Northern Ascriptions in MS Lansdowne 1033: George Hickes’s Dictionariolum Islandicum in Focus
Summary
This paper examines the contribution of the Dictionariolum Islandicum to White Kennett’s (1660–1728) unpublished Etymological Collections of English Words and Provincial Expressions (BL MS Lansdowne 1033). An expanded version of Franciscus Junius’s (1591–1677) Icelandic wordlist (Bodl. MS Junius 36), itself based on Runólfur Jónsson’s (c.1620–1654) Grammaticae Islandicae Rudimenta (1651), the Dictionariolum was included in George Hickes’ (1642–1715) Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Moeso-Gothicae (1689). Comparison of the manuscript entries with the Dictionariolum suggests that Kennett relied on this work for a portion of the northern material contained in his manuscript. This paper aims to further our knowledge about the compilation of Kennett’s dictionary, casting some light on the sources behind the regional dialect material included, and on the history of northern English lexicon more generally as recorded in 17th-century dictionaries.