{Transcriber’s Note:
All square brackets [ ] are from the original text. Braces { } (“curly brackets”) are supplied by the transcriber.
This e-text uses characters only available in UTF-8 encoding, including the non-Roman letters
ð þ (eth, thorn)
ȝ (yogh)
These diacritics should also appear:
ē ǣ ȳ (macron)
ĕ ŏ ĭ (breve)
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
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Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
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 | ENGLISH DIALECTS FROM THE EIGHTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT DAY BY THE REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, Litt.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Ph.D., F.B.A. Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fel- low of Christ’s College. Founder and formerly Director of the English Dialect Society “English in the native garb;” K. Henry V. v. 1. 80 Cambridge at the University Press 1912 |  |
 | ||
KRAUS REPRINT CO.
New York
1968
With the exception of the coat of arms
at the foot, the design on the title page
is a reproduction of one used by the earliest
known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521
First Edition 1911.
Reprinted 1912.
[PREFACE]
The following brief sketch is an attempt to present, in a popular form, the history of our English dialects, from the eighth century to the present day. The evidence, which is necessarily somewhat imperfect, goes to show that the older dialects appear to have been few in number, each being tolerably uniform over a wide area; and that the rather numerous dialects of the present day were gradually developed by the breaking up of the older groups into subdialects. This is especially true of the old Northumbrian dialect, in which the speech of Aberdeen was hardly distinguishable from that of Yorkshire, down to the end of the fourteenth century; soon after which date, the use of it for literary purposes survived in Scotland only. The chief literary dialect, in the earliest period, was Northumbrian or “Anglian,” down to the middle of the ninth century. After that time our literature was mostly in the Southern or Wessex dialect, commonly called “Anglo-Saxon,” the dominion of which lasted down to the early years of the thirteenth century, when the East Midland dialect surely but gradually rose to pre-eminence, and has now become the speech of the empire. Towards this result the two great universities contributed not a little. I proceed to discuss the foreign elements found in our dialects, the chief being Scandinavian and French. The influence of the former has long been acknowledged; a due recognition of the importance of the latter has yet to come. In conclusion, I give some selected specimens of the use of the modern dialects.
I beg leave to thank my friend Mr P. Giles, M.A., Hon. LL.D. of Aberdeen, and University Reader in Comparative Philology, for a few hints and for kindly advice.
W. W. S.
Cambridge
3 March 1911