Four Dialects
The Story of Old English
Course 1 · Chapter 3 · Four Dialects
There was never one "Old English". The settlers of Chapter 2 founded separate kingdoms, and each had its own way of speaking. The record that survives is lopsided: one dialect is read far more than the others, and the reason is partly history and partly accident.
The four dialects
According to Wikipedia's Old English article, each dialect was tied to an independent kingdom:
| Dialect | Kingdom | Where spoken (per the article) | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northumbrian | Northumbria | North of the Humber | Anglian |
| Mercian | Mercia | Between the Humber and the Thames | Anglian |
| West Saxon | Wessex | South and south-west of the Thames | Saxon (my label; the article only names the Anglian pair) |
| Kentish | Kent | A small area south-east of the Thames | Jutish (the speakers were Jutes from Jutland, per the article) |
The separate articles on each dialect give more detail. Northumbrian was spoken in the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria, from the Humber to the Firth of Forth. Mercian covered roughly the English Midlands, from the border of East Anglia west to Offa's Dyke, north to Staffordshire, and south to Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Kentish covered Kent, Surrey, Sussex, southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; Bede called the settlers there Jutes, though the article says modern historians are more sceptical of a separate Jutish identity.
These regions will also be drawn on the Map page in the appendix.
What survives in each
| Dialect | Texts the articles name |
|---|---|
| Northumbrian | Cædmon's Hymn (composed 658 to 680); Bede's Death Song (8th century); the Ruthwell Cross runic inscription (c. 750, heavily debated because the stone is weathered); the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss (a translation made around 970 of Latin Gospels written c. 715); the Leiden Riddle (9th century) |
| Mercian | The Vespasian Psalter gloss (around 850), which includes six Mercian hymns; the Old English Martyrology, probably compiled in Mercia in the second half of the 9th century |
| Kentish | The Old Kentish Glosses (the principal evidence); charters; law codes in Textus Roffensis, which are early 12th-century copies of older laws, with spellings modernised and standardised |
| West Saxon | Most of the surviving record; the rest of this chapter explains why |
Cædmon's Hymn, the first poem in Old English Reading 1, Chapter 3, is a Northumbrian text, and that chapter notes the Northumbrian spellings. The Wikipedia Old English article calls Kentish the dialect with the thinnest literary record.
How different were they?
The articles give only a few examples, and they are small spelling and sound differences. According to the Old English article:
- Northumbrian kept a vowel combination that merged with another in the other dialects.
- West Saxon and Kentish had merged two vowel sounds before the first written prose.
- Mercian and Northumbrian texts spelled one sound with rg where West Saxon wrote ri, as in herian.
The Mercian dialect article gives two more: West Saxon final -c corresponds to Mercian -h (West Saxon ic, Mercian ih, "I"), and some Mercian pronouns kept a final -k, as in mec "me". The Kentish article says Kentish and West Saxon were very similar, with many identical words, and concludes they were mutually intelligible. I did not find how well speakers of the other dialects understood each other.
Why West Saxon dominates the record
The Old English article gives the chain of events:
- In the 9th century the Vikings overran Northumbria south of the Tyne and most of Mercia.
- The surviving part of Mercia and all of Kent were then absorbed into Wessex under Alfred the Great.
- After Alfred's unification, Early West Saxon became the language of government and the basis for literature and religious translations.
- Centralisation and Viking destruction left relatively little written record of the other dialects.
The article adds that some Mercian texts were still written, and that Mercian influence appears in some of Alfred's translations, many of which were made by Mercian scholars. Alfred's reign is the subject of Chapter 6.
Early and Late West Saxon
The article says a later standard, Late West Saxon, from the late 10th century, shares a region with Early West Saxon but did not descend directly from it. It gives the example of a diphthong that became one vowel in Early West Saxon and a different one in Late West Saxon. It records that Hogg suggested the names "Alfredian Saxon" and "Æthelwoldian Saxon" so that readers would not assume the two stages follow each other in time. Under Æthelwold of Winchester the Late West Saxon standard kept its prestige until the Norman Conquest.
This matters for readers of the other courses. Old English Grammar 1, Chapter 1 says most surviving texts follow a written standard based on Late West Saxon, and teaches that standard. That is a convenience, not a claim that West Saxon was the "real" Old English.
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Anglian | Northumbrian and Mercian together |
| Gloss | A translation or note written between the lines of a Latin manuscript |
| Psalter | A book of the Psalms |
| Charter | A written grant or legal record, often of land |
| Standard | A form of the language used across many writers and places |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. Name the four main dialects of Old English.
Show answer
Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon.
2. Which two are called Anglian?
Show answer
Northumbrian and Mercian.
3. Which river divided Northumbrian from Mercian, and which divided Mercian from West Saxon?
Show answer
The Humber (Northumbrian to the north, Mercian to the south), and the Thames (Mercian to the north, West Saxon to the south and south-west).
4. Cædmon's Hymn is in which dialect?
Show answer
Northumbrian.
5. Why do most surviving Old English texts come from one dialect?
Show answer
After the Viking raids Alfred's Wessex absorbed Kent and the rest of Mercia, West Saxon became the language of government and writing, and centralisation and Viking destruction left little written record of the others.
6. What is the difference between a gloss and a translation made as a separate book?
Show answer
A gloss is written between the lines of a Latin manuscript, as in the Vespasian Psalter and the Lindisfarne Gospels, rather than being a separate text.
7. The article says Mercian influence appears in Alfred's translations. Why?
Show answer
Many of the translations were made by Mercian scholars.
8. What did the articles I read say about which dialect Modern English descends from, and how firm is it?
Show answer
Mercian for Standard English and Northumbrian for Scots, but the Old English article marks both claims "citation needed", so they are not firmly established in what I read.