The West Midlands dialect is a type of modern English spoken in England’s West Midlands area, with unique features such as a strong g pronunciation and verb substitutions. The dialect also appears in Middle English literature, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. JRR Tolkien’s translation of these works is popular, but the dialect contains many uncommon words that require a good glossary.
West Midlands dialect can refer to a type of modern English spoken in England in the West Midlands area. This may also be called a Birmingham dialect or a Black Country accent. Some features of the modern West Midlands dialect include a strong g pronunciation of words ending in ng, the substitution of the verb am with are, and ab starting with the verb to be. As it is not rather than it is not. Linguistic specialists are sometimes even more interested in how the West Midlands dialect works in Middle English, the intermediate form of English between Anglo-Saxon English and Modern English that was both spoken and written from about 1150 to 1300 AD.
There are several important works of English literature written in the West Midlands dialect which date from this period and most of them have been discovered in a single manuscript. These works include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl, an extended allegorical poem. The works date from around the same time that Chaucer was writing and, like Chaucer, represent a move away from composing things in French or Latin to writing in the common tongue instead. Chaucer wrote in the East Midlands dialect, and there are far more examples of this dialect in written form than there are West Midland dialect works.
Thus, the unknown poet who wrote Sir Gawain and Pearl (and it is unclear whether this poet is the same person) has made an exceptionally important contribution to English literature. He wrote in a language that has since faded. The East Midlands dialect is the major contributor to Modern Old English. This makes translating these works considerably difficult, as there are uncommon words and expressions in the East Midlands form.
However, many have offered us translations of Sir Gawain and Pearl. One of the most famous of these is JRR Tolkien’s translation. With his keen interest in the history of language development, Tolkien assiduously studied the West Midlands dialect to write translations that are among the most popular. Modern linguists point to some disagreements about translation, but it is Tolkien who can be most credited with bringing these works the attention they deserve.
As mentioned, a number of words are unique to the West Midlands dialect. Even if you’re pretty good at reading Chaucer’s Middle English, you’ll come across words in Pearl and Sir Gawain that make absolutely no sense. Make sure, if you intend to read the original text of these works, that you find a copy with a good glossary. Some peculiar words in the dialect include:
Burn—man, warrior
Mo— more questionable
Nimian— take
Sely– blessed, happy, good
Yghe— eye
The above are just a few examples of weird words that the dialect contains. Reading Middle English of the West Midlands dialect you will recognize many of the words if you are already a fan of Middle English. But the original work of attempting to define some of these words was difficult for early learners of Middle English, since the dialect represents such a departure from the more common East Midlands dialect of Chaucer.
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