There's a guy at York
Name escapes me, but he's done a lot of research into the dialects of the north, and the influence of old Norse. Historically, a lot of the research into English has been from a southern perspective (to the extent that Old English is really just a dialect of Wessex), which given the importance of towns like York, and the history of England, is rather short sighted.

Most of the north was under the Vikings/Norse/Danes who spoke old north germanic, whereas the southeast was controlled by the Saxons/Angles/Jutes who spoke west germanic languages.

Since England came to be ruled from the south east, it was the dialects of the south east that became the language of power and 'proper' English.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sun 11 Apr 2010, 12:10, Reply)