CHAPTER V
NORTHUMBRIAN IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
The subject of the last chapter was one of great importance. When it
is once understood that, down to 1400 or a little later, the men of
the Scottish Lowlands and the men of the northern part of England
spoke not only the same language, but the same dialect of that
language, it becomes easy to explain what happened afterwards.
There was, nevertheless, one profound difference between the
circumstances of the language spoken to the north of the Tweed and
that spoken to the south of it. In Scotland, the Northumbrian dialect
was spoken by all but the Celts, without much variety; the minor
differences need not be here considered. And this dialect, called
Inglis (as we have seen) by the Lowlanders themselves, had no rival,
as the difference between it and the Erse or Gaelic was obvious and
immutable.
To the South of the Tweed, the case was different. England already
possessed three dialects at least, viz. Northumbrian, Mercian,
and Saxon, i.e. Northern, Midland, and Southern; besides which,
Midland had at the least two main varieties, viz.
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