versions in English and Latin Linguistic features The Kildare Poems show many linguistic features common to the Middle English dialects of the west and south-west of England, from which most English-speaking settlers in medieval Ireland had come, but they also display a number of unique features that point towards an independent development of English dialects in Ireland, either because of levelling between different source dialects of English, or because of the influence of Irish. Among the conspicuous features are: Occasional replacement of th (þ) with t (e.g. for ). This may reflect fortition of to a dental stop, as found in some later forms of Irish English. Voicing of initial to (as in southern Middle English: for father, for fox), while older is rendered as <w> (representing or , for visage) Loss of nasals before coronal stops: for , for pound h-dropping in words like for his, for habbiþ raising of short to in unstressed final syllables metathesis in words like < first, < gardener, possibly related to similar phenomena in Irish epenthesis of <e> in consonant clusters in some words like < April, < freshe, also possibly related to similar phenomena in Irish and in later forms of Irish English Text sample The following is a passage from the Land of Cokaygne, describing the conduct of monks and nuns: References External links Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT): Online text of the Kildare Poems, based on the edition of Lucas (1995). Cork: University College. Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse: Online text of the Kildare Poems, based on the edition of Heuser (1904). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. Wessex Parallel Web Texts: The Land of Cockaigne, with modern English translation and image of the manuscript Middle English poems Texts of medieval Ireland Middle English Harleian Collection