The Humber-Lune Line is a term used for the traditional dialect boundary in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

between descendants of

Northumbrian Old English 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. The dialect w ...

to the north and Mercian Old English to the south. It is considered the most significant dialect boundary within the Anglic dialect continuum and separates the Scots language alongside the Northumbrian,

Cumbrian The Cumberland dialect is a local Northern English dialect in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands, not to be confused with the area's extinct Celtic language, Cumbric. Some parts of Cumbria have a mo ...

, North Riding and East Riding dialects from all other Anglic varieties. The line, though not specific, trends from south-east to north-west, from the

Humber estuary The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the ...

to the mouth of the Cumbrian

River Lune The River Lune (archaically sometimes Loyne) is a river in length in Cumbria and Lancashire, England. Etymology Several elucidations for the origin of the name ''Lune'' exist. Firstly, it may be that the name is Brittonic in genesis and der ...

west of Lancaster. 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

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, spoken only by some older speakers in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954. The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills rising from the Vale of York w ...

. However, Northumbrian dialects are still spoken by younger speakers in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

, and

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

, especially in areas around the Scottish Border.

In-depth 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 gtook radically different paths of development on either side of the line. Traditional Northern or Scots dialects, therefore, have uːfor cow, rʊndfor ground, �aŋfor wrong, and ten(Scots) or ''styen''/''steean'' tɪən(Northern) for stone.

Notes

References

{{reflist Isoglosses English language in England