Humber-Lune Line

Last updated
The Humber-Lune line. HUmber-Lune line.png
The Humber-Lune line.

The Humber-Lune Line is a term used for the traditional dialect boundary in England between descendants of Northumbrian Old English to the north & Mercian Old English to the south. [1] It is considered the most significant dialect boundary within the Anglic dialect continuum [2] and separates the Scots language alongside the Northumbrian, Cumbrian, North Riding and East Riding dialects from all other Anglic varieties. The line trends from south-east to north-west, from the Humber estuary to the mouth of the Cumbrian River Lune west of Lancaster. [Note 1] In the 1899 publication On Early English Pronunciation, Part V, the dialectologist Alexander John Ellis attempted a precise plotting of the line, which he referred to as the "hoose line" because areas north of the line uses the "hoose" pronunciation (also found in Scots) rather than the "house" found south of the line. [3]

Contents

Movement over time

Within the last century the line has moved northwards to the Tees. Traditional Northumbrian dialects (in the broadest sense of the word) are now essentially extinct in some Yorkshire areas where they were previously spoken, such as Kingston upon Hull or York, but may still be heard in northerly areas of Yorkshire, such as Stokesley. Northumbrian dialects are still spoken by younger speakers in Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland, especially in areas around the Scottish Border. [4] [5]

Phonetic description

Traditional Northern English dialects spoken north of the line, alongside the closely related Scots language, appear highly divergent and underwent markedly different paths of development from all other Anglic dialects. Primarily, differences in the development of early ME /uː/, early ME /oː/, and OE /ɑː/, the development of early ME short /o/ and short /e/ when subject to Open Syllable Lengthening, and the lengthening of OE short /u/ and /i/ before clusters of homorganic nasal plus stop, and the development of OE short /a/ before [ng] took radically different paths of development on either side of the line. Traditional Northern or Scots dialects, therefore, have coo [kuː] for cow, grund [grʊnd] for ground, wrang [ɹaŋ] for wrong, and stane [sten] (Scots) or styen/steean [stɪən] (Northern) for stone. [6]

Notes

  1. This article is founded on the Cumbrian River Lune, not to be confused with the River Lune, Durham located nearby in County Durham.

    Related Research Articles

    Pitmatic is a group of traditional Northern English dialects spoken in rural areas of the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield in England.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbria</span> County of England

    Cumbria is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Carlisle.

    The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the cot–caught merger.

    Mackem, Makem or Mak'em is a nickname for residents of and people from Sunderland, a city in North East England. It is also a name for the local dialect and accent ; and for a fan, of whatever origin, of Sunderland A.F.C. It has been used by the people of Sunderland to describe themselves since the 1980s, prior to which it was mainly used in Tyneside as a disparaging exonym. An alternative name for a Mackem is a Wearsider.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Scots language</span>

    The history of the Scots language refers to how Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland developed into modern Scots.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Yorkshire dialect</span> Dialect of English spoken in Yorkshire

    The Yorkshire dialect is a dialect of English, or continuum of dialects, spoken in the Yorkshire region of Northern England. The dialect has roots in Old English and is influenced by Old Norse. The Yorkshire dialect has faded and faces extinction, but organisations such as The Yorkshire Dialect Society and the East Riding Dialect Society exist to promote its use.

    Northumbrian was a dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Together with Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-categories of Old English devised and employed by modern scholars.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">English language in Northern England</span> Collection of accents and dialects

    The spoken English language in Northern England has been shaped by the region's history of settlement and migration, and today encompasses a group of related accents and dialects known as Northern England English (or, simply, Northern (English) in the United Kingdom).

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Frisian languages</span> Group of West Germanic languages

    The Anglo-Frisian languages are the Anglic and Frisian varieties of the West Germanic languages.

    Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbrian dialect</span> English dialect of northwestern England

    Cumbrian dialect or Cumberland dialect is a local dialect of Northern England in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands. Sounding similar and not to be confused with the area's extinct Celtic language, Cumbric. Some parts of Cumbria have a more North-East English sound to them. Whilst clearly spoken with a Northern English accent, the Cumbrian dialect shares much vocabulary with Scots. A Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore by William Rollinson exists, as well as a more contemporary and lighthearted Cumbrian Dictionary and Phrase Book.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">East Midlands English</span> Dialect of English

    East Midlands English is a dialect, including local and social variations spoken in most parts of East Midlands England. It generally includes areas east of Watling Street, north of an isogloss separating it from variants of Southern English and East Anglian English, and south of another separating it from Northern English dialects. This includes the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire. Dialects of northern Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire usually share similarities with Northern English dialects. Relative to other English dialects, there have been relatively few studies of East Midlands English.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Scotland</span> Overview of the languages spoken in Scotland

    The languages of Scotland belong predominantly to the Germanic and Celtic language families. The classification of the Pictish language was once controversial, but it is now generally considered a Celtic language. Today, the main language spoken in Scotland is English, while Scots and Scottish Gaelic are minority languages. The dialect of English spoken in Scotland is referred to as Scottish English.

    The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of accents and dialects. The language forms part of the broader British English, along with other varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the English language spoken and written in England include English English and Anglo-English.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbrian dialect</span> Any of several English varieties of Northumbria, England

    Northumbrian dialect or Northumbrian English is any one of several English language varieties spoken in the traditional English region of Northumbria, which includes most of the North East England government region. The traditional Northumbrian dialect is a moribund older form of the dialect spoken in the area which is closely related to Scots and Cumbrian and shares with them a common origin in Northumbrian Old English.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbrian burr</span> Uvular pronunciation of /r/ in rural far northeast England

    The Northumbrian burr is the distinctive uvular pronunciation of R in the traditional dialects of Northumberland, Tyneside ('Geordie'), and northern County Durham, now remaining only among speakers of rural Northumberland, excluding Tyne and Wear. It is one of the few rhotic dialects left in England.

    Middle English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large text corpus of Middle English. The dialects of Middle English vary greatly over both time and place, and in contrast with Old English and Modern English, spelling was usually phonetic rather than conventional. Words were generally spelled according to how they sounded to the person writing a text, rather than according to a formalised system that might not accurately represent the way the writer's dialect was pronounced, as Modern English is today.

    Rhoticity in the English language is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant in certain contexts by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic accents, the historical English sound is preserved in all pronunciation contexts. In non-rhotic accents, speakers no longer pronounce in postvocalic environments: when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words hard and butter as /ˈhɑːrd/ and /ˈbʌtər/, but a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the sound and pronounces them as /ˈhɑːd/ and /ˈbʌtə/.

    The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalisation of velar consonants in many positions.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbria (modern)</span> Area in North East England

    Northumbria, in modern contexts, usually refers to the region of England between the Tees and Tweed, including the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham, but it may also be taken to be synonymous with North East England. The area corresponds to the rump lands of the historical Kingdom of Northumbria, which later developed into the late medieval county of Northumberland or Comitatus Northumbriae, whose original southern boundary was the River Tees. A provincial flag of Northumbria has been registered.

    References

    1. Culpeper, Jonathan (2008). History of English. Taylor & Francis. p. 61.
    2. Pietsch, Lukas (2011). Variable Grammars: Verbal Agreement in Northern Dialects of English. De Gruyter. p. 278.
    3. The line is plotted precisely in pages 19-20 of Ellis, Alexander John (1889). On Early English Pronunciation, Part V..
    4. "Yorkshire dialect - an explanation". www.yorkshiredialectsociety.org.uk. The Yorkshire Dialect Society. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
    5. Wells, Katie (2002). Northern English: A Social and Cultural History. Cambridge University Press. p. 168. ISBN   9780511487071.
    6. Hickey, Raymond (2015). Researching Northern English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.