This course provides an introduction to those principal dialects of Middle English, demonstrated by selected readings, in the context of the development of the language from Old English to Early Modern English (c. 1150-1500). We will be looking at the language both diachronically (the historical development0 and synchronically (the differentiation of dialect features at a given time). The primary goal of the course is to familiarize students with the range of texts available in different dialects during the period. Students should, for example, be able at the end of the course to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the original Northwest Midlands dialect with a full appreciation of the contribution of the language to the artistry of the poem, and to recognize its difference from the London dialect of Chaucer. The secondary but desirable goal of the course is to enable students to identify dialects: thus, at the end of the course, faced with an unknown Middle English text, the student should be reasonably able to identify its provenance, on the basis of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexical peculiarities.

Much of the work will be done in class. Assignments will include three or four take-home exercises, a midterm, a final, and a short paper (5-8 pages).