|
OE Dialects |
ME Dialects |
|
Northumbrian |
Northern |
|
West Saxon |
South-Western, or Southern |
|
Kentish |
South-Eastern |
|
Mercian |
East Midlands (includes London) |
|
West Midlands |
|
East
Anglian |
A Wide Range of Variant Forms and
Much Scribal Error
-
The word day could
be spelt in a variety of ways: dai, day, daye, dæi, deai, dey,
dei, dawe
-
The word
knight could be spelt:
knight, knighte, knyght, knyghte, knyht, knyhte, knith, knict,
kincth, cniþte, and cniht
-
Some words had hundreds of variants
-
There is variation even within the work of the same author,
especially in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries
|
