Northern Subject Rule

[David L. White]

        As noted by Klehmola (and Venneman), one of the more striking
evidences for Brtittonic influence in English is the so-called "Northern
Subject Rule".  According to this, verbs with 3rd person plural subjects
show 3rd person agreement if no subject pronoun (which in English must
always by "they") is expressed.  Thus "They peel them and boils them".  This
sort of construal is very rare among languages of the world, and apart from
Hebrew and Arabic occurs, according to Klehmola) only in Welsh, Cornish, and
Breton.  In English, it occurs in the North, in more or less the same area
as the Brittonic counting systems noted, from the ME period on, though of
course (unlike most of the other features that attract attention) it has
never become incorporated into Standard English.  Since the evolution of
this rule in English cannot be convincingly motivated on internal grounds,
it is almost certainly due to Brittonic sub-stratal influence.  Whatever
non-linguistic arguments have been used to "prove" that there cannot have
been any substantial Brittonic survival in the North are therefore wrong.

                                                            Dr. David L. White