LL-L "Language varieties" 2003.05.31 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 31.May.2003 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Gary Taylor <gary_taylor_98 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language Varieties

Hi all, hi Peter

You asked about Middle English:

"In this the period known as "Middle English" there is
a standardising to London English. Could any one tell me if the areas to
the Midlands and north retain their dialect
differences? Are there distinct Lowlands Scots influences on English in
these
northern areas that were not seen in the southern
Kentish/Jute and London areas?"

Interesting you should ask that now - I'm just in the
process of reading about the development of English
from Old English to Modern Standard English.

In the Middle English periods there were a number of
different features - a few distinguishing ones are as
follows:

South West : Voicing of fricatives - thus 'vox' for
'fox' (This is still partly alive but is dying out -
probably only the most conservative speakers still
retain this). It accounts for modern English 'fox'
versus 'vixen' - the latter being from this dialect.

Kent : Old English y, ea and long æ all developed into
'e' thus texts have a lot more 'e's in them than other
dialects. This accounts for the pronunciation of
'bury' with an e (even though the spelling is from the
Western dialects). This feature has died out due to
the influence of London English in this area.

Northern : (Including North England and Scots) In the
third person singular of verbs there was an '(i)s'
which spread and became the norm in the standard (the
rest of the country had -eth).
Third person plural pronouns were from Danish loan
words - thus modern 'they', 'them' and 'their' (In the
South it was largely forms like 'hie', 'hem' etc.)
This Northern feature also spread to become the norm
in the standard.
These two features were progressive - but it also
retained the conservative Old English long 'a' - the
rest of the country changed this to an 'o'. This is
still a feature of Northern dialects - although in
England I think it's dying out - still very much alive
in Scots though - thus forms like 'hame' instead of
'home'.
Scots had other developments too which have largely
been carried through to modern Scots (due to its
continual written tradition - as separate from the
related dialects over the border in England) - whereas
a lot of the North England features have changed or
are changing towards a standard (based on educated
London).

The Midlands formed two dialects - an East and a West.
These were largely intermediate stages between
Southern and Northern with some features of both. In
the West Old English 'y' was written 'u' and retained
the old pronunciation [y] whereas in the East it was
pronounced [i]. In the North West Midlands the third
person with -s had already started to be evident. The
[y] pronunciation has now died out.

York dialect was a mixture between Northern and
Southern - mainly Northern features, but Old English
long 'a' had become 'o' as in Southern dialects.

And London dialect was mainly an East Midland dialect
with features of Kent and South West thrown in. In
London 'they' was already 'they' (unlike East Modland
where it was still 'hie', but 'them' and 'their' were
still 'hem' and 'her' - compare Chaucer.

The vocabulary of the North also contained a lot of
Danish loan words which are retained in modern
dialects, but never spread to the South.

There are a number of other features in modern English
dialects which are due to later developments, eg
conservative 'singgingg' in the West Midlands - this
used to be the norm, and the development of 'u' to
standard English 'up' (as opposed to 'put' - which
occured in the South and Scotland, but not in the
North). Also certain areas still retain the 'r' in all
positions - including after vowels - usually
associated with the South West now, but there are
pockets elsewhere. r-less accents occured fairly late
which is why American English largely retains the r,
whereas Australian, New Zealand and South African
English do not - as they were settled by English
speakers later.

Hope this answers some of your questions

Gary

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