The Northern Subject Rule is a grammatical pattern inherited from Northern Middle English. Present tense verbs may take the verbal ‑s suffix, except when they are directly adjacent to one of the personal pronouns I, you, we, or they as their subject. As a result they sing contrasts with the birds sings; they sing and dance; it’s you that sings; I only sings.

In the modern Northern English dialects this pattern varies and now competes with standard forms.

Further more other non-standard dialectal patterns are found which developed separately from the Northern Subject Rule. These include, for example:

• The free use of ‑s in the historic present (especially when introducing quoted speech, I says).
• The free use of ‑s as a marker of habitual semantics (I goes to work) may also occur.
• There is also a widespread tendency to neutralize the agreement contrast with was/were (partly in I were, he were, more often in we was, you was).
• Agreement in existential there clauses is neutralized almost universally.

Some controversy surrounds its origin. Some scholars (e.g. Graham Isaac) argue for its development out of the Old English verbal endings, but the theory has been voiced that this could be a language contact transfer feature from the Brythonic language historically spoken in that area (e.g. H.Tristram).

This is part of the greater debate whether the Celtic languages have had any influence on the structure of English due to the Celtic population learning the English language rapidly but imperfectly after the coming of the Saxons.

References

Isaac, Graham R. 2003. “Diagnosing the Symptoms of Contact: Some Celtic-English Case Histories.” In Tristram, Hildegard L.C. (ed.). The Celtic Englishes III. Heidelberg: Winter. pp. 46-64.

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