Old English Dialects

Old English Dialects

• Four dialects of Old English exist: Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon.
• Northumbrian is spoken in northern England and southeastern Scotland.
• Mercian is spoken in central England.
• Kentish is spoken in southeastern England.
• West Saxon is spoken in southern and southwestern England.
• Mercian and Northumbrian are often classified as Anglian dialects.

Old English Language Features

• Old English has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
• Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are inflected for case.
• Noun and adjective paradigms contain four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative.
• Pronouns also have forms for the instrumental case.
• Old English has a higher proportion of strong verbs compared to Modern English.
• Strong verbs in Old English often become weak verbs in Modern English.
• Examples of verb changes: Old English helpan (infinitive), healp (past singular), hulpon (past plural), holpen (past participle) versus Modern English help, helped, helped, helped, respectively.

Literary Activity

• The first great period of literary activity occurred during the reign of King Alfred the Great in the 9th century.
• Most surviving Old English writings are in the West Saxon dialect.