Page:Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Tolkien and Gordon - 1925.djvu/36

xxiv Pres. part. in -ande: laȝande, rhyming in blade, hande.

OE. ā remains: hame, rhyming with game; and , rhyming with name, tame; waþe, , rhyming with scaþe.

There are also forms proved by rhyme which are specially characteristic of the north-west Midlands, namely:

(i) ó + ng pronounced as [unf]: stronge, longe , rhyming with tonge. (N. W. Mid. and West Riding.)

(ii) OE. āw remains aw, and does not become ow, as elsewhere in the Midlands: knowe rhyming with lawe and drowe (with scribal ow for etymological aw).

(iii) Shortened forms of take: ta þe, rhyming with waþe; including a form with ǭ: tone (rhyming with grone) which is not found in Northern or the other Midland dialects.

On the whole the evidence points to south Lancashire rather than Cheshire as the home of the dialect.