Definition of "Midland"

2006, Thomas Edward Murray, Beth Lee Simon, Language Variation and Change in the American Midland: A New Look

Throughout the Midland and the South, the nucleus of /aw/ is well front of center, [...]

2011, William Labov, Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 3

[...] the difficult Southern English found in the Kentish Ayenbite of Inwyt, or even from the Midland of Chaucer's poems.

1912, Walter William Skeat, English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day

The striking positional variants [...] of Virginia are probably an American innovation, since this feature is not found in Standard British English or the folk speech of the Midland and the south of England, though northern England and Scotland have it to some extent. […] It is worth noting that only two instances of the pronunciation /jɛst/, riming with guest, have been recorded in the New England settlement area (one near Boston, the other near Buffalo), a pronunciation widely used in the English Midland along with /jɪst/, riming with fist. These are the normal derivatives of OE gist, gest...

1961, Pronunciation of English in the United States, pages 110 and 175

"... the case of the Midland and the case of the Great Eastern" (his Lordship had been referring to the reasons for special scales). "The case of the Midland we found to be very peculiar, because, unlike most of the other railway companies,..."

1891, Report ... Together with the Proceedings of the [Great British Parliament's Joint Select] Committee [on Railway Rates and Charges], Minutes, Mr. Bidder, in Mr. George Henry Turner is re-called, line 1643, line 15551

In the more Midland counties, there are thirteen ; in Staffordshire (Wolverhampton), one; in Warwick (Birmingham), seven; in Nottingham, three; in Leicester, one; and Northampton, one.

1908, “Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 88

The obvious inference was that Midland culture found its centre in Lichfield, and that the only claim to distinction which the larger town could make was based on commercial grounds.

1923, “The Old Book Trade in Birmingham”, in The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record, page 235

His only visit to London had been that on which been touched by Queen Anne for the King's Evil and throughout his life he preserved a Midland accent in his speech.

1930, Victoria Roberts, Eighteenth Century Gentlemen, page 73

This stimulated sales and suited the needs of small manufacturers in the Midland city, who could not afford to trade on credit.

2004, Kenneth Morgan, Bristol and the Atlantic Trade in the Eighteenth Century, page 109