Owing to this circumstance
and to the fact that his very regular metre leaves no doubt as to
his grammatical forms, this otherwise uninviting poem has a high
philological value. In my book entitled _The Chaucer Canon_, published
at Oxford in 1900, I quote 78 long lines from the _Ormulum_, reduced
to a simpler system of spelling, at pp. 9-14; and, at pp. 15-18,
I give an analysis of the suffixes employed by Orm to mark grammatical
inflexions. At pp. 30-41, I give an analysis of similar inflexions as
employed by Chaucer, who likewise employed the East Midland dialect,
but with such slight modifications of Orm's language as were due to
his living in London instead of Lincolnshire, and to the fact that
he wrote more than 150 years later. The agreement, as to grammatical
usages, of these two authors is extremely close, allowing for lapse
of time; and the comparison between them gives most indubitable and
valuable results. There is no better way of learning Chaucer's
grammar.
As East Midland was spread over a wide area, there are, as might be
expected, some varieties of it.
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