Audience: Students of English Studies

Dylan Hilber
Engl. 452
Long Paper
5/12/2014
The East Midlands Influence on Middle English
When looking at Middle English the area of England which had the largest amount of
influence on it was the East Midlands. The dialect of the East midlands had more influence over
the language than that of any other region of England. The East Midlands were the most
populated area of the country, and that coupled with the fact that it had a prosperous economy
lead to its dialect having a large influence. This essay will look at the history and dialect of the
East Midlands in order to see how the region had so much influence on the standard language.
To start off well look at where exactly the East Midlands is. The East Midlands lie to the
north of London and along the east coast of the country. The East Midlands contains a number of
large cities: Nottingham, Leicast, Derby, and Doncaster. The East Midlands also covers some
major landscape areas including the river valley of Trent, the southern end of the Pennine range
hills, and the coastal plain of Lincolnshire.
In his book, The Stories of English, David Crystal gives one the biggest influences on
standard languages when he says The influence of a capital city is always critical in the
emergence of a standard (5972). London just so happened to be the place where three dialect

areas met, which would lead you to believe that it would have been a mixing pot of the different
dialects. Crystal points out that this mixture did not happen but rather the written London
Dialect which emerged from around 1400 was far closer to the writing characteristic of the East
Midlands area than any other (5972). This is primarily due to the fact that language tends to
follow power, something the East Midlands most definitely had. Crystal mentions that the East
Midlands were the most populated and the most prosperous part of the country (5974). The
East Midlands had very strong agricultural and textile centers and as towns got bigger there
markets increased. Crystal points out that Farming of all kinds was fundamental, and one
consequence was the development of the wool trade with Flanders, causing the expansion of
east-coast ports, such as Hull, Lynn, and Boston (5988). This trade industry brought more
people into the East midlands. Crystal also talks about how a through a combination of plague
outbreaks and a decline in farming, an employment vacuum occurred in London (6004). As the
East-Midlands were close and heavily populated a vast majority of the new London arrivals
came from there. This influx of people who spoke the East Midlands dialect helped to further
influence and change the dialect in London itself.
In their book, An Atlas of English Dialects: Region and Dialect, authors Clive Upton and
J.D.A Widdowson spend some time talking about why the East Midlands held such influence.
Upton and Widdowson write Through such influences as those of Chaucer, the universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, and London with its court and large population, an East Midland variety
of English came to be regarded as the written standard (6). Chaucer is considered to be one of
the greatest, if not the greatest poets of the Middle Ages. By using the East Midland dialect in his

work he effectively set the tone for all others to follow. The works of Chaucer helped add on to
the prominence of the East Midland dialect, and this in turn helped lead to the development of
the East Midlands dialect into the standard language.
With the East Midlands dialect also being used by two of the most renowned universities
in the world its status as a written standard became even more solidified. Crystal comments on
this in his article Which English or English Which? when he writes special attention is paid
to an East Midlands triangle bounded by London, Cambridge, and (on the borders with
Southern) Oxford an area of high population, containing the main social and political centre,
and the main seats of learning (112). With the East Midlands dialect being used by students
from all over England it allowed it to mix among them, and when it was time to leave school
they would take the dialect to wherever they were headed, thus increasing its spread. However,
Upton and Widdowson also write that The establishment of this standard took a long time, and
at first it only applied to English written for widespread consumption (6). It may have taken a
long time, but by being used by people of such influence, and in places with such economic
influence, it likely went quicker than it would have without them.
Another interesting point of note which Crystal brings up is how the East Midlands
dialect was easier for people to understand. Crystal says The Midlands dialect was easier for
most people to understand, as a communication conduit between Northern and Southern speech,
and it is easy to imagine it becoming attractive as a dialecta franca in London (6004). Crystal
brings up a very good point with this sentence. Earlier in his book Crystal had pointed out that
the biggest dialect differences where between the parts of Britain that were the furthest away

from each other. The East Midlands dialect served as a bridge that allowed those from the north
to more easily communicate with those from the south. When they came to London they would
learn and use the East Midlands dialect so that they could easily communicate with the others in
the city.
It was also interesting to see how far the Midlands dialect actually extended. In Mary S.
Serjeantsons article The Dialects of the West Midlands in Middle English she spends most of
her time discussing the West Midlands, but she also spends some time on the East Midlands. She
notes that Richard Morris, however states that the Midland dialect was spoken in East Anglian
counties and also to the west of the Pennine Chain and all the Midland counties as far south as
the Thames (57). This was interesting to read because it helps to show how the dialect spread
outside of its own region.
The East Midlands contained many of the wealthiest counties in the country and this
helped its dialect spread. In almost all cases language follows the power. As mentioned
previously the East Midlands had a bustling agricultural and textile centers. With all of this
business many people had to travel through the area, and thus they were exposed to the dialect.
With London being located not too far from the East Midlands many would have to go through
the region to get to London. The East Midlands dialect covered the largest are and thus it became
the most influential. The northern parts of the East Midlands dialect area contained heavy
amounts of Scandinavian settlements which helped contribute to the rapid development of the
language. (University of Philadelphia 2011). As the East Midlands continued to prosper many
speakers of the East Midlands dialect moved London and further spread the dialect. With the

East midlands speakers being of such vast numbers its no wonder that their dialect was the one
that caught on. The Kentish dialect also caught on in London for a while, but it eventually lost
out to the East Midlands dialect as the standard language. It is also necessary to emphasize that
though the London dialect agreed with the east Midland dialect, these two dialects were not
exactly identical in all their details. The East Midlands heavily influenced the dialect and
London, but London put its own twist on the dialect.
Its important to remember that though the East Midlands dialect had a large influence on
the standard language, it was not the only one. Dr. Peter Tam of the National University of
Singapore wrote We must also remember that Standard English isnt pure East Midland there
was, to a certain point, influences from the other dialects. The language was also influenced by
the Southern and South-Eastern dialects, and Crystal mentions East Anglia when he writes East
Anglian usage would have made a further contribution to the dialect melting pot out of which a
written standard language would emerge (6011). Despite these contributions Crystal notes
Although there is some evidence of regional variation, the written London dialect which
emerged around 1400 was far closer to the writing characteristic of the East Midlands than of
any other (5971).
A slightly different article that I found was The Development of Ablaut in the Strong
Verbs of the East Midlands Dialects of Middle English by James Rettger. This article took a
look at the words used in the East Midlands rather than focusing on history. Rettger looks at both
the Central and East Midlands, and while it was a bit confusing to read, it was interesting to see
the variations.

It can also be interesting to look at current words used in the East Midlands. In the book
by Clive Upton and J.D.A Widdowson, An Atlas of English Dialects: Region and Dialect, they
look at the word armpit and the scattered nature of its origins. They note how the word Armpit
has eroded the use of the word armhole from the south. They also note that in the East Midlands
UNDER-ARM is sometimes used, and also, especially in the Midlands, phrases such as
UNDER or UNDERNEATH YOUR ARM are to be found (95). It is interesting to see how
even still today there can be a number of different variations between the different regions of
England. They also have a section that deals with the word Easter egg. They make an interesting
discovery when they find that in some parts of the East Midlands, east Warwickshire and East
Anglia no traditional word for Easter Egg has been collected (1630.
The dialect of the East Midlands played a large role in influencing the dialect of London
and the country as a whole at the time. The region was able to do this because it was the seat of
power and population. When many flocked to London they brought the dialect with them. The
East Midlands dialect mixed with the other dialects in London, but it was the East Midlands
dialect that came out on top and left the most lasting impression.

Works Cited
Crystal, David. The Stories Of English. Woodstock: Overlook, 2004. Kindle File.
Crystal, David. "Which English - or English Which?" Who Owns English? By Mike Hayhoe and
Stephen Parker. Buckingham: Open UP, 1994. 109-14. Print.
Rettger, James F. "The Development of Ablaut in the Strong Verbs of the East Midland Dialects of
Middle English." Language 10.4 (1934): 5-186. Web.
Serjeantson, Mary S. "The Dialects of the West Midlands in Middle English." The Review of English
Studies 3.9 (1927): 54-67. Web.
Stafford, Pauline. The East Midlands in the Early Middle Ages. Leicester: Leicester UP, 1985. Print.
Tam, Peter. "The Standardization of English." The Standardization of English. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May
2014. <http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/Standardisation/C.htm>.
University of Philadelphia (2011) Dialects of Middle English [online] available from
<http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~dringe/CorpStuff/Thesis/Dialects.html>
Upton, Clive, and J.D.A Widdowson. An Atlas of English Dialects: Region and Dialect. London:
Routledge, 2013. Print.