Select English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries #221390

Apart from their historical importance these documents possess also considerable linguistic interest. Seven of them (i, II, IV, v, VII, Ix, X) are written in the Kentish dialect, of which they are probably the earliest specimens; one (iii) is in Mercian and one (xxii) in Northumbrian. The language of the rest is West Saxon, a dialect which seems eventually to have come into literary use in many parts of England. In certain cases however the texts which have come down to us are clearly derived from older ones with different linguistic characteristics. Thus VI and VIII shew evident traces of Kentish dialect, while Mercian features may be detected in XII-XV.