Page:An elementary middle English grammar (IA elementarymiddle00wrig).pdf/23

§ 4] to give more than a rough-and-ready classification of the ME. dialects, because we are unable to fix the exact boundaries where one dialect ends and another begins. Nor shall we ever be able to remedy this defect until we possess a comprehensive atlas of the modern dialects such as has been produced by France and Germany of their dialects. An atlas of this kind would enable English scholars to fix the dialect boundaries far more accurately than is possible at present, and to show conclusively that there was no such thing as a uniform northern, north Midland, east Midland, west Midland, or south Midland dialect in the ME. period, but that within each principal division there were many sub-dialects each possessing clearly defined phonological peculiarities.

§ 4. ME. is usually divided into three large groups of dialects:—

1. The Northern Group, including the dialects of the Lowlands of Scotland, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmorland, the whole of Yorkshire except the south, and north Lancashire. Roughly speaking, the Humber and the Ouse formed the southern boundary, while the Pennine Chain determined its limits to the West.

2. The Midland Group, including the dialects of south Yorkshire, the whole of Lancashire except the north, the counties to the west of the Pennine Chain, the East Anglian counties, and the whole of the Midland area. It corresponded roughly to the Old Mercian and East Anglian areas. The Thames formed the southern boundary of this extensive group of dialects. This group is generally further subdivided into the north Midland, east Midland, west Midland, and south Midland dialects.

3. The Southern Group, including the dialects of the counties south of the Thames, Gloucestershire, and parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. This group is often further subdivided into the south Eastern dialects, also