Page:An elementary middle English grammar (IA elementarymiddle00wrig).pdf/22

2 number of new diphthongs of the -i and -u type (§§ 104, 105), the weakening of unaccented a, o, u to e (§ 134), the preservation for the most part of unaccented final -e (§ 139). The breaking up of the OE. inflexional system, especially that of the declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. The preservation of greater remnants of the OE. declensions of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns in the South than in the North and the Midlands. Grammatical gender was almost entirely lost in nouns (§ 314). Few Anglo-Norman loanwords found their way into the dialects of the South, still fewer into those of the Midlands, and hardly any at all into those of the north Midlands, and of the North.

(b) Ordinary ME. 1250-1400. The chief characteristics of this sub-period are: —The gradual formation of extensive literary dialect centres; and in the fourteenth century, especially in the second half, the beginnings of a standard ME. which, excluding Scotland, became fully developed in the fifteenth century. The great influence of Anglo-Norman orthography upon the written language (§§ 7-21). Unaccented final -e had practically ceased to be pronounced in all the dialects. The limitation of the inflexion of nouns and adjectives chiefly to one main type in the North and the Midlands, and in the South to two main types — the strong with the inflexions of the old a-declension, and the weak. The introduction of a large number of Anglo-Norman words into all the dialects, even into those of the North.

(c) Late ME. 1400-1500. In this sub-period we can observe the gradual disappearance of the local dialect element from the literature of the period through the spread and influence of the London literary language. The close approximation of the system of inflexions to that of New English. The gradual cleavage between the Scottish and the northern dialects of England.

§ 3. In the present state of our knowledge it is not possible