date from about 1180, and seem to have been written in Essex, according to evidence brought forward by Dr. Morris; for some of their forms are akin to the Danelagh, others to the South. They have peculiarities, found also in Kent; such as the change of i into e, manken for mankin, sennen for sinnen; also, the combination of ie to express the sound of e, as in lief, bitwien, gier, þief, fiend, friend; lie (page 229) for the older leoʓen; glie for gleo; fieble (page 191) for what we call feeble. This combination is found in King Alfred's translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, and after 1120 was preserved nowhere else but in Kent and in the shire where the present Homilies were written. Another combination of vowels, common enough in Gothic but hitherto almost unknown in England, is that of ai.[1] We find in these Homilies the new forms maiden, nail, slaine, nai: here the i represents an older g; the ancient diphthong œ, beloved of old, was soon to vanish from England. There is here also a combination of consonants much used in the Eastern half of England, that of gh replacing the old h; we now find þoghte and aghte (debuit); this was as yet strange to the shires South of Thames. Another mark of the North and of the Eastern coast, the use of sal instead of shall, is also found. The hard g sound was henceforth peculiar to East Anglia and Northern Essex; we here find folegen, burg, gure (vester), beger (emptor), gier (annus); also
- ↑ It is found, but most seldom, in the last part of the Peterborough Chronicle, as in mai and lai; the i representing the old g.
