the one, it will be necessary to inquire whether a similar action can be detected in the other. This will be of some moment hereafter, when we enter upon a more detailed examination of the dialect. The most important peculiarity in which the Durham Evangeles and Ritual differ from the Psalter is the form of the infinitive mood in verbs. This in the Durham books is, with exception of one verb, beán,esse, invariably formed in-a, not in-an, the usual form in all the other Anglo-Saxon dialects. Now this is also a peculiarity of the Frisic, and of the Old Norse, and is found in no other Germanic tongue; it is then an interesting inquiry whether the one or the other of these tongues is the origin of this peculiarity; whether, in short, it belongs to the old, the original Frisic form which prevailed in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, or whether it is owing to Norse influence, acting in the ninth and tenth, through the establishment of Danish invaders and a Danish dynasty in the countries north of the Humber."—Kemble. Phil. Trans. No. 35.
The details necessary for either the verification or the overthrow of the doctrine of a similarity of origin betweenportions of the Northumbrian[83]and portions of the Kentish population have yet to be worked out.
So have thedifferentiæbetween the dialects ofKent, and the dialects of Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, and Wessex.
Probable Anglo-Saxon of Kent.—Codex Diplomaticus, No. 191.
§ 705.Sussex.—The characteristics are involved in those of Kent—thus, if Kent be simply Saxon the two counties have the same ethnological relation; whilst if Kent be Frisian or Jute(?) Sussex may be either like or unlike.
Hampshire.—Theoretically, Saxon rather than Angle, and West Saxon (Wessex) rather than south, east, or Middle-Saxon.
Jute elements in either the Hants or Isle of Wight dialects, hitherto undiscovered. Probably, non-existent.
Present dialect certainly not the closest representative of the classical Anglo-Saxon,i. e., the so-calledWestSaxon.
Berkshire.—Present dialect, probably, the closest representative of the classical Anglo-Saxon.
Cornwall.—Celtic elements at themaximum.
Devonshire and West Somerset.—Present dialect strongly marked by the use ofzfors(Zomerzet=Somerset).
Celtic elements probably considerable.
Worcestershire.—The language of the Anglo-Saxon period is characterized by the exclusive, or nearly exclusive, use ofsin the formsusseandussesforureandures. See Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 95 and 97.
The affiliation of the present dialect has yet to be investigated.
North Glostershire.—Politically, both North Gloster and Worcestershire are Mercian rather than West-Saxon.
Now the language of Layamon was North Gloster.
And one at least of the MSS. is supposed to represent this language.
Nevertheless its character is said to be West Saxon rather than Mercian.
What does this prove? Not that the West Saxon dialectextended into Mercia, but that a political nomenclature is out of place in philology.
The Welsh frontier.—Herefordshire, &c.—Celtic elements. General character of the dialects, probably, that of the counties immediately to the east of them.
Essex.—Theoretically, Saxon rather than Angle. No such distinction, however, is indicated by the ascertained characteristic of the Essex dialects as opposed to the East Anglian, Suffolk, and the Mercian.
Hertfordshire.—I am not aware of any thing that distinguishes the South Hertfordshire form of speech from those of—
Middlesex.—Here, as far as there are any characteristics at all, they are those ofEssex. The use ofvforw, attributed (and partially due) to Londoners, occurs—not because there is any such thing as a London dialect, but because London is a town on the Essex side of Middlesex.
Surrey.—The name (Suð rige=southern kingdom) indicates an original political relation with the partsnorthrather thansouthof the Thames.
The evidence of the dialect is, probably, the other way.
§ 706.Supposed East-Anglian and Saxon frontier.—For the area just noticed there are two lines of demarcation—one geographical, and one ethnological.
a.Geographical.—The river Thames.
b.Ethnological.—The line which separates Middlesexand Essex(so-calledSaxon localities) from Herts and Suffolk (so-calledAngle localities).
Of these the first line involves an undeniable fact; the second a very doubtful one. No evidence has been adduced in favour of disconnecting Saxon Essex from Anglian Suffolk, nor yet for connecting it with Sussexand Wessex. The termination-sexis an undoubted fact; the difference between the Saxons and Angles which it is supposed to indicate is an assumption.
§ 707. The dialects of the remaining counties have, probably, the transitional characters, indicated by their geographical position.
Dorset—Hants and Somerset.
Wilts.—Hants, Dorset, Somerset, Berks.
Buckingham, Beds, Northampton.—These connect the two most convenientprovisionalcentres of the so-called West-Saxon of Alfred, &c., and mother-dialect of the present written English, viz.: Wantage and Stamford (or Huntingdon); and in doing this they connect dialects which, although placed in separate classes (West-Saxon and Mercian), were, probably, more alike than many subdivisions of the same group.
To investigate the question as to the Mercian or West-Saxon origin of the present written English without previously stating whether the comparison be made between such extreme dialects as those of the New Forest, and the neighbourhood of Manchester, or such transitional ones as those of Windsor and Northampton is to reduce a real to a mere verbal discussion.
Warwickshire, Staffordshire.—From their central position, probably transitional to both the north and south, and the east and west groups.
Celtic elements increasing.
Danish elements decreasing. Perhaps at theminimum.
§ 708. The exceptions suggested in§§ 703, 704, lie not only against the particular group called West-Saxon, but (as may have been anticipated) against all classifications which assume either—
1. A coincidence between the philological divisions of the Anglo-Saxon language, and the political division of the Anglo-Saxon territory.
2. Any broad difference between the Angles and the Saxons.
3. The existence of a Jute population.
§ 709.English dialects not in continuity with the mother-tongue.—Of these the most remarkable are those of—
1.Little England beyond Wales.—In Pembrokeshire, and a part of Glamorganshire, the language is English rather than Welsh. The following extracts from Higden have effected the belief that this is the result of a Flemish colony. "Sedet Flandrenses, tempore Regis Henrici Primi in magna copia juxta Mailros ad orientalem Angliæ plagam habitationem pro tempore accipientes, septimam in insula gentem fecerunt: jubente tamen eodem rege, ad occidentalem Walliæ partem, apud Haverford, sunt translati. Sicque Britannia ... his ... nationibus habitatur in præsenti ... Flandrensibus in West Wallia."
A little below, however, we learn that these Flemings aredistinguishedby their origin only, and not by their language:—"Flandrenses vero qui in Occidua Walliæ incolunt, dimissa jam barbarie, Saxonice satis loquuntur."—Higden, edit. Gale, p. 210.
On the other hand, Mr. Guest has thrown a reasonable doubt upon this inference; suggesting the probability of its having been simply English. The following vocabulary collected by the Rev. J. Collins,[84]in the little peninsula of Gower, confirms this view. It contains no exclusively Flemish elements.