A History of English Language

A history of the english language 176
chaic and seemed less agreeable than that of other parts with which he was familiar; 37 and
at a slightly earlier date (c. 1125) William of Malmesbury had complained of the
harshness of the speech of Yorkshire, saying that southerners could not understand it. 38
Such observations continue in subsequent censturies. 39 The author of the Cursor Mundi, a
northern poem of about 1300, notes that he found the story of the Assumption of Our
Lady in Southern English and turned it into his own dialect for “northern people who can
read no other English.” 40 Even Chaucer, by whose time a literary standard was in process
of creation, sends off his Troilus and Criseyde with the famous “Go, little book,” adding,
And for ther is so gret diversite
In Englissh, and in writyng of oure tonge,
So prey I god that non myswrite the,
Ne the mys-metre for defaute of tonge.
147. The Middle English Dialects.
The language differed almost from county to county, and noticeable variations are
sometimes observable between different parts of the same county. The features
characteristic of a given dialect do not all cover the same territory; some extend into
adjoining districts or may be characteristic also of another dialect. Consequently it is
rather difftcult to decide how many dialectal divisions should be recognized and to mark
off with any exactness their respective boundaries. In a rough way, however, it is
customary to distinguish four principal dialects of Middle English: Northern, East
Midland, West Midland, and Southern. Generally speaking, the Northern dialect extends
as far south as the Humber; East Mid-land and West Midland together cover the area
between the Humber and the Thames; and Southern occupies the district south of the
Thames, together with Gloucestershire and parts of the counties of Worcester and
Hereford, thus taking in the West Saxon and Kentish districts of Old English. Throughout
37
Description of Wales, Bk. I, chap. 6.
38
Gesta Pontificum, Bk. III. The remark is repeated in Higden, and in Trevisa’s translation of
Higden.
39
“Our language is also so dyverse in yt selfe, that the commen maner of spekyng in Englysshe of
some contre [i.e., county] can skante be understonded in some other contre of the same londe.” The
Myroure of Oure Ladye (first half of the fifteenth century), EETSES, 19, pp. 7–8.
40
In sotherin englis was it draun,
And turnd it haue I till our aun
Langage o northrin lede
can nan oiþer englis rede. (II. 20,061–64)