It will be seen that the OE. phonetic position is largely maintained; noteworthy divergences are: æ as e in hebbe, ercebisceop; as a in habbe (occasionally in OE.), ealdefader; as ea (= e) in eafdon, æ + g in deȝe. ænglelandes (also in H1, H2) shows a survival of primitive æ, characteristic of the south-east. en 12/6 for on is due to loss of stress; Layamon 8059 has æn; e + g is ei in þeinas. y is e in grithbreces of the Latin text and H1, H2 (but grithbrices is OE. griðbrice); i in Cantuarabirȝ. ǣ is e in bitechan, enig, eni, echere, toleten, þer; ȳ, e in keþe. ea before l + cons. is a in forstalles; frimtha is descended from fiermð with metathesis of r: the others have fermþe and H1 also feormþe, forms without umlaut: giefu appears as ȝefu, but giefan, forgifan. heora is heara (early Kentish hiara) beside heore; scolden answers to a non-diphthonged OE. form. flīema gives flemene in the Latin text (so E, H1, H2, the latter also flæmene) and fleamene: alisendnesse is OE. ālīesednesse (but once ālȝsendnesse), the others have alysednesse. ēo is e in frenscipan: io in thiofes of the Lat. text, ia in thiafes; ā + w is au in saule; ēo + w appears as geau (ȝeu, Poema Morale, Digby MS.) with ȝ borrowed from the nom., helped, no doubt, by the general tendency exemplified in gearfoþe, ungeaþe of the MK. gospels.
w is written u in Cantuarabirȝ; an inorganic n is inserted in alisendnesse; f is u in geþauian, scirereuan. The dentals are confused: þ for t, t for þ, t for d, d for þ appear in theames, theo, teobalt, hiret, habbad, ford; d is omitted in frenscipan, as in stan, halen, &c., of the MK. gospels; č is written ch in chyrchen, bitechan, echere, ich, grithbriches; the scribe apparently uses ch for [k] in Sacha of the Latin text; h is omitted in eafdon; cht for ht in gerichtan is an attempt to indicate the guttural sound.
The inflections of OE. are largely preserved, but levelling of a to e is shown in fele, fleamene, fullen, heore, lande (pl. g.), þare, Wicneres, while a is written for older e in frimtha, saca, wurþa, and o for e in geunnon. OE. um is an in burgan, feldan, minan, sciran, þingan, wudan; þām appears as þan. Weak forms are gerichtan, frenscipan; ȝefu is nom. form for accusative.
[Dialect:] The levelling of y, ȳ, æ, ǣ to e; ea as a, the old Kentish io, ia in thiofes, thiafes, heara point to Kent. The absence of v, z for f, s initial, the retention of a in lande, strande, and of n final either mark an early stage in the dialect, or show the conservative influence of the older documents.
[Introduction:] King Henry the Second grants, or rather confirms, to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the monks of Christ Church their lands and privileges of jurisdiction. The date is February, 1155 (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II. 5) and the place York. For alisendnessee 12/15, read alisendnesse.
[1]. gret . . . mine, verb of the third person, pronoun of the first: so CE; it is formal, and not a scribe’s error as Stratmann thinks; H1, H2 have grete. bissceopas, &c.: in Latin, ‘Episcopis · Comitibus · Baronibus · Justiciariis · Vicecomitibus · Ceterisque suis fidelibus.’
[3]. þe . . . inne, in which; see [1/3 note]. E has þær . . . inne.
[4]. Cantuarabirȝ; see 1/14.
[5]. ꝥ = þet. ælc, each of them: the archbishop and the monks severally, as well as jointly; so H1, H2; E omits.
[6]. kinges: see [15/87 note].