The Vespasian Psalter. The
Rushworth MS. Old Mercian and Wessex compared. Laud MS. of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Ormulum. The English Proclamation of
Henry III. (_see the facsimile_). Robert Mannyng of Brunne (Bourn).
West Midland. The Prose Psalter. William of Palerne. The Pearl and
Alliterative Poems. Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight.

IX. FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE DIALECTS. Words from Norman, Italian,
Spanish, Dutch, etc. Celtic. List of Celtic words. Examples of
Latin words. Greek words. Hebrew words. List of Scandinavian
words. French words. Anglo-French words; _gauntree_. Literary
French words, as used in dialects.

X. LATER HISTORY OF THE DIALECTS. Spenser. John Fitzherbert. Thomas
Tusser. Skinner's Etymologicon (Lincolnshire words). John Ray.
Dialect glossaries. Dr Ellis on Early English Pronunciation. The
English Dialect Society. The English Dialect Dictionary. The
English Dialect Grammar.

XI. THE MODERN DIALECTS. Prof. Wright's account of the modern English
Dialects.

XII. A FEW SPECIMENS. Some writers in dialect. Specimens: Scottish
(Aberdeen, Ayrshire, Edinburgh). Northern England (Westmorland).
Midland (Lincoln, S.E. Lancashire, Sheffield, Cheshire). Eastern
(N. Essex, Norfolk). Western (S.W. Shropshire). Southern
(Wiltshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

FACSIMILE. The only English Proclamation of Henry III. Oct. 18, 1258

*** _For a transcription of the Facsimile see_ pp. 75-6.

{Transcriber's Note:
The Facsimile is not included in this e-text.}

CHAPTER I

DIALECTS AND THEIR VALUE

According to the New English Dictionary, the oldest sense, in
English, of the word _dialect_ was simply "a manner of speaking"
or "phraseology," in accordance with its derivation from the Greek
_dialectos_, a discourse or way of speaking; from the verb
_dialegesthai_, to discourse or converse.

The modern meaning is somewhat more precise. In relation to a language
such as English, it is used in a special sense to signify "a local
variety of speech differing from the standard or literary language."
When we talk of "speakers of dialect," we imply that they employ a
provincial method of speech to which the man who has been educated to
use the language of books is unaccustomed. Such a man finds that the
dialect-speaker frequently uses words or modes of expression which he
does