A history of the English Language

228.
English Dialects.
In addition to the educated standard in each major division of the English-speaking world 
there are local forms of the language known as regional dialects. In the newer countries 
where English has spread in modern times these are not so numerous or so pronounced in 
their individuality as they are in the British Isles. The English introduced into the 
colonies was a mixture of dialects in which the peculiarities of each were fused in a 
common speech. Except perhaps in the United States, there has scarcely been time for 
new regional differences to grow up, and although one region is sometimes separated 
from another by the breadth of a continent, the improvements in transportation and 
communication have tended to keep down differences that might otherwise have arisen. 
But in Great Britain such differences are very great. They go back to the earliest period of 
the language and reflect conditions that prevailed at a time when travel was difftcult and 
communication was limited between districts relatively close together. Even among the 
educated the speech of northern England differs considerably from that of the south. In 
words such as 
butter, cut, gull,
and 
some
the southern vowel [
Λ
] occurs in the north as 
[U], and in 
chaff, grass, 
and
 path
the southern retracted vowel [
a:
] occurs as short [a] in 
northern dialects. In the great Midland district one distinguishes an eastern variety and a 
western, as well as a central type lying between. But such a classification of the English
9 
The issues are clearly presented and debated by Randolph Quirk, “Language Varieties and 
Standard Language,” 
English Today,
21 (1990), 3–10, and Braj B.Kachru, “Liberation Linguistics 
and the ‘Quirk Concern,”’ 
English Today,
25 (1991), 3–13. 
The nineteenth century and after 297

---

dialects is sufficient only for purposes of a broad grouping. Every county has its own 
peculiarities, and sometimes as many as three dialectal regions may be distinguished 
within the boundaries of a single shire. This wide diversity of dialects is well illustrated 
by the materials published since 1962 in the 
Survey of English Dialects.
In the six 
northern counties at least seventeen different vowels or diphthongs occur in the word 
house,
including the [u:] of Old English 
h
ū
s
.
10
The dialect of southern Scotland has claims to special consideration on historical and 
literary grounds. In origin it is a variety of Northern English, but down to the sixteenth 
century it occupied a position both in speech and in writing on a plane with English. In 
the time of Shakespeare, however, it began to be strongly influenced by Southern 
English. This influence has been traced in part to the Reformation, which brought in the 
Bible and other religious works from the south, in part to the renaissance of English 
literature. The most important factor, however, was probably the growing importance of 
England and the role of London as the center of the English-speaking world. When in 
1603 James VI of Scotland became the king of England as James I, and when by the Act 
of Union in 1707 Scotland was formally united to England, English was plainly felt to be 
standard, and Scots became definitely a dialect. During the eighteenth century it managed 
to maintain itself as a literary language through the work of Ramsay, Ferguson, and 
Robert Burns. Since then it has gradually lost ground. English is taught in the schools, 
and cultivation of English has, rightly or wrongly, been taken as the first test of culture. 
The ambitious have avoided the native dialect as a mark of lowly birth, and those who 
have a patriotic or sentimental regard for this fine old speech have long been 
apprehensive of its ultimate extinction.
11
Prompted in part by this concern, three major 
linguistic projects have focused on Scottish speech.