Borderlands South Yorkshire in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking Periods. AD 450–1066 by Phil Sidebottom

Author:Phil Sidebottom
Format: epub

Fig. 33: ‘In-Elmet’ place-names (based on Jones, 1975, and Loveluck, 2003).

We have previously discussed the Mercian input into southern Yorkshire and how this is reflected, inter alia, in the inclusion of the Elmedsaetna in the Tribal Hidage tribute list. Kolb’s dialect studies (1973) have also identified areas of southern Yorkshire which seem to have a specific linguistic identity. Whereas some dialects were found to be widespread, spanning almost all of the West Riding, others appear to have a distinct boundary within the county or are confined to a specific area where particular dialectic sounds are prevalent and geographically isolated. Kolb identifies ‘ate’, ‘stole’, ‘spoke’ and ‘rode’ dialect forms which are only found between an area of the upper Don Valley in the region of Penistone and north of the Calder Valley around Huddersfield (Kolb, 1973, p.302). This, incidentally, is also defined by a particular group of stone monuments dating to the later-Saxon period (see ‘Anglo-Saxon Stone Monuments in South Yorkshire’ chapter below). One possible reason for this highly-localized set of dialectic properties is the hillslope settlement by incomers from the tenth century onwards – the Hiberno-Norse – discussed earlier. There are also a few dialectic sounds which see the middle Don Valley as its northern boundary. These include what Kolb terms the ‘goose’, ‘school’, ‘tooth’ and ‘foot’ dialect words which extend from the southern West Riding boundary down to the north Midlands, including the present city of Sheffield (Kolb, 1973, pp.303–07). This, however, is a small area of South Yorkshire and it is not unreasonable to expect some transmission of dialectic forms across a county boundary which presents no geological or topographical obstacles.

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