Topographical nomenclature characterized by the preponderance of compounds of -thwaite; as Braithwaite, &c.
North Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, "exhibit many Anglian[[80]] peculiarities, which may have been occasioned in some degree by the colonies in the south, planted in that district by William Rufus (Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1092.) A comparison of Anderson's ballads with Burns's songs, will show how like Cumbrian is to Scottish, but how different. We believe that Weber is right in referring the romance of Sir Amadas to this district. The mixture of the Anglian forms gwo, gwon, bwons, boyd-word (in pure Northumbrian), gae, gane, banes, bod-worde, with the northern terms, tynt, kent, bathe, mare, and many others of the same class, could hardly have occurred in any other part of England."[[81]]
Yorkshire, North and part of West Riding.—The Anglo-Saxon specimens of this area have been noticed in [§ 692].
The extract from Chaucer is also from this district.
The modern dialects best known are—
1. The Craven.—This, in northern localities, "becomes slightly tinctured with Northumbrian."—Quart. Rev. ut supra.
2. The Cleveland.—With not only Northumbrian, but even Scotch characters. Quart. Rev. ut supra.
Danish admixture—Considerable.
All these dialects, if rightly classified, belong to the Northumbrian division of the Angle branch of the Anglo-Saxon language; whilst, if the primâ facie view of their affiliation or descent, be the true one, they are the dialects of [§ 692], in their modern forms.