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Old English Dialects

1.    North of the Humber River was Northumbrian. This was the dialect tliat became the standard of a great religious and literary culture in the 8* and 9* centuries.

2.    In the middle of the country, between the Humber river to the north and the Thames to the south, was Mercia, a loose collection of settlements and kingdoms.

3.    Kentish - was the dialect spoken in the southeastem comer of the country. Here, too, litde survives in tliis dialect.

4.    The most important dialect of Old English was West Saxon (W-S), the form of the language spoken and written in the southwestem part of the country.

•    This was the dialect of King Alfred (d. 899), of the seat of govemment of the A-S people that emerged in the late 9¹*¹ and early 10*^ł* century, located in Winchester, and of the church.

•    Most manuscripts of OE literaturę are in the W-S dialect, so when we read “Old English” in modem editions, we are reading texts in the W-S dialect.

•    OE was first written using mnes, but after the Christianisation (initiated in 597) Latin alphabet was adopted.