8. =OLD ENGLISH DIALECTS.=--For more than a century after the Conquest, English ceased to be used as a literary language--as a book-speech, except in the _Saxon Chronicle_, which was continued down to 1154. It still continued, of course, to be the language of the English nation. The Normans, when they used books at all, imported French books from France; and they never dreamed that English was a language worthy to be written down. Different English counties spoke different kinds of English; and this continued for many centuries--and still continues to a considerable extent. Thus the English spoken by a Yorkshire-man is very different from the English spoken by a Dorsetshire-man; and the English of both differs very much from that spoken in Kent. But, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries--and even much later--travelling was very difficult and expensive; working-men could not travel at all; there was little motive to travel for any one; and generations were born and died within the same village, or on one farm, or at least in one part of the ‘country-side.’ Thus different parts of this island pronounced their English in their own way; had their own grammar--that is, their own inflections; and each division of England looked upon itself as the right and correct speakers of the English tongue. But, among the large number of different dialects, there gradually emerged into distinct and even remarkable prominence three chief dialects. These are now known as the =Northern=, =Midland=, and =Southern=. The grammar of the three differs in several respects; but the chief grammatical mark is found in the plural ending of the present tense of verbs. This is =ës= in the North; =en= in the Midland dialect; and =eth= in the South. Thus we have: _N._ _M._ _S._ We hopës, we hopen, we hopeth. You hopës, you hopen, you hopeth. They hopës, they hopen, they hopeth. This variety of the plural forms the test which enables readers of books written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to determine in what part of England and in what dialect they were written. The following are the chief books written in these dialects: =NORTHERN= (spoken between the Forth and the Humber)--the =Cursor Mundi=, a version of Scripture in rhyme, written about.....=1320= =MIDLAND= (spoken in the East-Anglian counties, and the whole of the Midland district)--=Orm’s Ormulum=, a paraphrase in verse of the parts of the gospels given in the church service, written in.....=1215= =SOUTHERN= (spoken in all the counties south of the Thames, and also in several western counties)--=Layamon’s Brut= (a translation of a French poem by John de Wace), written in.....=1205=