Course paper Theme: Dialect words in English Content: Introduction

1.2 Development of UK dialects.
It should be emphasized that local dialects cannot be recognized as "vulgar speech" used by "uneducated" sections of society, as some authors argue. Such a judgment is anti-historical and factually incorrect, because, firstly, the literary norm, as a rule, is formed on the basis of one or several local dialects; secondly, the linguistic features of any local dialect are due not to the "carelessness" of the speech of its speakers, but to strict historical patterns.
It would be primitive and incorrect, however, to imagine the speech of dialect speakers as completely homogeneous and consisting entirely of dialectisms at all language levels (phonetics, grammar, vocabulary) and in all speech situations, as N. Chomsky does, for example. Language is a complex social phenomenon, it exists in human society, in the real everyday speech practice of people belonging to various social, professional, territorial formations. The wide distribution of the literary standard throughout the UK, inter-dialect contacts, the influence of professional and social language patterns inherent in certain layers of speakers, the impact of radio and television - all this ultimately determines the speech of individual speakers of a dialect, which is within a single territory to the same extent. heterogeneous, as in different areas. Even the speech of individual dialect speakers (idiolect) within the same village or community has its own specific features. It should be especially noted that the inexorable process of urbanization to a large extent narrows and levels the boundaries of the distribution of territorial dialects and the possibility of their development. This, however, in no way reduces, but, on the contrary, increases the great importance of studying areal dialects for a more in-depth and unbiased understanding of the etymology, history and theory of the English language. That is why every single dialectal lexeme, every dialectal meaning, phonetic or grammatical feature, has an enduring value, regardless of whether they are currently alive, are in the process of dying out or have already fallen into disuse.
As rightly pointed out by Prof. MM. Gukhman, one can schematically distinguish three historical stages in the formation of dialects:
1 ) dialect in the conditions of the tribal system (dialect of the tribe),
2) dialect in the era of the formation of ancient and medieval states (i.e., during the formation of nationalities),
3 ) the so-called territorial dialect during the period of formation and development of national unities, when the dialect becomes a remnant form of oral communication of certain strata of society.
It is known that the English national literary language developed at the beginning of the 16th century. based on the London dialect. The basis of this process was those major shifts in the social system of England, which are characteristic of the 16th century. There is no doubt that various types of supra-dialectal Koine could have existed in England in the pre-national period, although their relationship to territorial dialects was different than the relationship of the modern literary language to local dialects. The main feature of the national literary language, as Acad. V.V. Vinogradov, are his tendency towards universality and natural normativity both in written and in spoken form. At the same time, the unity and commonality of the development of dialects of a particular language can be violated as a result of the action of various factors, including extralinguistic ones. These include: the long-term preservation of the country's feudal fragmentation; bilingualism, in which the functions of the national language belong to a foreign language (for example, after the Scandinavian conquest of Britain), and local dialects of the native language are functionally equal within their territorial boundaries; the disintegration of the originally unified (economically and politically) area of ​​distribution of one or another dialect, etc. Dialectal fragmentation on the territory of Britain was documented as early as the 14th century. So, the chronicler R. Higden in his work "Polychronicon" wrote: "Tota lingua Northumbrorum, maxime in Eboraco, ita stridet incondita, quod nos australes earn vix intellegere possumus; quod puto propter viciniam barbarorum contigisse" ("The dialect of Northumbria, especially York, distinguished by an unpleasant hissing accent, so that the inhabitants of the south of the country can hardly understand it; I think that this is due to the neighborhood of alien tribes"). In the famous Middle English language monument "Cursor Mundi" we read: "Language of the northrin lede. That can nan oithir englis rede" ("The language of the northern tribe, which no Englishman can speak").³
As for the Old English territorial dialects (see Appendix 1, Fig. 1, 2), it should be borne in mind that we have a limited set of dialect monuments of one or another genre, unequally correlated with each other by the time of their writing (or by the time origin of extant manuscripts). In this regard, it is possible that the specific features of the language of individual surviving Old English monuments that we observe are not dialectal, but chronological: they may be due not to the local nature of the texts, but to the difference in the time of their writing. The areal localization of individual Old English monuments also remains very inaccurate, and therefore the traditional division of Old English dialects into English, Wessex and Kentish seems to be very relative.
In general, in a number of cases it would be more correct to speak specifically about the language of the text (manuscript) or author being studied, and not about the language of the dialect: the monuments that have come down to us, of course, cannot fully reflect the dialect map of ancient Britain. Finally, it should be noted that in connection with the early isolation of the Wessex dialect and its gradual conquest of a leading position among English dialects, its influence on other dialects was completely inevitable, which is reflected in the language monuments.
The main attention of researchers of Old English dialects is usually concentrated on the analysis of phonetics (mainly by comparing various spellings and their correspondences in separate manuscripts or in toponyms) or grammar (in some cases by comparing Old English grammatical phenomena with the corresponding phrase in the Latin original, if any, or with material from other Germanic dialects of the same period, based on the context). The study of the dialect vocabulary of the ancient period usually rests on very shaky foundations - the presence of certain lexemes in a particular language monument, the dialect affiliation of which is very controversial.
All this brings us to the question of the ethnic origins of the original Germanic conquerors of Britain, which is extremely important for understanding the origin of English dialects.
The information of Beda (Ecclesiastical History of Britain) and other chroniclers, as well as the information of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle about the Germanic tribes in Britain and their settlement, as the factual material below shows, is extremely simplified, inconsistent and unreliable. Thus, dividing the British tribes into Angles (north of Britain), Saxons (south of Britain) and Jutes (Kent, the Isle of Wight and part of modern Hampshire), Bede further deviates from his classification and, equating the Angles with the Saxons, speaks only of "genti Saxonum sive Anglorum" and not "Anglorum et Saxonum gentes" ("tribes of the Angles and Saxons"). In the chronicle monument "Annales Cambriae" (670-671 AD) we read: "Osguid rex Saxonum moritur ("Osguid the king of the Saxons died": we are talking about the Northumbrian king Oswit). In the "Biography of St. Guthlak" (" Life of St. Guthlac") the sentence "Brittones infesti Saxonici generis" ("The Britons are at enmity with the Saxon tribe") is translated by the Old English phrase "Brytta theod Anglocynnes feond" ("The Britons are at enmity with the Anglian tribe"). in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, this king is called rex Anglorum ("King of the Angles"). It is curious that Bede, wherever he speaks of the coming of the Germanic tribes into Britain, indicates only ab adventu Angli ("since the invasion of the Angles"), not mentioning other tribes, the British chronicler Gildas, two centuries before Bede, called all the Germanic conquerors of Britain Saxons, and Procopius said that the conquerors of Britain were Angles and Frisians ("De bello Gothiso").
All that has been said seems to indicate that, on the one hand, among the early conquerors of Britain there might not have been some tribes called Bede and British chroniclers, and on the other hand, some tribes, usually not named in connection with the German conquest of Britain, could actually take participation in it.
Let us turn to the data of toponymy and check the possibility of such a conclusion. In the Anglo-Saxon "Charters" we find a mention of the South German tribe of the Suebi (Swabians): æt Sæferne; be westan Sæfern (only 30 times); in the form of Sæuren; cf. modern the name of the river Severn. In the Middle English language monument "Domesday Book" we find the toponym Schwabstede (on the River Trin in Northern England).
In the northern part of England, toponyms are also often found, the element of which is the ethnic name of the Suebi: Swaby - Lincolnshire (cf. Swaue in the "Domesday Book" and Swafa on Anglo-Saxon coins); Swaffham - Cambridgeshire (cf. Suafham), Swepstone (Darbyshire); Seven (North Yorkshire); Swefling (Darbyshire).
Compare, on the other hand, toponyms with an "Angles" component in the South Germanic (Germanic) language area: Angelsberg (Luxembourg); Angelsdorf (Lower Bavaria); Engelhaming (Upper Austria); Ingelheim (Palatinate); Epgelmannsbrunn (Upper Palatinate); Enzerfeld (near Baden in Austria); Anglachgau (in Switzerland), cf. dvn. Engilschalchsevelde (1168); Angel (a tributary of the Rhine between Speier and Mannheim); Egilsau (Switzerland). Wed also numerous Old High German toponyms with the element angil- in the Germinonian language area.
Toponymic evidence points to the early presence of various Germanic ethnic groups in Britain. Thus, the presence of the Bavarians is attested in the names given by the chroniclers of the region Baegia, aet Baegan wyrth (modern Bayworth). Wed toponyms also found in the northern counties: Bayford, Bayston, Bayham, Baynton. The place-name Begeurde (cf. yes. Bægere) is attested in the Domesday Book; the presence of the Franks in Britain was reflected in such toponyms as Frankton, Frankby; the presence of Marcomanni, in addition to the ancient ethnonyms Mierce, Myrce (cf. the name of the region of Mercia), is attested by the toponyms Markingsfield (Mercnafeld), Marchington; the presence of hawks is reflected in the toponyms Hoccanstige, Hocneratūne; the so-called Jutes, who allegedly took part in the conquest of Britain, as shown by the latest archaeological and ethnographic data, in reality, apparently, were the Alemannic tribe of the Jutungs.
The Angles are approached by Tacitus and Procopius with the Varins, in connection with which the following comparison is indicative: "Lex Angliorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuriangium" ("the law for the Angles and Varins, i.e. for Thuringia") and "Thuringiae ascribitur patria Suavorum quae et Alamanorum patria ..." ("It is believed that the homeland of the Suebi, like the Alemans, is Thuringia") ("Geographia Ravennas"). Wed also yes. place names: Wernanbroc, Wernanford (in Northumbria). Interestingly, the area between the rivers Saale and Elste used to be called Werenofeld, and in Mecklenburg there is a river Warnow. On the other hand, such toponyms in northern England as yes are interesting. T(h)yrnyng(e), modern Thurning, Therning (cf. Thurgau in Switzerland).
The following facts are very indicative. In the German region located between the rivers Necker and Osbach (i.e., in the former seat of the Alemannic tribes), toponyms are found that exactly coincide in composition with those that previously existed in England (mainly in Kent). See, for example, German. alem. Durlach - yes. Durleah; German Wisloch - yes. Wislah; German Baden - yes. bathum; German Gochsheim - yes. Gēocham; German Brett - yes. Breodun; German Kieselbrunn - yes. geoselburne; German Rauberg - yes. Ruanberh; German Neuenheim - yes. Niwanham; German Wössingen - yes. wasting; German Kirnbach - yes. Cirnea; German Klepheim (formerly Cloppenheim) - yes. Cloppaham; German Mark Botesheim (in the Lobden area) - yes. Botesham; German Zosenlach - yes. Tottanstock; German Strassheim - yes. Stretham; German Westheim - yes. Westerham; German Turkheim - yes. Tircanham; German Sulm (Sulmannesheim) - yes. Sulmonnesburn, etc.
In Kent, a small river was called Limm-ēa - near Heidelberg we find the Leimbach river. Near the indicated river in Kent there was a settlement of Liming (Lim) - near the Leimbach river in Germany there is a village of Leimen. The possibility is not ruled out that we are dealing here with a kind of "toponymic field" transposed in various parts of the Germanic language area.
Many English and Germanic lexical components of toponyms are an integral part of the respective language areas and are not systematically represented in other areas.
It is possible that, contrary to traditional etymology (very controversial in essence), elements of the names of the Alemannic tribes should be seen in some English toponyms. Such may be, for example, the name of the Hermundurs in the toponym Harmondsworth, the Quads - in the names of Quadring, Quadgley, the Hutts - in yes. Chatendune (Chetyndone). Obviously, the name erminons should be seen in the element ēorming, which is often found in Old English toponymy.
It should be borne in mind that, according to Tacitus, many of the names of the Germanic tribes are based on their own names, in particular the names of the gods (this also applies to the name of the Germinons): Ermin / Irmin (with a later refraction) 'big, tall occurs as a nickname for the German god of war, identified by the Romans with Mars (German *Ermin-Teuz), cf. lat. Martis dies, yes. eormen-laf, eormen-cyn, eormen-theod, dn. irmingot, irmindeot, di. jọrtype, Greek ormenos, lit. ermisa. The root ermin-, irmin-, which is widely used in South German toponymy and in the names of some Eastveonian tribes (for example, Ermunduri), is also included in personal names: Ertapriks, (H)erminafridus. Wed modern English place names with the same element (in the northern counties): Ermington, Erme, Ermine Street, Armingford. Interestingly, this root is still present in the Swabian dialect of the German language: Herte 'strong, healthy, solid man, Hermel 'giant.⁴
The ethnic name Suebi (it is included in some Old English anthroponyms, for example: Suebhard) has been the subject of numerous etymological investigations. It was assumed, in particular, that it correlates with di. svæfr sleepy, from Goth. swes' own; 'property or with it. Sippe 'b. It seems more likely, however, to correlate this name with the Swiss. (Alem.) Sweb 'a deep place in a river (sea)', 'fishing in such a place (compare with the gloss sweb. vanum, gurges, i.e. 'whirlpool, abyss), which, as a legal term, was apparently transferred to a tribe that used lower fishing (Suebi) in contrast to the term angel 'fishing with a rod, referring to a tribe that used only upper fishing (Angles) (cf. the modern Swiss compound word Schwebangel 'type of fishing projectile). Wed the name of the tribe of hawks, which etymologically can, apparently, be reduced to yes. hoc (modern English hook) as a term for fishing.
In the light of the data presented, it seems possible to formulate the following conclusions:

• 
  The traditional division of the German conquerors of Britain into Angles, Saxons and Jutes and the geography of their location on the islands can hardly be considered justified.
  
• 
  The Herminonian and English tribes in the course of their early history (both on the continent and on the islands) were, if not in close proximity, then at least in constant contact, and often mixed with each other.
  
• 
  Various Isstveonian (respectively, Herminonian) tribes, along with Ingvaeonic, took an active part in the conquest of Britain.
  
• 
  The traditional division of the map of ancient Britain into Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, and others, reflecting to a certain extent the concentration of individual Germanic tribes, is largely purely administrative.