Early English Alliterative Poems

ominance of words containing the A.S. long _a_; as _hame_ (home), _stane_ (stone), _thra_ (bold), _walde_ (would), etc.; the frequent use of _thir_ (these), _tha_ (the, those), etc.]

[Footnote 6: The peculiarities referred to do not appear to be owing to the copyist of the Lincoln manuscript (Robert de Thornton, a native of Oswaldkirk in Yorkshire), who, being a Northumbrian, would probably have restored the original readings. The non-Northumbrian forms in the Morte Arthure are-- 1. The change of _a_ into _o_, as _bolde_ for _balde_, _bote_ for _bate_, _one_ for _ane_, _honde_ for _hande_, _londe_ for _lande_; 2. _they_, _theyre_, _them_, _theym_, for _thay_, _thaire_, _tham_; 3. _gayliche_, _kindliche_, _semlyche_, etc., for _gayly_, _kindly_, _seemly_, etc. (the termination _lich_, _liche_, was wholly unknown to the Northumbrian dialect, being represented by _ly_ or _like_); 4. _churle_, _churche_, _iche_, _mache_, _myche_, _syche_, _wyrche_, etc., for _carle_, _kirke_, _ilk_, _ma