“Þe Judewisshe folkess boc hemm seȝȝde, þatt hemm birrde Twa bukkes samenn to þe preost att kirrke-dure brinngenn; And teȝȝ þa didenn bliþeliȝ, swa summ þe boc hemm tahhte, And brohhtenn tweȝȝenn bukkess þær Drihhtin þærwiþþ to lakenn. And att[21] te kirrke-dure toc þe preost ta tweȝȝenn bukkess, And o þatt an he leȝȝde þær all þeȝȝre sake and sinne, And lét itt eornenn for þwiþþ all út inntill wilde wesste; And toc and snaþ þatt oþerr bucc Drihhtin þaerwiþþ to lakenn. All þiss wass don forr here ned, and ec forr ure nede; For hemm itt hallp biforenn Godd to clennssenn hemm of sinne; And all swa maȝȝ itt hellpenn þe ȝiff þatt tu willt [itt] follȝhenn. Ȝiff þatt tu willt full innwarrdliȝ wiþþ fulle trowwþe lefenn All þatt tatt wass bitacnedd tær, to lefenn and to trowwenn.” Ormulum, ed. White, l. 1324.

The author of the Ormulum was a phonetist, and employed a special spelling of his own to represent not only the quality but the quantities of vowels and consonants—a circumstance which gives his work a peculiar value to the investigator. He is generally assumed to have been a native of Lincolnshire or Notts, but the point is a disputed one, and there is somewhat to be said for the neighbourhood of Ormskirk in Lancashire.

It is customary to differentiate between east and west midland, and to subdivide these again into north and south. As was natural in a tract of country which stretched from Lancaster to Essex, a very considerable variety is found in the documents which agree in presenting the leading midland features, those of Lancashire and Lincolnshire approaching the northern dialect both in vocabulary, phonetic character and greater neglect of inflections. But this diversity diminishes as we advance.

Thirty years after the Ormulum, the east midland rhymed Story of Genesis and Exodus[22] shows us the dialect in a more southern form, with the vowels of modern English, and from about the same date, with rather more northern characteristics, we have an east midland Bestiary.

Different tests and different dates have been proposed for subdividing the Middle English period, but the most important is that of Henry Nicol, based on the observation that in the early 13th century, as in Ormin, the Old English short vowels in an open syllable still retained their short quantity, as năma, ŏver, mĕte; but by 1250 or 1260 they had been lengthened to nā-me, ō-ver, mē-te, a change which has also taken place at a particular period in all the Germanic, and even the Romanic languages, as in buō-no for bŏ-num, pā-dre for pă-trem, &c. The lengthening of the penult left the final syllable by contrast shortened or weakened, and paved the way for the disappearance of final e in the century following, through the stages nă-me, nā-mĕ, nā-m’, nām, the one long syllable in nām(e) being the quantitative equivalent of the two short syllables in nă-mĕ; hence the notion that mute e makes a preceding vowel long, the truth being that the lengthening of the vowel led to the e becoming mute.

After 1250 we have the Lay of Havelok, and about 1300 the writings of Robert of Brunne in South Lincolnshire. In the 14th century we find a number of texts belonging to the western part of the district. South-west midland is hardly to be distinguished from southern in its south-western form, and hence texts like Piers Plowman elude any satisfactory classification, but several metrical romances exhibit what are generally considered to be west midland characteristics, and a little group of poems, Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knighte, the Pearl, Cleanness and Patience, thought to be the work of a north-west midland writer of the 14th century, bear a striking resemblance to the modern Lancashire dialect. The end of the century witnessed the prose of Wycliff and Mandeville, and the poetry of Chaucer, with whom Middle English may be said to have culminated, and in whose writings its main characteristics as distinct from Old and Modern English may be studied. Thus, we find final e in full use representing numerous original vowels and terminations as

Him thoughtè that his hertè woldè brekè,

in Old English—

Him þuhte þæt his heorte wolde brecan,

which may be compared with the modern German—