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UNIT 8. DIALECTS AND WRITING IN MIDDLE ENGLISH § 1. Middle English dialects The most immediate consequence of the Norman dominion in Britain, as it was
said earlier in Unit 7 was the wide use of the French language in many spheres of life.
It was the language of the nobility and higher clergy. The intellectual life, literature
and education were in the hands of French-speaking people; French alongside Latin
became the language of writing.
Yet, despite all that, the majority of the indigenous population never stopped
speaking English. Therefore, the principal OE dialects were still spoken in the Middle
English (ME) period, and their boundaries remained almost the same. As the
kingdoms which had given the names for the corresponding OE dialects (Wessex,
Mercia, Northumbria and Kent) existed no longer, the dialects of ME were given new
names according to their geographical position. Thus, the dialect called before
Northumbrian grew into the
Northern dialect, Mercian grew into
Midland , Wessex
into
Southern or
South-Western . Only the
Kentish dialect preserved its name, as
county Kent still existed (however, in scientific literature this dialect is sometimes
referred to as
South-Eastern ). One of the most important peculiarities not noticeable
in OE (perhaps because of the scantity of written records in Mercian) is the division
of the Midland dialect into East Midland and West Midland dialects.
This dialect division evolved in early ME, but it was almost fully preserved in
later periods; only Wessex and Kentish, in late ME, were united under one name –
the
Southern dialect.
Some scholars also speak about the appearance of the
Scottish dialect in ME,
though this dialect together with Northumbrian is generally considered to be
Northern. Late ME was also remarkable for the rise of the London dialect as the
prevailing written form of the language. The dialect of London combined East
Midland and Southern features.
