Old English Kingdoms and Dialects

The Germanic tribes founded seven separate kingdoms, which during four centuries struggled with one another for supremacy. They were Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria, which consisted of two parts, Bernicia and Deira. In this prolonged struggle it was sometimes Kent, or Northumbria and sometimes Mercia that would take the upper hand (pre-written history) and Wessex (the period of written records) (Note 12). In 828 the struggle came to an end with the decisive victory of Wessex. Ecgbert, king of Wessex, subdued Mercia and Northumbria. Since then kings of Wessex became kings of England, and the capital of Wessex, Winchester, became the capital of England.

The Germanic tribes spoke closely related tribal dialects belonging to the West Germanic subgroup. Their common origin and their separation from other related tongues as well as their joint evolution in Britain transformed them eventually into a single tongue, English. Yet, at the early stages of their development in Britain the dialects remained disunited. On the one hand, the OE dialects acquired certain common features which distinguished them from continental Germanic tongues; on the other hand, they displayed growing regional divergence. The feudal system was setting in, and the dialects were entering a new phase; tribal dialectal division was superceded by geographical division, in other words, tribal dialects were transformed into local or regional dialects.

There were four main dialects spoken at that time in Britain: Kentish, the dialect developed from the tongue spoken by the Jutes and Frisians; West Saxon, the main dialect of the Saxon group, spoken in the rest of England south of the Thames and the Bristol Channel, excluding Cornwall and Wales, where Celtic tongues were spoken. Other Saxon dialects have not survived in written form and are not known to modern scholars; Mercian, spoken by the Angles between the Humber and the Thames; Northumbrian, another Anglian dialect, from the Humber north to the river Forth (hence the name – North-Humbrian).

The boundaries between the dialects were uncertain and probably movable. The dialects passed into one another imperceptibly and dialectal forms were freely borrowed from one dialect into another. Throughout this period the dialects enjoyed relative equality; none of them was the dominant form of speech, each being the main type used over a limited area.

Scandinavian Raids

In the 8^th c. raiders from Scandinavia (the Danes) made their first plundering attacks on England. The struggle of the English against the Scandinavians lasted over 300 years, in the course of which period more than half of England was occupied by the invaders and reconquered again. The Scandinavians subdued Northumbria and East Anglia, ravaged the eastern part of Mercia, and advanced on Wessex. Like their predecessors, the West Germanic tribes, they came in large numbers to settle in the new areas. They founded many towns and villages in northern England with a mixed population made up of the English and the Danes. Since the languages of the conquerors and the conquered were similar, linguistic amalgamation was easy (fisc – fiscr).

Wessex stood at the head of the resistance. Under King Alfred of Wessex, one of the greatest figures in English history, by the peace treaty of 878 England was divided into two parts: the north-eastern half was called Danelag(Danelaw) and the south-western part united under the leadership of Wessex. The reconquest of Danish territories was carried on successfully by Alfred’s successors, but in the late 10^th century Danish raids were renewed again; they reached a new climax in the early 11^th century headed by Swayn and Canute (Knut). The attacks were followed by demands for regular payments of large sums of money called Danegeld (Danish money) collected from many districts and towns. In 1017 Canute was acknowledged as king, and England became part of a great northern empire, comprising Denmark and Norway. On Canute’s death (1035) his kingdom broke up and England regained political independence; by that time it was a single state divided into 6 earldoms.