A history of the English Language

39.
The Dialects of Old English.
Old English was not an entirely uniform language. Not only are there differences between 
the language of theearliest written records (about A.D. 700) and that of the later literary 
texts, but the language differed somewhat from one locality to another. We can 
distinguish four dialects in Old English times: Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon, and 
Kentish. Of these Northumbrian and Mercian are found in the region north of the Thames 
settled by the Angles. They possess certain features in common and are sometimes 
known collectively as Anglian. But Northum-brian, spoken north of the Humber, and 
Mercian, between the Humber and the Thames, each possess certain distinctive features 
as well. Unfortunately we know less about them than we should like since they are 
preserved mainly in charters, runic inscriptions, a few brief fragments of verse, and some 
interlinear translations of portions of the Bible. Kentish is known from still scantier 
remains and is the dialect of the Jutes in the southeast. The only dialect in which there is 
an extensive collection of texts is West Saxon, which was the dialect of the West Saxon 
kingdom in the southwest. Nearly all of Old English literature is preserved in manuscripts 
transcribed in this region. The dialects probably reflect differences already present in the 
continental homes of the invaders. There is evidence, however, that some features 
developed in England after the settlement. With the ascendancy of the West Saxon 
kingdom, the West Saxon dialect attained something of the position of a literary standard, 
and both for this reason and because of the abundance of the materials it is made the basis 
of the study of Old English. Such a start as it had made toward becoming the standard 
speech of England was cut short by the Norman Conquest, which, as we shall see, 
reduced all dialects to a common level of unimportance. And when in the late Middle 
English period a standard English once more began to arise, it was on the basis of a 
different dialect, that of the East Midlands.