form of the verb for the three persons, many participles ending in -en or -in, many adjectives ending in -ish or -fied, and no possessive case.[1] The pronunciation of the place-names in some of the northern parts of England at the present time strongly points to Frisian settlements. In Northumberland there are many places whose names end in -ham, but, with the exception of Chillingham, they are all pronounced as if ending in -um, like the terminal sound so common in the present place-names of Friesland. In the Cleveland district of Yorkshire, also, examples of the same kind occur, in which the local pronunciation making names ending in -um is very marked. Thus, Yarm is pronounced Jarum; Moorsholm, Morehusum; Acklam, Achelum; Lealholm, Laclum or Lelum; Airsome, Arusum; and Coatham, Cotum, and so on.[2] A similar pronunciation of names in Sussex has been referred to in the chapter relating to that county.
There can be no doubt that Frisian was one of the dialects used by the settlers in the northern counties, and that many Frisian words passed into the Anglian speech. As late as 1175 we find a Frisian dialect separately mentioned by Reginald, a monk of Durham.[3] In referring to the eider-duck, he says these birds are called lomes by the English, but eires by the Saxons and inhabitants of Frisia.
The dialect of Northumberland and on Tyneside shows important differences from that in the middle and south parts of Durham and Yorkshire.[4] This helps to prove that when the Danes overran and conquered Northumbria it was chiefly in Yorkshire they settled. The country north of the Tyne was left, apparently, more in the occupation of the descendants of the original colonists. The old Northumbrian dialect was the language of the Anglian
