also, the final _-e_ is invariably silent in such words as _oure_,
_stere_, _lede_, _yhere_, _thare_, _were_, etc., just as in modern
English. The grammar is, for the most part, extremely simple, as at
the present day. The chief difficulty lies in the vocabulary, which
contains some words that are either obsolete or provincial. Many of
the obsolete words are found in other dialects; thus _stere_, to
control, _perfay_, _fonden_ (for _fanden_), _chesen_, to choose,
_feloun_, adj. meaning "angry," _take kepe_, _soiourne_, to tarry,
_travaile_, to labour, _parage_, rank, all occur in Chaucer;
_barnage_, _reauté_, in _William of Palerne_ (in the Midland dialect,
possibly Shropshire); _oughte_, owned, possessed, _tyne_, to lose, in
_Piers the Plowman_; _umbethinken_, in the _Ormulum_; _enkerly_ (for
_inkkyrly_), in the alliterative _Morte Arthure_; _march_, to border
upon, in _Mandeville_; _seignorie_, in _Robert of Gloucester_. Barbour
is rather fond of introducing French words; _rybalddale_ occurs in no
other author. _Threllage_ or _thryllage_ may have been coined from
_threll_ (English _thrall_), by adding a French suffix. As to the
difficult word _nyt_, see _Nite_ in the _N.E.D._

In addition to the poems, etc., already mentioned, further material
may be found in the prose works of Richard Rolle of Hampole,
especially his translation and exposition of the Psalter, edited by
the Rev. H.R. Bramley (Oxford, 1884), and the Prose Treatises edited
by the Rev. G.G. Perry for the Early English Text Society. Dr Murray
further calls attention to the Early Scottish Laws, of which the
vernacular translations partly belong to the fourteenth century.

I have now mentioned the chief authorities for the study of the
Northern dialect from early times down to 1400. Examination of them
leads directly to a result but little known, and one that is in direct