Northern English -
A Social and Cultural History
Contents
List of illustrations page ix
Preface xi
List of abbreviations and symbols xiv
1 ‘The North–South divide’ 1
1.1 Introduction: an ‘alternative’ history
of English 1
1.2 The ‘boundaries’ of Northern English 9
1.3 ‘The North is a different country’:
the mythologies of Northern English 24
2 The origins of Northern English 32
2.1 Northern dialects and ‘boundaries’
in the Old English period 32
2.2 The ‘far North’: Northern English and
Scots 49
2.3 The impact of the Scandinavian
settlements 53
2.4 Conclusion: the roots of diversity 62
3 Northern English and the rise of
‘Standard English’ 64
3.1 A North–South divide? Images of
Northern English to 1700 64
3.2 The ‘spread’ of Northern features
into London English 82
vii
3.3 On the margins: attitudes to Northern
English in the eighteenth century 93
3.4 Northern English and the routes
of Romanticism 104
4 Northern English after the Industrial
Revolution (1750–1950) 115
4.1 ‘The two nations’: the impact of
industrialization 115
4.2 ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’: Northern
English in performance 127
4.3 ‘Between Two Worlds’: Northern
English and liminality 141
4.4 Epilogue: Northern English transported 151
5 Northern English present and future 160
5.1 The 1960s and beyond: the ‘renaissance’
of Northern English? 160
5.2 The influence of RP and ‘Estuary
English’ on Northern English? 167
5.3 The ‘erosion’ of Northern dialect? 178
5.3.1 Northern English grammar 178
5.3.2 Northern discourse features 190
5.3.3 Northern vocabulary 195
5.4 Conclusion: whither Northern
English? 199
References 213
Index of Northern English features 241
General index 247
viii Contents
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Versions of Caedmon’s Hymn. page 41
4.1 Rowland Harrison as ‘Geordy Black’. 136
Maps
1.1 County boundaries pre-1974. 14
1.2 County boundaries in 1996. 15
1.3 The ‘Ribble–(Calder–Aire–)Humber line’. 19
1.4 Trudgill’s ‘traditional’ dialect areas. 21
1.5 Trudgill’s ‘modern’ dialect areas. 22
1.6 The FOOT–STRUT split and general northern limit
of a
long vowel in BATH. 23
2.1 Freeborn’s dialects of Old English. 35
2.2 Baugh and Cable’s dialects of Middle English. 36
2.3 Baugh and Cable’s dialects of Old English. 37
2.4 Hogg’s Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 38
2.5 Leith’s Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 39
2.6 Freeborn’s Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 46
2.7 Trudgill’s Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 47
2.8 The ‘Danelaw’. 56
2.9 Leith’s linguistic map of the British lsles c.AD
1000. 59
3.1 Main road and river systems c.1600. 87
3.2 Burnley’s Middle English dialects. 88
5.1 The SED’s northern network of localities. 169
5.2 Trudgill’s possible future dialect areas. 204
