Here, also, both the a priori probabilities and the known facts make the Danish intermixture at its minimum.
[§ 699]. East Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.—Here the language is considered to change from the mode of speech of which the South Lancashire is the type, to the mode of speech of which the Norfolk and Suffolk dialect is the type.
Danish elements may now be expected, Derbyshire being the most inland Danish area.
Original political relations—Mercian.
Specimens of the dialects in their older stages, preeminently scanty.
Hallamshire.—This means the parts about Sheffield
extended so as to include that portion of the West Riding of Yorkshire which stands over from [§ 696]. Probably belonging to the same group with the South Lancashire.
East Riding of Yorkshire.—It is not safe to say more of this dialect than that its affinities are with the dialects spoken to the north rather than with those spoken to the south of it, i.e., that of—
Lincolnshire.—Frontier—On the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire frontier, passing into the form of speech of those counties. Pretty definitely separated from that of Norfolk. Less so from that of North Cambridgeshire. Scarcely at all from that of Huntingdonshire, and North Northamptonshire.
Danish admixture.—The number of towns and villages ending in the characteristic Danish termination -by, at its maximum; particularly in the neighbourhood of Spilsby.