2. Middle English dialects. The London dialect

During the Middle English period (roughly 1100–1500) the English language is characterized by a complete lack of a standard variety. By contrast, during much of the Old English period, the West Saxon dialect had enjoyed a position as a written standard, and the transition to Early Modern English is marked by the emergence of the middle class dialect of London as the new standard variety of the language.

The lack of a written standard in Middle English is a natural consequence of the low status of English during this period. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the ruling classes spoke (Norman) French, while English lived on as the spoken language of the lower classes. In the absence of a high-prestige variety of English which might serve as a target for writers of English, each writer simply used his own variety of the language.

During the Old English (OE) period three major dialect groups can be recognized :

• West Saxon, in the south-west of England;

• Kentish;

• Anglian, roughly speaking north of the Thames. Anglian can be further subdivided into Mercian and Northumbrian, the Humber forming the boundary between the two dialect areas.

The dialects of

Old English Middle English

Anglian:

Northumbrian Northern

Mercian East Midland

West Midland

West Saxon South-western

Kentish South-eastern

The Middle English dialects can be divided into five major groups:

• South-Western (SW) (or simply Southern), a continuation of OE West Saxon;

• South-Eastern (SE) (or Kentish, though it extended into neighbouring counties as well), a continuation of OE Kentish;

• East Midland (EM), in the eastern part of the OE Mercian area;

• West Midland (WM), in the western part of the OE Mercian area;

• Northern (N), north of the Humber.

In general, southern Middle English dialects tend to be more conservative (i.e. preserve more of the phonological and morphological features of Old English) and northern dialects more progressive. The same difference can be discerned between the southern and northern parts of the East and West Midland dialect areas. This is particularly noticeable in the case of the West Midland dialect, which is primarily preserved in two major text groups. One of these is early (c. 1220) and from the southern part of the West Midland area (represented here by Ancrene Riwle); the other one is later (c. 1375) and from the northern part of the West Midland area (represented here by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). The language variants of the two text groups differ in many respects, the early group having much in common with the South-Western dialect, the later group having more in common with the Northern dialect. Features representing the two forms of the West Midland dialect are separated by a semicolon in the presentation of forms and dialect features below.

Middle English dialect differences can be of three types:

- phonological: the recognition of the Middle English dialects listed above is primarily based on phonological differences, i.e. on the extent to which various sound changes took place before or during the Middle English period in different parts of England.

- morphological: clear dialect differences can be found in the forms of the verb be, in present tense verb inflexion, and in various pronominal forms. See further §§97-99.

- lexical: the proportion of words of Scandinavian origin varies considerably, being highest in texts from areas with Scandinavian settlements during the Old English period (the Danelaw), i.e. chiefly the East Midland and Northern areas. By contrast, French loanwords, which entered the English language on a large scale only after the upper classes started using English again, do not serve to distinguish Middle English dialects. Instead, the proportion of such words varies with time, being higher in later texts. Information about the origin of individual words in the texts will be found in the glossaries.

A third possible source of inconsistencies is the great amount of orthographical variability that prevails throughout the Middle English period. Spelling could vary considerably, even within individual texts (the Ormulum is exceptionally consistent in this respect). Thus, what looks like evidence of phonological variation may be no more than the result of variation in spelling. Typical written representations of Old and Middle English speech sounds are listed here. The dialect division which evolved in Early ME was on the whole preserved in later periods. In the 14th and 15th c. we find the same grouping of local dialects: the Southern group, including Kentish and the South-Western dialects (the South-Western group was a continuation of the OE Saxon dialects), the Midland or Central (corresponding to the OE Mercian dialect – is divided into West Midland and East Midland as two main areas) and the Northern group (had developed from OE Northumbrian). And yet the relations between them were changing. The most important event in the changing linguistic situation was the rise of the London dialect as the prevalent written form of language. The history of the London dialect reveals the sources of the literary language in Late ME and also the main source and basis of the Literary Standard, both in its written and spoken forms. The Early ME written records made in London – beginning with the PROCLAMATION of 1258 – show that the dialect of London was fundamentally East Saxon. Later records indicate that the speech of London was becoming more fixed, with East Midland features gradually prevailing over the Southern features.