flcrcforc hirc ro p t 1,1 rc LelntwaIdifle ton Leinthall LUDLOW Bra on fl?o rt in Bryan 0 I?. Teme Lingen WIGMORE RICHARDS CASTLE f. Aesey ( gqfr/% '4 Eardtsland LEOMINSTER KG/'MBRIDGE BROMYARD WEOBLEY Almeley Faidisley 'CLIFFORD ' Much Cowarne Castle Frome Hay Yahil 1AVERN HEREFORD // HIRS Mordiford Woolliope LEDBIJRY Fownhope 7 Much Marcie Abbey DolE '-i' [I EWYAS ç EAS HAROLD LACY fkL4' 1) ROSS- ON-WYE -P >1, I 14) II., MONMOU11-1 STUDIES IN THE DIALECT MATERIALS OF MEDIEVAL HEREFORDSHIRE Vol I Merja Riitta Black Submitted for the degree of PhD Department of English Language UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW March 1997 © Mcrja Riitta Black 1997 Abstract This thesis is an investigation into the medieval dialect of the pre-1974 county of Herefordshire. The main source materials consist of a group of literary texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, localized in the Herefordshire area by linguistic means. The study builds on the methodology developed in connection with the Linguistic Alias of Late Mediaeval English (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986), but goes far beyond it both in its analysis of the individual texts and in using the data for descriptive and interpretative study. The aim is to contextualize and evaluate the evidence, as well as to gain a broad view of the characteristics of the dialect, including both diatopic and diachronic patterns and developments. In order to assess their value as evidence, a detailed dialect analysis is carried out for each individual text; as part of this process, the Atlas localizations are reviewed, taking into consideration the full material now available, and various linguistic and textual questions are discussed. A set of dialect criteria for the localization of texts within Herefordshire and the South-West Midland area is defined. While the study focuses on the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century materials, comparisons with earlier and later periods are made Several thirteenth-century literary texts are discussed in detail, including the well-known 'AB-language' and the two manuscripts of The Oivl and the Nightingale; the material is further related to the available evidence for the Old, Early Modern and Present-Day English periods. A series of studies of specific areas of grammar and phonology are carried out, covering topics such as the changes affecting the systems of gender, case and number since the Old English period, and the developments of the Early Middle English front rounded vowels, and of Germanic a. A language contact-based explanation of the Old English sound-change known as 'second fronting' is suggested. The linguistic patterns are related to the external history of the dialect, including geographical, political and settlement patterns, language contact with Welsh, and socialleconomic factors. The thesis is accompanied by four appendices, which reproduce the linguistic data collected for the study, organized both by text (linguistic profiles) and by feature (item lists) 2 LIST OF CONTENTS Volume One Abstract 2 List of contents 3 List of figures 6 Preface 9 List of abbreviations and symbols 11 PART I 1 Introduction 14 2 The sources 19 2. 1 Definition of the material: area, timespan and selection of texts 19 2 2 The collection of data 28 2 3 Dialectal analysis: methods and concepts 34 3 The external context. a geographical and historical survey of Herefordshire 44 PART II 4 The Late Middle English material 58 4.1 Plan of the analysis 58 4.2 Dialectal analysis of the texts 61 4 2. 1 Ma,,devi/le 's Travels. LP 7260 61 4 2.2 The Prick of Conscience: LPs 7280 and 7380 66 4.2.3 Medical and scientific texts: LPs 7290, 7361, 7362, 7310 and 7340 80 4 2.4 Piers Plowman: LPs 7301, 7302, 7320 and 7330 98 4.2.5 Titus and Vepasian: LPs 7351, 7352 and 7353 131 4 2.6 The Prose Brul: LPs 7370, 7420, 7481 and 7482 140 3 4.2.7 Menioriale Credencium. LPs 7391 and 7392 153 4.2.8 The Swynderby papers: LPs 7401 and 7402 161 4.2.9 The dialect of William Herebert: LP 7410 182 4.2.10 The Life of Gregorius: LP 7430 187 4.2. 11 Co,?fessio Amantis: LP 7450 191 4.2.12 New Testament translation: LP 7460 199 4.2.13 Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle: LP 7500 206 4.2.14 Two northern Herefordshire texts: LPs 7510 and 7520 215 4 2 15 The Harley 2253 miscellany: LP 9260 231 4.3 Overview of the material 237 4.4 The localization of the Herefordshire texts 242 5 Earlier and later materials 251 5.1 Possibilities of diachronic comparison 251 5.2 Early Middle English 252 5.2. 1 The thirteenth-century material 252 5.2.2 The AB-language: context and status 259 5 2 3 The AB-language: geographical placing 264 5 2 4 The Lambeth homilies 275 5 2.5 The friars' miscellanies 279 5 2 6 The thirteenth-century development: tradition and innovation 299 5 3 Old English and transitional materials 304 5 4 Comparison with Early Modern and Present-Day English evidence 310 PART III 6 Studies in the dialect of medieval Herefordshire 318 6. 1 The selection of features for study 318 6 2 Gender, case and number: changing patterns 320 6 2.1 The loss of gender and case 320 6.2.2 The Old English systems 321 6 2.3 The determiner system (1): gender and case 322 6 2.4 The determiner system (2): nearness and number 331 4 6.2.5 The third-person pronoun system 334 6.2.6 The singular/plural distinction in present indicative verbs 344 62.7 Conclusions 347 6.3 Developments in the stressed vowels 348 6.3.1 The front rounded vowels 348 6 3.2 Germanic a before nasals 361 6.3.3 The 'second fronting' 366 7 Diatopic and diachronic patterns 376 7. 1 Diatopic patterns 376 7.2 Language contact: the question of Welsh 379 7.3 Tradition, innovation and continuity 382 8 Conclusion 384 Notes 387 Bibliography 394 List of medieval manuscripts 409 Volume Two Appendix 1: The Questionnaire 412 Appendix 2: Linguistic Profiles 419 Appendix 3: Item Lists 636 Appendix 4: Distribution Maps 800 Frontispiece: map of Herefordshire 5 LIST OF FIGURES I Herefordshire: high ground (after Gelling 1992: 2) 45 2 Herefordshire: main routes 45 3 Early Old English place-name elements and the advance of settlement (after Sylvester 1969: 96) 49 4 Celtic place-name elements (after Sylvester 1969: 80) 49 5 Localization of LP 7260 64 6 Localization of LP 7280 69 7 Changes of linguistic usage between parts of LP 7380 74 8 Localization of the scribal dialect of LP 7380 76 9 Forms in latter part of LP 7380 76 10 NIvIL forms in central part of 7380 77 11 Comparison between forms in LPs 7290, 7361 and 7362 83 12 Localization of the shared element in LPs 7290, 7361 and 7362 84 13 Localization of LP 7310 93 14 Localization of LP 7340 96 15 Differences in linguistic usage between LPs 7301 (scribe A) and 7302 (scribe B) 101 16 Localization of the shared usage of LP 730 1/2 103 17 Localization of LP 7320 108 18 Replacement of lexical items by the translator of the N-text of the Piers Plowman C-version (LP 7320) 120 19 Localization of LP 7330 128 20 Differences in linguistic usage between scribes A, B and C (LPs 7351, 7352 and 7353) 134 21 Localization of shared forms in 735 1/2/3 (scribes A, B and C) 136 22 Localization of shared forms in 7352 and 7353 (scribes B and C) 137 23 Combination of the localizations in Figures 21 and 22 137 24 Localization of LP 7370 143 25 Localization of LP 7420 146 26 Localization of LP 7481 151 27 Differences in linguistic usage between scribes A, B and C (LPs 7391/2) 156 28 Localization of LP 739 1/2 (scribes B and C) 158 29 Localization of shared non-WML forms in LP 740 1/2 169 30 Differences in orthographic usage between stretches X and Y in LP 740 1/2 170 6 31 Localization of the X stretch (LP 7401) 172 32 Localization of the main dialectal element in the Y stretch (LP 7402) 172 33 Welsh orthography used in LP 740 1/2, The Hymn to the Virgin and MS Llanstephan 117 178 34 Localization of LP 7410 186 35 Localization of LP 7430 189 36 Localization of LP 7450 194 37 Differences between the earlier and later parts of LP 7450 195 38 Localization of the shared element in MS Selwyn College 108 Li 202 39 Differences between parts of MS Selwyn College 108 L.1 203 40 Localization of LP 7460 (stretch Si) 202 41 Comparison between linguistic forms in the Caligula A xi text of Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle and the two hands of MS Harley 201 208 42 Localization of the shared element between the two hands of MS Harley 201 (LPs 7500 and 7080) 210 43 Localization of LP 7500 (hand A of MS Harley 201) 210 44 Localization of LP 7080 (hand B of MS Harley 201) 214 45 Combination of the localizations in Figures 42-44 214 46 Localization of the main dialectal element in LP 7510 217 47 Changes of linguistic usage within LP 7510 218 48 Distribution of the forms oizy, neier neyer (after LAIME) 220 49 Distribution of the forms 3ozie(n, silf sylf (after LALME) 220 50 Distribution of the forms swich(e, ich(e ych(e, schat (after LALME) 221 51 Overlap of the distributions in Figures 48-50 221 52 Localization of the main dialectal element in LP 7520 225 53 Differences in linguistic usage between LPs 7510 and 7520 229 54 Localization of LP 9260 234 55 Questionnaire items for localization within the Herefordshire area 242 56 Bundle of isoglosses marking the northern limits of meny, from, togader, hiire, it'ord/e, hi hy 246 57 Bundle of isoglosses marking the southern and eastern limits of mon, wes, vc/,('e 246 58 Relative localizations: approximate divisions within Herefordshire 248 59 Relative localizations: adjusted picture 248 60 Approximate localization of the AB-language 268 61 Comparison between AB and later Herefordshire texts 269 7 62 Differences between the LI and L2 stretches in