Editing Old English (section)

== Dialects ==
[[File:Old English Dialects.png|thumb|The dialects of Old English {{circa|800&nbsp;CE|lk=no}}]]
Just as [[Modern English]] is not monolithic, Old English varied according to place. Despite the diversity of language of the Germanic-speaking migrants who established Old English in England and southeastern Scotland, it is possible to reconstruct proto-Old English as a fairly unitary language. For the most part, the differences between the attested regional dialects of Old English developed within England and southeastern Scotland, rather than on the Mainland of Europe. Although from the tenth century Old English writing from all regions tended to conform to a [[Standard language|written standard]] based on Late West Saxon, in speech Old English continued to exhibit much local and regional variation, which remained in Middle English and to some extent [[English dialects|Modern English dialects]].<ref>A. Campbell, ''Old English Grammar'' (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959), §§&nbsp;5–22.</ref>

The four main dialectal forms of Old English were [[Mercian dialect|Mercian]], [[Northumbrian Old English|Northumbrian]], [[Kentish Old English|Kentish]], and [[West Saxon dialect|West Saxon]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Alistair |author-link=Alistair Campbell (academic) |title=Old English Grammar |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1959 |isbn=0-19-811943-7 |page=4}}</ref> Mercian and Northumbrian are together referred to as ''Anglian''. In terms of geography the Northumbrian region lay north of the Humber River; the Mercian lay north of the [[Thames]] and south of the Humber River; West Saxon lay south and southwest of the Thames; and the smallest, Kentish region lay southeast of the Thames, a small corner of England. The Kentish region, settled by the Jutes from Jutland, has the scantest literary remains.<ref name="Baugh1951" /> The term ''West Saxon'' actually is represented by two different dialects: Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon. Hogg has suggested that these two dialects would be more appropriately named ''Alfredian Saxon'' and ''Æthelwoldian Saxon'', respectively, so that the naive reader would not assume that they are chronologically related.

Each of these four dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the islands. Of these, Northumbria south of the [[River Tyne|Tyne]], and most of [[Mercia]], were [[Viking invasion of Britain|overrun by the Vikings]] during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended, and all of [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]], were then integrated into Wessex under [[Alfred the Great]].
From that time on, the West Saxon dialect (then in the form now known as Early West Saxon) became standardised as the language of government, and as the basis for the many works of literature and religious materials produced or translated from Latin in that period.

The later literary standard known as Late West Saxon (see {{slink||History}}), although centred in the same region of the country, appears not to have been directly descended from Alfred's Early West Saxon. For example, the former [[diphthong]] {{IPA|/iy/}} tended to become monophthongised to {{IPA|/i/}} in EWS, but to {{IPA|/y/}} in LWS.<ref>Hogg (1992), p.&nbsp;117.</ref>

Due to the centralisation of power and the destruction wrought by Viking invasions, there is relatively little written record of the non-West Saxon dialects after Alfred's unification. Some Mercian texts continued to be written, however, and the influence of Mercian is apparent in some of the translations produced under Alfred's programme, many of which were produced by Mercian scholars.<ref>Magennis (2011), pp.&nbsp;56–60.</ref> Other dialects certainly continued to be spoken, as is evidenced by the continued variation between their successors in Middle and Modern English. In fact, what would become the standard forms of Middle English and of Modern English are descended from Mercian rather than West Saxon, while [[Scots language|Scots]] developed from the Northumbrian dialect.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} It was once claimed that, owing to its position at the heart of the Kingdom of Wessex, the relics of Anglo-Saxon accent, idiom and vocabulary were best preserved in the [[West Country dialects#History and origins|dialect of Somerset]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/somersetshiredi00bayngoog The Somersetshire dialect: its pronunciation, 2 papers (1861)] Thomas Spencer Baynes, first published 1855 & 1856</ref>