Middle English Dialects - New Passage
Linguistics
"Middle English was above all an age of dialects. It is the only period in the history of English when we can see regional variation reflected in the written language so widely and so unselfconsciously. Systemic variation was difficult to see in the Old English
period, because most parts of the country had no manuscripts surviving, and even in those areas which were represented in surviving texts, the texts were few, their authorship often uncertain, and the dialectal status of their distinguishing features frequently
unclear."
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