My friends in the Northumbrian Language Society (www.northumbriana.org.uk) reckon it is and I'm comfortable with that. Here's my humble, but considered, opinion. A thousand years ago, the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, as it's name suggests, covered all the land north of the Humber up to and including the Scottish Lowlands. Many scholars believe that this was the dominant language of all England and fragments of it survive in all the northern English dialects. From the 14th century and the establishment of Oxford & Cambridge Universities, the activities of Chaucer and later Shakespeare, the language of Mercia rose to prominence as it was understandable by people north of the Humber and South of the Thames. This "Midlands Dialect" was to become the language of the Empire - leaving us behind as somewhat old fashioned "Quaint Northerners".