Editing Mercian dialect (section)

{{short description|Dialect of Old English}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Mercian dialect
| states           = [[England]]
| region           = [[Midlands]]
| ethnicity        = [[Anglo-Saxons]]
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4             = [[North Sea Germanic]]
| fam5             = [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]]
| fam6             = [[Anglic languages|Anglic]]
| fam7             = [[Old English#Dialects|Anglian]]
| ancestor         = [[Proto-Indo-European]]
| ancestor2        = [[Proto-Germanic]]
}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2009}}
{{Old English topics}}
'''Mercian''' was a dialect spoken in the [[Angles (tribe)#Anglian kingdoms in England|Anglian]] kingdom of [[Mercia]] (roughly speaking the [[English Midlands|Midlands]] of England, an area in which four kingdoms had been united under one monarchy). Together with [[Northumbrian (Old English)|Northumbrian]], it was one of the two [[Anglian dialects]]. The other two dialects of [[Old English language|Old English]] were [[Kentish (Old English)|Kentish]] and [[West Saxon (Old English)|West Saxon]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Campbell, Alistair |title=Old English Grammar |location=London |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1959 |isbn=0-19-811943-7 |pages=4}}</ref> Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island. Of these, all of [[Northumbria]] and most of Mercia were overrun by the [[Vikings]] during the 9th century. Part of Mercia and all of [[Kingdom of Kent|Kent]] were successfully defended but were then integrated into the [[Kingdom of Wessex]]. Because of the centralisation of power and the Viking invasions, there is little to no salvaged written evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after [[Alfred the Great]]'s unification, until the Middle English period.<ref>Skeat, W. W., ''English Dialects, from the Eighth Century to the Present Day''. Cambridge,  1911.</ref><ref>Bennett, J. A. W. & Smithers, G. V., ''Early Middle English Verse and Prose''. Oxford, 1968, etc.</ref><ref>Dickins, Bruce, & Wilson, R. M. ''Early Middle English Texts''. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes, 1951.</ref>