Part of
Researching Northern EnglishEdited by Raymond Hickey
[Varieties of English Around the World G55] 2015
► pp. 99–130
The following chapter is an account of the history of the extension of northern -s throughout the paradigm of the present indicative in northern Old and Middle English and its competition with supralocal -th from the fifteenth century onwards. It also analyses the development of the Northern Subject Rule from its origins in Old Northumbrian until its demise in contemporary Northern English. It further explores the differences between the Northern Subject Rule in Northern English and similar (and possibly) related syntactic patterns of agreement in other varieties of English.