Page:The dialect of the southern counties of Scotland - Murray - 1873.djvu/35

Rh

In the form walde for the southern wolde, we see the distinction between the northern wald, wad, and the southern wold, would. Bi-heald for beheold, and darstæ for dorste, are dialectical points of the same kind. The use of ea for eo, as heafun for heofon, heaven, fearran for feorran, and the use of æ for e, miþ for mid, and the prefixes gi- and bi- for ge- and be-, are well-known characteristics of the Northumbrian glosses of the tenth century. But the most interesting point to be noticed is the dropping of final n from the inflections of nouns and verbs (galgu, buga, hælda, bismærædu, kwomu), also noted in the glosses, in which the Old North Anglian agreed with the Scandinavian and Frisian, rather than the Saxon, and anticipated the early loss of the noun and verb inflections by the northern dialect, seen in comparing the southern thei loven to ben, we wolden gon, with the northern thai luf to be, we wald ga.