Yoko Iyieri PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText - University ...

And Jou ne wylt a nyghtes gest (10296)
For he wende Jat god ne wolde
Haue for3eue hym, Jat he hym solde (5193-4)
When J'ou Jy self ne widest e wysse? (6456)
Pat Jou ne haue for hyt no wrang (9590)
Ne hauej no trust of 3our socour (6299)
Of j)y wo fare ne he Joght (6483)
Pat Jou ne hast nede of Jo (5087)
Ne hadde here helpe be Jat was so nere (971)
Pey mette togedyr, y ne woot how (3803)
Pey ne wote whejer Jey be saued or noun (9526)
Hyt bycom he ne wyste whore (7494).
The present manuscript of I-IS is localized in Hertfordshire by
McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin (1986, I: 146). The manuscript, which
is 'at least one copy beyond Mannyng's original and possibly even
two or three recensions later' (Sullens 1983: XXIV), was most likely
produced around 1400.
Negative contraction is considered to be common in southerly
parts of England (see 4.1.1. above), and Hertfordshire in later ME
attests most forms of negative contraction as a matter of fact
(McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin 1986, IV: 218_20).12 In view of this
general situation, the restricted occurrence of the phenomenon in HS
is rather remarkable. This may be related to the fact that Robert
Mannyng who produced the original text is a man from Lincoinshire,
which is much more northerly than the region where the manuscript
is ascribed. Negative contraction is virtually confined to forms of
will and iten in the text, and even here examples are extremely
scanty. In a similar way to CA, the number of relevant examples in
12 The forms nam, nold-, contracted forms of have, and the
contraction of the preterite-tense forms of witen are missing in
1-lertfordshire as far as the mapping of the phenomenon by McIntosh,
Samuels, and Benskin (1986, IV: 218-20) is concerned.
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