The modern dialects are very
numerous, but can be arranged under five divisions, two of which may
be called Northern and Southern, as before; whilst the other three
arise from a division of the widely spread Midland into subdivisions.
These may be called, respectively, West Midland, Mid Midland (or
simply Midland), and East Midland; and it has been shown that similar
subdivisions appear even in the Middle English period.
This arrangement of the modern dialects under five divisions is that
adopted by Prof. Wright, who further simplifies the names by using
Western in place of West Midland, and Eastern in place of East
Midland. This gives us, as a final result, five divisions of English
dialects, viz. Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, and Southern;
to which we must add the dialects of modern Scotland (originally
Northern), and the dialects of Ireland, viz. of Ulster (a kind of
Northern), Dublin, and Wexford (a kind of Southern).
No map of dialects is here given in illustration, because it is
practically impossible to define their boundaries accurately. Such
a map was once given by Dr Ellis, but it is only arbitrary; and Prof.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141