Editing Kentish Old English

{{short description|Dialect of Old English}}
{{for|the modern dialect|Kentish dialect}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Kentish Old English
| states           = [[England]]
| region           = Parts of [[South East England]]
| 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]]
}}
{{Old English topics}}
'''Kentish''' was a southern dialect of [[Old English]] spoken in the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] [[kingdom of Kent]]. It was one of four dialect-groups of Old English, the other three being [[Mercian (Anglo-Saxon)|Mercian]], [[Northumbrian (Anglo-Saxon)|Northumbrian]] (known collectively as the [[Anglian dialects]]), and [[Late West Saxon|West Saxon]].

The dialect was spoken in what are now the modern-day Counties of [[Kent]], [[Surrey]], [[Sussex]], southern [[Hampshire]] and the [[Isle of Wight]] by the Germanic settlers, identified by [[Bede]] as [[Jutes]].<ref>Bede, ''Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum'', ii, 5</ref> Such a distinct difference in the [[Anglo-Saxon settlers]] of the entire Kingdom of Kent is viewed more sceptically by modern historians.<ref>Simon Keynes, 'England 700-900' in [[Rosamond McKitterick]] (ed.), ''The New Cambridge Medieval History'', II, 19; Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, 'Anglo-Saxon Kent, c. 425–725' in Peter Leach (ed.), ''Archaeology in Kent to 1500'', Council of British Archaeology Report 48 (1982), 74</ref>

Although by far the most important surviving Kentish manuscripts are the law codes of the Kentish kings, contained in ''[[Textus Roffensis]]'', they were early-twelfth-century copies of much earlier laws, and their spellings and forms of English were modernised and standardised in various ways.  This particularly affects the Laws of [[Hlothhere]] and [[Eadric]].<ref>Lisi Oliver, ''The Beginnings of English Law'' (Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations, 14, Toronto, CO, 2002), 126</ref>  However, some indications of the differences between late-seventh-century Kentish and West Saxon can be made by comparing two contemporaneous laws.  The law code of the West-Saxon king [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]] was composed at some point between 688 and 694.  Clause 20 concerns potential thefts by outsiders (i.e. those not owing allegiance to the kings of Wessex).  This was adopted almost word for word by Ine's contemporary, the Kentish king [[Wihtred of Kent|Wihtræd]]:<ref name="auto"/>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! West Saxon: [[Ine of Wessex|Ine]], 20 !! Kentish: [[Wihtred of Kent|Wihtræd]], 23
|-
| Gif feorcund mon oððe fremde butan wege geond wudu gonge [ond] ne hrieme ne horn blawe, for ðeof he bið to profianne, oððe to sleanne oððe to aliesanne.<ref>Text from F.l. Attenborough (ed. & transl.), The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, (Cambridge, 1922), 42</ref> || [23] Gif feorran[-]cumen man oþþe fræmde buton wege gange, [ond] he þonne nawðer ne hryme ne he horn ne blawe, for ðeof he bið to profianne, oþþe to sleanne oþþe to alysenne.<ref name="auto">Text from Oliver, ''Beginnings of English Law'', 163, available from http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/wi/</ref>
|-
| If a man who is come from afar or a stranger should go outside the track towards the woods and neither calls out or blows his horn, he is to be regarded as a thief, either to be killed or to be redeemed.<ref>Text from Oliver, ''Beginnings of English Law'', 179, available from http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/wi/</ref> || If a man [who is] come from afar or a stranger should go off the track and he then neither calls out nor does he blow his horn, he is to be regarded as a thief, either to be killed or to be redeemed.<ref name="auto"/>
|}

With many words at this point, there is no difference between Kentish and what became the dominant West-Saxon form of English.  Other words indicate possible differences in pronunciation (or, at least, of transcribing), such as ''fremde/ fræmde'' or ''gonge/ gange''.  However, there is little doubt that, even with minor differences in syntax and vocabulary, the two forms were mutually intelligible, at least by this relatively late date in the Anglo-Saxon settlement of southern England.

The principal evidence for Kentish are the ''[[Old Kentish Glosses]]''.<ref>Ursula Kalbhen, ''Kentische Glossen und kentischer Dialekt im Altenglischen, mit einer kommentierten Edition der altenglischen Glossen in der Handschrift London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D.vi'', Münchener Universitätsschriften (Frankfurt/M.: Lang, 2003), {{ISBN|978-3-631-38392-6}} .</ref> [[Henry Sweet]] included two Kentish charters and a [[Kentish Psalm]] (from the [[Vespasian Psalter]]) in his ''Anglo-Saxon Reader''; a charter of Oswulf (805-10) and a charter of Abba (835).<ref>Sweet, H., ed. (1946) ''Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader''; 10th ed., revised by C. T. Onions. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 181-84 & 190-95</ref>

==Further reading==
* Ursula Kalbhen, ''Kentische Glossen und kentischer Dialekt im Altenglischen, mit einer kommentierten Edition der altenglischen Glossen in der Handschrift London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D.vi'', Münchener Universitätsschriften (Frankfurt/M.: Lang, 2003), {{ISBN|978-3-631-38392-6}} [containing a detailed description of the manuscript and its texts as well as an edition of the Kentish glosses, with commentary and a study of Kentish Old English].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100210203802/http://www.historic-kent.co.uk/kdialect.html Dictionary]
{{Germanic languages}}
[[Category:Languages attested from the 7th century]]
[[Category:Medieval Kent]]
[[Category:Language articles with unknown extinction date]]
[[Category:Old English dialects]]