Northern English. Midland English. Southern English.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Anglian. Anglian. Saxon. Kentish.
------- ------- ----- -------
Caedmon, 660. (Charter Glosses), 736-800. (Charter Glosses), 692-780. (Charter Glosses), 679-770.
Beda, 734. Beowulf(?) (Laws of Ine, 700) Charters_, 805-840.
Leiden Riddle_. Mercian. Literary West-Saxon Lorica Prayer.
Cynewulf, c. 750. ------- or Anglo-Saxon. Psalm 50, c. 860.
Old Northumbrian. (Charter Glosses), 805--. Charter, 847.
---------------- Vespasian Ps., c. 825. Alfred, 885.
Durham Glosses, 950-975. Charters, 836-840. Judith, 900-910.
Lindisfarne Gospel Gloss. Lorica Glosses. Poems in O.E. Chron., 937-979.
Rushworth Gloss, St. Battle of Maldon, 993.
Matthew, ? 975-1000. Aelfric, 1000.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Peterborough Chronicle Wulfstan, 1016.
1123-31. O.E. Chron., Parker MS.
ends, 1070.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Early Northern English Early Midland. Early Southern and Middle Kentish.
and Early Scotch. ------------- S.W. English --------------
---------------------- Chronicle, 1154. ------------------ Hatton Gospels, 1170.
Ormulum, 1200. Cotton Homilies, 1160. Kentish Sermons, 1250.
Genesis & Exodus, c. 1250. Layamon, 1203.
Middle English. Ancren Riwle, 1220.
-------------- --------------------------
Cursor Mundi (?). Harrowing of Hell, 1280. Shoreham, 1320.
Hampole, 1350. Robt. of Brunne, 1303-30. Procl. of Henry III., 1258. Ayenbite, 1340.
Barbour, 1375. Pearl, Sir Gawayne. Robt. Gloucester, 1300.
Mandeville (Northern Wycliffe. Trevisa, 1387.
version) Wyntoun, 1420. Chaucer, Gower.
Townley Mysteries. Lydgate.
Henryson, 1470. Caxton, 1477-90.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Middle Sccotch. Tudor English. South-Western Dialect. Kentish Dialect.
-------------- ------------- --------------------- ---------------
Dunbar, 1500--. Tyndal, 1525. Cornishman in A. Boorde, (in Sir. T. More.)
Lyndesay. Homilies, 1547-63. 1547. (Edgar in Lear, 1605.)
Archbp. Hamilton, 1552. Shakspere, 1590-1613. Gammer Gurton, 1575. (in Ben Jonson.)
James VI., 1590. King James's Bible, 1611. Somersetsh. Man's Complaynt, Kentish Wooing Song, 1611
Montgomery, c. 1600. Milton, 1626-71. c. 1645.
Sir W. Mure, 1617-57. Dryden, 1663-1700.
Yorkshire Dialogue, 1673.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Modern Scotch and Current English. Exmoor Scolding, 1746. Nairne, Kentish Tales,
North Eng. Dial. --------------- Barnes, 1844. 1700.
----------------- Addison, 1717. Elworthy, 1875-88. Dick and Sal, 1821.
Allan Ramsay, 1717. Johnson, 1750.
Burns, 1790. Coleridge, 1805.
Scott, 1815. Macaulay, 1825.
Ian Maclaren, Barrie, Tennyson, 1830.
Crockett, etc.
The vertical lines represent the four leading forms of
English--_Northern_, _Midland_, _Southern_, and _Kentish_--and the
names occurring down the course of each are those of writers and works
in that form of English at the given date. The thickness of the line
shows the comparative literary position of this form of speech at the
time: _thick_ indicating a _literary language_; _medium_, a _literary
dialect_; _thin_, a _popular dialect_ or _patois_; a _dotted_ line
shows that this period is _unrepresented_ by specimens. The horizontal
lines divide the periods; these (after the first two) refer mainly to
the Midland English; in inflectional decay the Northern English was at
least a century in advance of the Midland, and the Southern nearly as
much behind it.
Beyond the limits of the British Isles, English is the language of
extensive regions, now or formerly colonies. In all these countries the
presence of numerous new objects and new conditions of life has led to
the supplementing of the vocabulary by the adoption of words from native
languages, and special adaptation and extension of the sense of English
words. The use of a common literature, however, prevents the overgrowth
of these local peculiarities, and also makes them more or less familiar
to Englishmen at home. It is only in the older states of the American
Union that anything like a local dialect has been produced; and even
there many of the so-called Americanisms are quite as much archaic
English forms which have been lost or have become dialectal in England
as developments of the American soil.
The steps by which English, from being the language of a few thousand
invaders along the eastern and southern seaboard of Britain, has been
diffused by conquest and colonization over its present area form a
subject too large for the limits of this article. It need only be
remarked that within the confines of Britain itself the process is not
yet complete. Representatives of earlier languages survive in Wales and
the Scottish Highlands, though in neither case can the substitution of
English be very remote. In Ireland, where English was introduced by
conquest much later, Irish is still spoken in patches all over the
country; though English is understood, and probably spoken after a
fashion, almost everywhere. At opposite extremities of Britain, the
Cornish of Cornwall and the Norse dialects of Orkney and Shetland died
out very gradually in the course of the 18th century. The Manx, or
Celtic of Man, is even now in the last stage of dissolution; and in the
Channel Isles the Norman _patois_ of Jersey and Guernsey have largely
yielded to English.
The table on p. 599 (a revision of that brought before the Philological
Society in Jan. 1876) graphically presents the chronological and
dialectal development of English. Various names have been proposed for
the different stages; it seems only necessary to add to those in the
table the descriptive names of Dr Abbott, who has proposed (_How to
Parse_, p. 298) to call the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, the
"Synthetical or Inflexional Period"; the Old English Transition (Late
Anglo-Saxon of Dr Skeat), the "Period of Confusion"; the Early Middle
English, "Analytical Period" (1250-1350); the normal Middle English,
"National Period" (1350-1500); the Tudor English, "Period of Licence";
and the Modern English, "Period of Settlement."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--As the study of English has made immense advances
within the last generation, it is only in works recently published
that the student will find the subject satisfactorily handled. Among
the earlier works treating of the whole subject or parts of it may be
mentioned--_A History of English Rhythms_, by Edwin Guest (London,
1838); the _Philological Essays_ of Richard Garnett (1835-1848),
edited by his son (London, 1859); _The English Language_, by R.G.
Latham (5th ed., London, 1862); _Origin and History of the English
Language_, by G.P. Marsh (revised 1885); _Lectures on the English
Language_, by the same (New York and London, 1863); _Historische
Grammatik der englischen Sprache_, by C.F. Koch (Weimar, 1863, &c.);
_Englische Grammatik_, by Eduard Matzner (Berlin, 1860-1865), (an
English translation by C.J. Grece, LL.B., London, 1874); _The
Philology of the English Tongue_, by John Earle, M.A. (Oxford, 1866,
5th ed. 1892); _Comparative Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language_, by
F.A. March (New York, 1870); _Historical Outlines of English
Accidence_, by the Rev. R. Morris, LL.D. (London, 1873), (new ed. by
Kellner); _Elementary Lessons in Historical English Grammar_, by the
same (London, 1874); _The Sources of Standard English_, by T.L.
Kington Oliphant, M.A. (London, 1873); _Modern English_, by F. Hall
(London, 1873); _A Shakespearian Grammar_, by E.A. Abbott, D.D.
(London, 1872); _How to Parse_, by the same (London, 1875); _Early
English Pronunciation_, &c., by A.J. Ellis (London, 1869); _The
History of English Sounds_, by Henry Sweet (London, 1874, 2nd ed.
1888); as well as many separate papers by various authors in the
_Transactions of the Philological Society_, and the publications of
the Early English Text Society.
Among more recent works are: M. Kaluza, _Historische Grammatik der
englischen Sprache_ (Berlin, 1890); Professor W.W. Skeat, _Principles
of English Etymology_ (Oxford, 1887-1891); Johan Storm, _Englische
Philologie_ (Leipzig, 1892-1896); L. Kellner, _Historical Outlines of
English Syntax_ (London, 1892); O.F. Emerson, _History of the English
Language_ (London and New York, 1894); Otto Jespersen, _Progress in
Language_, with special reference to English (London, 1894); Lorenz
Morsbach, _Mittelenglische Grammatik_, part i. (Halle, 1896); Paul,
"Geschichte der englischen Sprache," in _Grundriss der german.
Philologie_ (Strassburg, 1898); Eduard Sievers, _Angelsachsische
Grammatik_ (3rd ed., Halle, 1898); Eng. transl. of same (2nd ed.), by
A.S. Cook (Boston, 1887); K.D. Bulbring, _Altenglisches Elementarbuch_
(Heidelberg, 1902); Greenough and Kittredge, _Words and their Ways in
English Speech_ (London and New York, 1902); Henry Bradley, _The
Making of English_ (London, 1904). Numerous contributions to the
subject have also been made in _Englische Studien_ (ed. Kolbing, later
Hoops; Leipzig, 1877 onward); _Anglia_ (ed. Wulker, Flugel, &c.;
Halle, 1878 onward); publications of Mod. Lang. Assoc. of America
(J.W. Bright; Baltimore, 1884 onward), and A.M. Elliott, _Modern
Language Notes_ (Baltimore, 1886 onward).
(J. A. H. M.; H. M. R. M.)