Cumbric language
Encyclopedia
Cumbric was a variety
of the Celtic
British language
spoken during the Early Middle Ages
in the Hen Ogledd
or "Old North", or what is now northern England
and southern Lowland
Scotland
, the area anciently known as Cumbria
. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the other Brythonic languages
. Place name evidence suggests Cumbric speakers may have carried it into other parts of Northern England as migrants from its core area further north. It may also have been spoken as far south as the Yorkshire Dales
. Most linguists believe that it became extinct in the 12th century, after the incorporation of the semi-independent Kingdom of Strathclyde
into the Kingdom of Scotland
.
It is debated whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language or a dialect of Welsh
. The contiguous land connection between the Brythonic speaking areas of the Old North and those of Wales was severed in the 7th century, although some maritime links between the areas would have remained. In the 10th century the Brythonic speaking Kingdom of Strathclyde
appears to have maintained hegemony over Cumberland
– though possibly not Copeland
– and the Eden Valley
down to Stainmore
. The original boundaries of the Diocese of Carlisle
are said traditionally to mark the extent of the rule of Strathclyde. Cumbric placenames are also common in Lothian
, Peebleshire, Dumfriesshire
, Lanarkshire
and Ayrshire
. They exist in Galloway
but are overlain and influenced by the spread of Gaelic there.
The Latinate term Cambria
is often used for Wales; nevertheless, the Life of St Kentigern by Jocelin of Furness has the following passage:
Koch defines the area in question roughly as "the area approximately between the line of the river Mersey and the Forth-Clyde isthmus", but goes on to include evidence from the Wirral
peninsula in his discussion and gives no real indication of the easterly extent of the region. Others have been more restricting in their definitions. Jackson describes Cumbric as "the Brittonic dialect of Cumberland
, Westmorland
, northern Lancashire
, and south-west Scotland..." and goes on to define the region further as being bound in the north by the Firth of Clyde, in the south by the river Ribble
and in the east by the Southern Scottish Uplands and the Pennine ridge.
Charles Phythian-Adams goes further in defining the 'Land of the Cumbrians', though his primary interest is historical rather than linguistic. He defines the southern part of this region essentially as the historic county of Cumberland with the northern part of Westmorland as far south as Rere Cross, the highest point on Stainmore
, bound in the east by the crest of the Pennine chain. The modern area of Cumbria and Lancashire south of that zone are emphatically omitted from the region as, he asserts, they have no historic claim to be called Cumbrian. Phythian-Adams includes the region bound by the watershed of the Solway Firth (the modern council area of Dumfries and Galloway
) as part of his historic Cumbria and goes on to say that "This entire region..., together with its neighbours to the north in what became Strathclyde and Lothian long comprised a last northerly bastion of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic language (which has been dubbed 'Cumbric')...".
There is, then, some agreement that the region of western Britain roughly between the Firth of Clyde and the Lakeland Dome comprises the central bloc in which the Cumbric language was spoken, though how far south and east the language continued to function is debatable. The definitions given above are based partly on a historical understanding of the relationship between Britons, Angles and Gaels (and later, Norse and Normans) which was more complex than a simple process of invasion and settlement, and partly on geography which becomes less well defined as we move north.
in South West Scotland as legal terms. Although the language is long extinct it is arguable that traces of its vocabulary persisted into the modern era in the form of "counting scores" and in a handful of dialectal words.
From this scanty evidence, little can be deduced about the singular characteristics of Cumbric, not even the name by which its speakers referred to it. What is generally agreed upon by linguists is that Cumbric was a Western Brythonic
language, closely related to Welsh
and more distantly to Cornish
and Breton
.
The following names have been suggested by toponymists as having possble Cumbric origins.
Among the evidence that Cumbric served as a substratum
that influenced local English dialects are a group of counting
systems, or scores, recorded in various parts of northern England. Around 100 of these systems have been collected since the 18th century; the scholarly consensus is that these derive from a Brythonic language closely related to Welsh. Though they are often referred to as "sheep-counting numerals", most recorded scores were not used to count sheep, but in knitting
or for children's games or nursery rhyme
s. These scores are often suggested to represent a survival from medieval Cumbric, a theory first popularized in the 19th century. However, later scholars came to reject this idea, suggesting instead that the scores were later imports from either Wales
or Scotland
, but in light of the dearth of evidence for any of these theories, Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola, and Heli Paulasto note that it remains plausible that the counting systems are indeed of Cumbric origin.
and Northern English
variants of English have been proposed as being of possible Brythonic origin. Ascertaining the real derivation of these words is far from simple, due in part to the similarities between some cognates in the Brythonic
and Goidelic languages (see Linn below, for instance) and the fact that borrowing took place in both directions between these languages. Another difficulty lies with some words which were taken into Old English as in many cases it is impossible to tell whether the borrowing is directly from Brythonic or not (see Brogat, Crag). The following are possibilities:
Linguists appear undecided as to whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language, or a dialect of Old Welsh. Koch calls it a ‘dialect’ but goes on to say that some of the place names in the Cumbric region “clearly reflect a developed medieval language, much like Welsh, Cornish or Breton”. Jackson also calls it a ‘dialect’ but points out that “to call it Pr[imitive] W[elsh] would be inaccurate”, so clearly views it as distinct in some meaningful respect.
It has been suggested that Cumbric was more closely aligned to Pictish than to Welsh, though there is considerable debate regarding the classification of that language. On the basis of place name evidence it has also been proposed that all three languages were very similar.
The whole question is made more complex because no principled distinction can be made in any case between languages and dialects.
Below, some of the proposed differences between Cumbric and Old Welsh are discussed.
Abbreviations:
to /rx/ (W rch, C rgh, B rc’h) but a number of place names appear to show Cumbric retained the plosive in this position. Lanark
and Lanercost
are thought to contain the equivalent of W lannerch ‘clearing’.
There is evidence to the contrary, however, including the place names Powmaughan and Maughanby (containing W Meirchion) and the word kelchyn (related to W cylch). Jackson concludes that the change of Brit. *rk > /rx/ “may have been somewhat later in Cumbric”.
Jackson notes that only in the north does the cluster appear in place names borrowed after circa 600AD and concludes that it may have been a later dialectal survival here.
A few examples appear to contradict the idea: Old English Cumerland "Cumberland" and Cumera Scotta "Cumbrians and Scots".
, may show syncope of internal syllables to be a feature of Cumbric. Further evidence is wanting, however.
(W dinas ‘fortress, city’) as an example of this, which can also be seen in the Cornish Tintagel
from C din ‘fort’.
There are also a significant number of place names which do not support this theory. Devoke Water & Cumdivock (which Ekwall derives from Dyfoc) and Derwent (< Brit. Derwentiō) all have initial d-. The name Calder (from Brit. *Caletodubro-) in fact appears to show a voiced Cumbric consonant where Welsh has Calettwr by provection
, which Jackson believes reflects an earlier stage of pronunciation. Jackson also notes that Old English had no internal or final /g/ so would be borrowed with /k/ by sound substitution. This can be seen in names with c, k, ck (e.g. Cocker < Brit. *kukro-, Eccles < Brit. eglēsia).
This idea is disputed by the Dictionary of the Scots Language and the occurrence in Gospatrick's Write of the word wassenas ‘dependants’, thought to be from the same word gwas, is evidence against Jackson’s theory. Koch notes that the alternation between gwa- and go- is common among the Brythonic languages and does not amount to a systematic sound change in any of them.
of Cumbria
), contains a usage of the word penn "head" (attached to the names of several animals hunted by the protagonist), that is unique in medieval Welsh literature and may, according to Koch, reflect Cumbric influence ("[r]eferring to a single animal in this way is otherwise found only in Breton, and we have no evidence that the construction ever had any currency in the present-day Wales"). The relevant lines are:
Translated as:
: W yr, y, C an, B an, ar, al. These are all taken to derive from an unstressed form of the British demonstrative *sindos, altered by assimilation (compare the Gaelic articles). Throughout Old Welsh the article is ir (or -r after a vowel), but there is evidence in Cumbric for an article in -n alongside one in -r. Note the following:
which can be directly traced back to their Romano-British recorded forms Luguvalium and Derventio.
The modern and medieval forms of Carlisle (Luel c1050, Cardeol 1092, Karlioli c1100 (Medieval Latin
genitive), Cærleoil 1130) and Derwent (Deorwentan stream c890 (Old English), Derewent) suggest derivations from Br *Luguvaljon and *Derwentjō. But the Welsh forms Caerliwelydd and Derwennydd are derived from alternative forms *Luguvalijon, *Derwentijō which gave the -ydd ending. This appears to show a divergence between Cumbric and Welsh at a relatively early date.
If this was an early dialectal variation, it can’t be applied as a universal sound law, as the equivalent of W mynydd ‘mountain’ occurs in a number of Cumbric names with the spirant intact: E.g. Mindrum (Minethrum 1050) from ‘mountain ridge’ (W. mynydd trum). It might also be noted that Medieval Welsh forms of Caerliwelydd
and Derwennydd both occur in poems of supposed Cumbrian origin whose rhyme and metre would be distrupted if the ending were absent.
; Moryn (Morien), lord of Cardew and Cumdivock near Carlisle and Eilifr (Eliffer), lord of Penrith.
There is a village near Carlisle called Cumwhitton
(earlier Cumquinton). This appears to contain the Norman name Quinton There were no Normans in this area until 1069 at the earliest.
In the Battle of the Standard
in 1138, the Cumbrians are noted as a separate ethnic group. Given that their material culture was very similar to their Gaelic and Anglian neighbours, it is arguable that what set them apart was still their language. Also the castle at Castle Carrock
– Castell Caerog dates from around 1160-1170. Barmulloch
earlier Badermonoc (Cumbric *bod-ir-monoc – Monk’s Dwelling) was given to the church by King Mael Choluim IV between 1153 and 1165.
A more controversial point is the surname Wallace. It means “Welshman”. It is possible that all the Wallaces in the Clyde area were medieval immigrants from Wales, but given that the term was also used for local Cumbric speaking Strathclyde Welsh it seems equally if not more likely that the surname refers to people who were seen as being "Welsh" due to their Cumbric language. Surnames in Scotland were not inherited before 1200 and not regularly until 1400. William Wallace
(known in Gaelic as Uilleam Breatnach – namely William the Briton or Welshman) came from the Renfrew area – itself a Cumbric name. Wallace slew the sheriff of Lanark (also a Cumbric name) in 1297. Even if he had inherited the surname from his father it is possible that the family spoke Cumbric within memory in order to be thus named.
There are also some historical pointers to a continuing separate ethnic identity. Prior to being crowned king of Scotland in 1124, David I
was invested with the title Prince of the Cumbrians. William I of Scotland
between 1173-1180 made an address to his subjects, identifying the Cumbrians as a separate ethnic group. This does not prove that any of them still spoke Cumbric at this time.
The legal documents in the Lanercost Cartulary dating from the late 12th century show witnesses with Norman French or English names, and no obvious Cumbric names. Though these people represent the upper classes, it seems significant that by the late 12th century in the Lanercost area, Cumbric is not obvious in these personal names. In 1262 in Peebles, jurymen in a legal dispute over peat cutting also have names which mostly appear Norman French or English, but possible exceptions are Gauri Pluchan, Cokin Smith and Richard Gladhoc, where Gladhoc has the look of an adjective similar to Welsh "gwladog" = "countryman". In the charters of Wetherall
Priory near Carlisle there is a monk called Robert Minnoc who appears as a witness to 8 charters dating from around 1260. His name is variously spelled Minnoc/Minot/Mynoc and it is tempting to see an equivalent of the Welsh "mynach" – "Robert the Monk" here.
Given that the Anglicisation of the upper classes in general has happened before the Anglicisation of the peasantry in other areas which have given up speaking Celtic languages it is not implausible that the peasantry continued to speak Cumbric for at least a little while after. Around 1200 there is a list of the names of men living in the area of Peebles
. Amongst them are Cumbric names such as Gospatrick: servant or follower of St Patrick, Gosmungo: servant of St Mungo, Guososwald: servant of St Oswald and Goscubrycht: servant of St Cuthbert. Two of the saints — Oswald and Cuthbert —are from Northumbria
showing influence on Cumbric not found in Welsh.
The royal seal of Alexander III (who reigned 4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) bore the title "Rex Scotorum et Britanniarum", or "King of Scots and Britons".
In 1305 Edward I of England prohibited the laws of the Scots and the Brets
The term Brets or Britons refers to the native, traditionally Cumbric speaking people of southern Scotland.
It seems that Cumbric could well have survived into the middle of the 12th Century as a community language and even lasted into the 13th on the tongues of the last remaining speakers. Certain areas seem to be particularly dense in Cumbric place-names even down to very minor features. The two most striking of these are around Lanercost
east of Carlisle and around Torquhan south of Edinburgh. If the 1262 names from Peebles do contain traces of Cumbric personal names then we can imagine Cumbric dying out between 1250 and 1300 at the very latest.
In the 2000s a group of enthusiasts proposed a revival of the Cumbric language, and launched a social networking site a "revived Cumbric" guidebook to promote it. Writing in Carn
magazine, Colin Lewis noted that there was disagreement in the group about whether to base "revived Cumbric" on the surviving sources for the language, or try to reconstruct the form Late Cumbric may have taken after the attested period.
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of the Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
British language
British language
The British language was an ancient Celtic language spoken in Britain.British language may also refer to:* Any of the Languages of the United Kingdom.*The Welsh language or the Brythonic languages more generally* British English...
spoken during the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
in the Hen Ogledd
Hen Ogledd
Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...
or "Old North", or what is now northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
and southern Lowland
Scottish Lowlands
The Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the area anciently known as Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the other Brythonic languages
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
. Place name evidence suggests Cumbric speakers may have carried it into other parts of Northern England as migrants from its core area further north. It may also have been spoken as far south as the Yorkshire Dales
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales is the name given to an upland area in Northern England.The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria...
. Most linguists believe that it became extinct in the 12th century, after the incorporation of the semi-independent Kingdom of Strathclyde
Kingdom of Strathclyde
Strathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...
into the Kingdom of Scotland
Kingdom of Scotland
The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...
.
It is debated whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language or a dialect of Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
. The contiguous land connection between the Brythonic speaking areas of the Old North and those of Wales was severed in the 7th century, although some maritime links between the areas would have remained. In the 10th century the Brythonic speaking Kingdom of Strathclyde
Kingdom of Strathclyde
Strathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...
appears to have maintained hegemony over Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
– though possibly not Copeland
Copeland, Cumbria
Copeland is a local government district and borough in western Cumbria, England. Its council is based in Whitehaven. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Whitehaven, Ennerdale Rural District and Millom Rural District....
– and the Eden Valley
River Eden, Cumbria
The River Eden is a river that flows through Cumbria, England on its way to the Solway Firth.-Course of river:The Eden rises in Black Fell Moss, Mallerstang, on the high ground between High Seat, Yorkshire Dales and Hugh Seat. Here it forms the boundary between the counties of Cumbria and North...
down to Stainmore
Stainmore
Stainmore is a civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, including the villages of North Stainmore and South Stainmore. It has a population of 253.- Geography :...
. The original boundaries of the Diocese of Carlisle
Diocese of Carlisle
The Diocese of Carlisle was created in 1133 by Henry I out of part of the Diocese of Durham, although many people of Celtic descent in the area looked to Glasgow for spiritual leadership. The first bishop was Æthelwold, formerly the king's confessor and now prior of the Augustinian priory at...
are said traditionally to mark the extent of the rule of Strathclyde. Cumbric placenames are also common in Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
, Peebleshire, Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is a registration county of Scotland. The lieutenancy area of Dumfries has similar boundaries.Until 1975 it was a county. Its county town was Dumfries...
, Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
and Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...
. They exist in Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
but are overlain and influenced by the spread of Gaelic there.
Problems with terminology
Dauvit Broun sets out the problems with the various terms used to describe the Cumbric language and its speakers. The people seem to have called themselves *Cumbri the same way that the Welsh call themselves Cymry (most likely from British *kom-brogi meaning 'fellow countrymen'). It is likely that the Welsh and the Cumbric speaking people of what are now Southern Scotland and Northern England felt they were actually one ethnic group. Old Irish speakers called them "Britons", Bretnach or Bretain. The Norse called them 'Brettar'. In Medieval Latin the English term Wales and the term Cumbri were Latinised as 'Wallenses' of Wales or 'Cumbrenses' of Cumbria. The usual English usage was to call them Welsh. In Scots a Cumbric speaker seems to have been called 'Wallace', from the Scots Wallis/Wellis Welsh.- In Cumbria itaque: : regione quadam inter Angliam et Scotiam sita Cumbria: a region situated between England and Scotland.
The Latinate term Cambria
Cambria
Cambria is the classical name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name Cymru . The etymology of Cymry "the Welsh", Cimbri, and Cwmry "Cumbria", improbably connected to the Biblical Gomer and the "Cimmerians" by 17th-century celticists, is now known to come from Old Welsh combrog...
is often used for Wales; nevertheless, the Life of St Kentigern by Jocelin of Furness has the following passage:
- When King Rederech (Rhydderch Hael) and his people had heard that Kentigern had arrived from Wallia (i.e. Wales) into Cambria [i.e. Cumbria], from exile into his own country, with great joy and peace both king and people went out to meet him.
The 'Cumbric Region'
The term 'Cumbric' is strictly a geographical one, used by linguists to refer to the evidence for a Brythonic language within a particular area of northern England and Southern Scotland. The definition of that area is therefore essential to any further study of Cumbric, though there has been no scholarly consensus as to exactly what constitutes the Cumbric region.Koch defines the area in question roughly as "the area approximately between the line of the river Mersey and the Forth-Clyde isthmus", but goes on to include evidence from the Wirral
Wirral
Wirral may refer to:* Wirral Peninsula, a peninsula in the northwest of England, between the rivers Dee and Mersey* Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, occupying the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula...
peninsula in his discussion and gives no real indication of the easterly extent of the region. Others have been more restricting in their definitions. Jackson describes Cumbric as "the Brittonic dialect of Cumberland
Cumberland
Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
, Westmorland
Westmorland
Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...
, northern Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, and south-west Scotland..." and goes on to define the region further as being bound in the north by the Firth of Clyde, in the south by the river Ribble
River Ribble
The River Ribble is a river that runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire, in northern England. The river's drainage basin also includes parts of Greater Manchester around Wigan.-Geography:...
and in the east by the Southern Scottish Uplands and the Pennine ridge.
Charles Phythian-Adams goes further in defining the 'Land of the Cumbrians', though his primary interest is historical rather than linguistic. He defines the southern part of this region essentially as the historic county of Cumberland with the northern part of Westmorland as far south as Rere Cross, the highest point on Stainmore
Stainmore
Stainmore is a civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, including the villages of North Stainmore and South Stainmore. It has a population of 253.- Geography :...
, bound in the east by the crest of the Pennine chain. The modern area of Cumbria and Lancashire south of that zone are emphatically omitted from the region as, he asserts, they have no historic claim to be called Cumbrian. Phythian-Adams includes the region bound by the watershed of the Solway Firth (the modern council area of Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...
) as part of his historic Cumbria and goes on to say that "This entire region..., together with its neighbours to the north in what became Strathclyde and Lothian long comprised a last northerly bastion of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic language (which has been dubbed 'Cumbric')...".
There is, then, some agreement that the region of western Britain roughly between the Firth of Clyde and the Lakeland Dome comprises the central bloc in which the Cumbric language was spoken, though how far south and east the language continued to function is debatable. The definitions given above are based partly on a historical understanding of the relationship between Britons, Angles and Gaels (and later, Norse and Normans) which was more complex than a simple process of invasion and settlement, and partly on geography which becomes less well defined as we move north.
Available evidence
The evidence from Cumbric comes to us almost entirely through secondary sources, since there are no contemporary written records of the language. The majority of evidence comes from place names of the extreme northwest of England and the south of Scotland and other sources include the personal names of Strathclyde Britons in Scottish, Irish and Anglo-Saxon sources, and a few Cumbric words surviving into the High Middle AgesHigh Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
in South West Scotland as legal terms. Although the language is long extinct it is arguable that traces of its vocabulary persisted into the modern era in the form of "counting scores" and in a handful of dialectal words.
From this scanty evidence, little can be deduced about the singular characteristics of Cumbric, not even the name by which its speakers referred to it. What is generally agreed upon by linguists is that Cumbric was a Western Brythonic
Western Brythonic
Western Brythonic was one of two dialects into which the British language split during the Early Middle Ages; its counterpart was Southwestern Brythonic. The reason and date for the split is often given as the Battle of Deorham in 577, at which point the victorious Saxons of Wessex essentially cut...
language, closely related to Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
and more distantly to Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
and Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
.
Place names
Cumbric place names are found in Scotland south of the firths of Forth and Clyde. Brythonic names north of this line are arguably Pictish. They are also found commonly in the historic county of Cumberland and bordering areas of Northumberland. They are less common in Westmorland with some in Lancashire and the adjoining areas of North Yorkshire. As we approach Cheshire, late Brythonic placenames are probably better described as being Welsh rather than Cumbric. As noted below, however, any clear distinction between Cumbric and Welsh is difficult to prove. For references see Armstrong et al., Watson and Jackson. There remain many Brythonic place-names in northern England which should not be described as Cumbric because they originate from a period before Brythonic split into its daughter dialects e.g. Welsh, Cornish, Breton and — arguably — Cumbric.The following names have been suggested by toponymists as having possble Cumbric origins.
- BlencathraBlencathraBlencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly mountains in the English Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the Hallsfell Top.-Name:...
, Cumbria. This is apparently equivalent to blaen cadair or potentially blaen cythraul = "devil's peak". The mountain actually looks like a huge seat from the south. The second element may be Gaelic cathrach, the genitive singular of cathair "chair". - BrynBrynBryn is a component ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It is part of the larger town of Ashton-in-Makerfield and is geographically indistinguishable from it. It forms a separate local council ward...
, Lancs. bryn, meaning hill. - CaerlaverockCaerlaverockCaerlaverock is an area to the south of Dumfries and to the west of Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.Caerlaverock NNR is a National Nature Reserve in the care of Scottish Natural Heritage....
, In the Welsh language, caer means "fortress", "fort" or "citadel"/"castle" and in ScotsScots languageScots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
laverock means "skylark", so we may have here a "Castle of the Lark"; alternatively, the second element may be the Welsh personal name Lifarch (later Llywarch). - CardonaldCardonaldCardonald is an outlying suburb of the Scottish city of Glasgow. Formerly a village in its own right, it lies to the southwest of the city and is bounded to the south by the White Cart Water...
, Glasgow. "Donald's Fort" (*Caer Dyfnwal). In Cumbric, *cair can mean a fortified farm and does not necessarily signify such a grand place as a Welsh caer, being more similar in usage to Breton "ker" - Carlisle, recorded as Luguvalium in the Roman period, the word caer "fort" was added later. The Welsh form Caerliwelydd is derived by regular sound changes from the Romano-British name.
- Chevin, OtleyOtley-Transport:The main roads through the town are the A660 to the south east, which connects Otley to Bramhope, Adel and Leeds city centre, and the A65 to the west, which goes to Ilkley and Skipton. The A6038 heads to Guiseley, Shipley and Bradford, connecting with the A65...
West Yorkshire. Otley Chevin forms one side of the Wharfe valley. Chevin is similar to the Welsh term "cefn" meaning a ridge. - CulchethCulchethCulcheth is a large village approximately 6 miles north-east of Warrington, England. It is the principal settlement in Culcheth and Glazebury civil parish. The village has many amenities which make it a popular place to live. These include a library, a village hall, sports facilities, two...
, Cheshire. Cul coed = "Narrow Wood" - CulgaithCulgaithCulgaith is a village and civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England. It is located on the River Eden between Temple Sowerby and Langwathby. Amenties include All Saints Church, and its associated primary school, as well as a pub and garden centre...
, Cumbria. Cul coed = "Narrow Wood" - Cumdivock, Cumbria. Cwm Dyfog – the second element possibly a personal name or a nickname referring to the dark coloured tarn (now drained)
- DunragitDunragitDunragit is a village on the A75, between Stranraer and Glenluce in Dumfries and Galloway in south-west Scotland. It grew up around the west gate of Dunragit House, an 18th century three-storey four-bay country house. It expanded considerably in the 1950s...
, Wigtownshire. "Din Rheged" = "the fort of RhegedRhegedRheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...
". Though it could also be "Din rhag coed" a fort built against a wood. - GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland. From words equivalent to Welsh Glas gau(green hollow — possibly that below Glasgow CathedralGlasgow CathedralThe church commonly known as Glasgow Cathedral is the Church of Scotland High Kirk of Glasgow otherwise known as St. Mungo's Cathedral.The other cathedrals in Glasgow are:* The Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew...
) - HailesHailesHailes or clacken is a Scottish ball game which dates to the 18th century and achieved its widest popularity in the nineteenth. It has now virtually died out, replaced by football, except at the Edinburgh Academy, where an exhibition match is played annually...
, Lothian. From a word similar to Cornish hal — a moor. Also found at Haile near Egremont Cumbria. - HelvellynHelvellynHelvellyn is a mountain in the English Lake District, the apex of the Eastern Fells. At above sea level, it is the third highest peak in both the Lake District and England...
, Cumbria. Whaley cites Coates view that this represents "hal velyn" = "yellow moor". - InceInceInce is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated immediately to the east of the Stanlow Oil Refinery. It shares Ince and Elton railway station with the village of Elton, which it runs into...
, three places Lancashire/Cheshire. Meaning 'island', equivalent to Welsh ynys. - LanarkLanarkLanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8,253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade"....
, Lanarkshire. A grove similar to Welsh llannerch. - LindowLindow MossLindow Moss, also known as Saltersley Common, is a raised mire peat bog on the edge of Wilmslow in Cheshire, England. It has been used as common land since the medieval period....
, Cheshire. llyn du giving the translation 'black lake' (possibly meaning a bog) - LinlithgowLinlithgowLinlithgow is a Royal Burgh in West Lothian, Scotland. An ancient town, it lies south of its two most prominent landmarks: Linlithgow Palace and Linlithgow Loch, and north of the Union Canal....
, West LothianWest LothianWest Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....
. Llyn llaith cau, 'Loch in the moist hollow' - MelroseMelrose-Scotland:* Melrose, Scotland , a town in the Scottish Borders** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery** Melrose RFC, rugby club** Melrose Golf Club-Australia:* Melrose, South Australia, a town in the southern Flinders Ranges...
, RoxburghshireRoxburghshireRoxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Dumfries to the west, Selkirk to the north-west, and Berwick to the north. To the south-east it borders Cumbria and Northumberland in England.It was named after the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh...
. Moel Rhos, 'bare moor' - NiddrieNiddrie, EdinburghThis article is about Niddrie, a suburb of Edinburgh. See also: Longniddry, Niddry Castle.Niddrie is a suburb of south east Edinburgh, Scotland, UK...
, Edinburgh. Newydd-dre meaning 'new town' - PendlePendlePendle is a local government district and borough of Lancashire, England. It adjoins the Lancashire boroughs of Burnley and Ribble Valley, the North Yorkshire district of Craven and the West Yorkshire districts of Calderdale and the City of Bradford...
, Lancashire. 'pen' is 'hill', mixed with the Old English word hyll, also meaning hill. - PenicuikPenicuikPenicuik is a burgh and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the west bank of the River North Esk. The town was developed as a planned village in 1770 by Sir James Clerk of Penicuik. It became a burgh in 1867. The town was well known for its paper mills, the last of which closed in 2005....
, MidlothianMidlothianMidlothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. It borders the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh council areas....
. Pen Y Cog, 'Hill of the Cuckoo' - PenkethPenkethPenketh is a civil parish in the Borough of Warrington in Cheshire, England. It is about west of Warrington town centre. It has a population of 8,699.The emblem/badge of Penketh is three kingfishers.-History:...
, Cheshire. Welsh: pen coed meaning 'wooded hill'. - PenrithPenrith, CumbriaPenrith was an urban district between 1894 and 1974, when it was merged into Eden District.The authority's area was coterminous with the civil parish of Penrith although when the council was abolished Penrith became an unparished area....
, Cumbria. From Pen rhudd meaning 'red hill', or possibly "pen rhyd" meaning 'head of a ford': Red Pike is the modern name of the hill above the town, but there is no ford at the town. - PenruddockPenruddockPenruddock is a small village in Cumbria, England, a few miles to the west of Penrith. It forms part of the civil parish of Hutton.-History:The name Penruddock is Cumbric. With both red soil and red sandstone in the area to the south, the word Penruddock is likely derived from the word Pen and a...
, Cumbria. The first element is pen "head, chief" but both Ekwall and Mills decline to offer an etymology for the second. It may be a derivative of rhudd "red", an area exists between Penrith and Penruddock still called 'Redhills'. - Pen-y-GhentPen-y-ghentPen-y-ghent is a fell in the Yorkshire Dales. It is one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, the other two being Ingleborough and Whernside. It lies some 3 km east of Horton in Ribblesdale...
, Yorks. From *pen meaning 'head' or 'hill' and ghent, possibly equivalent to Welsh caint or to Welsh gwynt, thus either 'Hill on the Border' or 'Hill of The Winds' - RenfrewRenfrew-Local government:The town of Renfrew gave its name to a number of local government areas used at various times:*Renfrew a town to the west of Glasgow*Renfrewshire, the present unitary local council area in which Renfrew is situatated....
, Renfrewshire. As in the Welsh rhyn-ffrwd — a torrent by narrows. - RochdaleRochdaleRochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, Greater Manchester. This comes from the name of the river 'RochRiver RochThe River Roch is a river in Greater Manchester in North West England, a tributary of the River Irwell that gives Rochdale its name.-Course:...
', which it has been said also comes from the name of the kingdom RhegedRhegedRheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...
, or possibly the words rhag coed meaning "by the forest". Dalr is Old Norse for valley, meaning 'valley of the Roch'. - Treales, Lancs. This comes from tre (settlement) and llys (court).
- TranentTranentTranent is a town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is close to the A1 road and approximately east of Edinburgh. It is one of the oldest towns in East Lothian, and built on a gentle slope, about 300 feet above sea level.Population of the town is 9,917....
, Lothian. Tre means settlement. The word nant (plural nentydd) in Welsh means a stream. In Brittonic it meant a steep sided valley and it keeps this meaning in Cornish and Breton. However, other place name evidence suggests that Cumbric used the word nant like Welsh and so Tranent means 'farm by the streams'. - TulkethTulkethTulketh is an electoral ward in Preston, Lancashire. The ward is named for the former Tulketh Mill, the building of which remains in the division off the A5085 Blackpool Road....
, Lancs. This probably comes from the words twll coed (wood), meaning 'wood with a hole'.
Counting systems
| * | Keswick Keswick, Cumbria Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park... |
Westmorland Westmorland Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:... |
Eskdale Eskdale, Cumbria Eskdale is a glacial valley and civil parish in the western Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It forms part of the Borough of Copeland, and has a population of 264.... |
Millom Millom Millom is a town and civil parish on the estuary of the River Duddon in the southwest of Cumbria, England. The name is Cumbrian dialect for "At the mills". The town is accessible both by rail and an A class road... |
High Furness Furness Furness is a peninsula in south Cumbria, England. At its widest extent, it is considered to cover the whole of North Lonsdale, that part of the Lonsdale hundred that is an exclave of the historic county of Lancashire, lying to the north of Morecambe Bay.... |
Wasdale Wasdale Wasdale is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is occupied by Wastwater, the deepest lake in England... |
Teesdale Teesdale Teesdale is a dale, or valley, of the east side of the Pennines in England. Large parts of Teesdale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - the second largest AONB in England and Wales. The River Tees rises below Cross Fell, the highest hill in the Pennines, and its... |
Swaledale Swaledale Swaledale is one of the northernmost dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. It is the dale of the River Swale on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire.-Geographical overview:... |
Wensleydale Wensleydale Wensleydale is the valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England.Wensleydale lies in the Yorkshire Dales National Park – one of only a few valleys in the Dales not currently named after its principal river , but the older name, "Yoredale", can still be seen... |
Ayrshire Ayrshire Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the... |
Modern Welsh Welsh language Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | yan | yan | yaena | aina | yan | yan | yan | yahn | yan | yinty | un |
| 2 | tyan | tyan | taena | peina | taen | taen | tean | tayhn | tean | tinty | dau |
| 3 | tethera | tetherie | teddera | para | tedderte | tudder | tetherma | tether | tither | tetheri | tri |
| 4 | methera | peddera | meddera | pedera | medderte | anudder | metherma | mether | mither | metheri | pedwar |
| 5 | pimp | gip | pimp | pimp | pimp | nimph | pip | mimp(h) | pip | bamf | pump |
| 6 | sethera | teezie | hofa | ithy | haata | - | lezar | hith-her | teaser | leetera | chwech |
| 7 | lethera | mithy | lofa | mithy | slaata | - | azar | lith-her | leaser | seetera | saith |
| 8 | hovera | katra | seckera | owera | lowera | - | catrah | anver | catra | over | wyth |
| 9 | dovera | hornie | leckera | lowera | dowa | - | horna | danver | horna | dover | naw |
| 10 | dick | dick | dec | dig | dick | - | dick | dic | dick | dik | deg |
| 15 | bumfit | bumfit | bumfit | bumfit | mimph | - | bumfit | mimphit | bumper | - | pymtheg |
| 20 | giggot | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Jiggit | - | ugain |
Among the evidence that Cumbric served as a substratum
Substratum
In linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum...
that influenced local English dialects are a group of counting
Counting
Counting is the action of finding the number of elements of a finite set of objects. The traditional way of counting consists of continually increasing a counter by a unit for every element of the set, in some order, while marking those elements to avoid visiting the same element more than once,...
systems, or scores, recorded in various parts of northern England. Around 100 of these systems have been collected since the 18th century; the scholarly consensus is that these derive from a Brythonic language closely related to Welsh. Though they are often referred to as "sheep-counting numerals", most recorded scores were not used to count sheep, but in knitting
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
or for children's games or nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
s. These scores are often suggested to represent a survival from medieval Cumbric, a theory first popularized in the 19th century. However, later scholars came to reject this idea, suggesting instead that the scores were later imports from either Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
or Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, but in light of the dearth of evidence for any of these theories, Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola, and Heli Paulasto note that it remains plausible that the counting systems are indeed of Cumbric origin.
Scots and English
A number of words occurring in the ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
and Northern English
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
variants of English have been proposed as being of possible Brythonic origin. Ascertaining the real derivation of these words is far from simple, due in part to the similarities between some cognates in the Brythonic
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
and Goidelic languages (see Linn below, for instance) and the fact that borrowing took place in both directions between these languages. Another difficulty lies with some words which were taken into Old English as in many cases it is impossible to tell whether the borrowing is directly from Brythonic or not (see Brogat, Crag). The following are possibilities:
- Bach – cowpat (cf Welsh baw "dung", Gaelic buadhar)
- Baivenjar – mean fellow (Welsh bawyn "scoundrel")
- Brat – apron. The word is found in WelshWelsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
("rag, clout; pinafore"), Scots and northern English dialects but may be an Old English borrowing from Old IrishIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
. - Brogat – a type of meadMeadMead , also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water. It may also be produced by fermenting a solution of water and honey with grain mash, which is strained immediately after fermentation...
(Welsh bragod "bragget" – also found in Chaucer) - Coble – small flat bottomed boat (also North East England), akin to Welsh ceubal "a hollow" and Latin caupulus
- Crag – rocks. Either from Brythonic (Welsh craig) or Goidelic (GaelicScottish Gaelic languageScottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
creag). - Croot – a small boy (Welsh crwt, Gaelic cruit "someone small and humpbacked")
- Croude – type of small harp, as opposed to clarsachClàrsachClàrsach or Cláirseach , is the generic Gaelic word for 'a harp', as derived from Middle Irish...
(Welsh crwthCrwthThe crwth is an archaic stringed musical instrument, associated particularly with Welsh music, once widely-played in Europe.-Origin of the name:...
"fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
", Gaelic croit) - Lum – Well known Scottish word for chimney (Middle Welsh llumon "chimney")
- VendaceVendaceVendace can refers to several species of fish, but especially these species of freshwater whitefish:*Coregonus albula, widespread in northern continental Europe...
– fish of LochmabenLochmabenLochmaben is a small town in Scotland, and site of a once-important castle. It lies four miles west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway.-Notable people:*Angus Douglas - Scottish internationalist footballer...
, Derwent WaterDerwent WaterDerwentwater is one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park in north west England. It lies wholly within the Borough of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria....
and Bassenthwaite LakeBassenthwaite LakeBassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest water bodies in the English Lake District. It is long and narrow, approximately long and wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about ....
, possibly cognate with Welsh GwyniadGwyniadThe gwyniad is a freshwater whitefish native to Bala Lake in northern Wales.The population is threatened by deteriorating water quality and by the ruffe, a fish introduced to the lake in the 1980s and now eating the eggs and fry of gwyniad...
Equivalence with Old Welsh
The linguistic term ‘Cumbric’ is defined according to geographical rather than linguistic criteria: that is, it refers to the variety of Brythonic spoken within a particular region of northern Britain and infers nothing about that variety except that it was geographically distinct from other varieties. This has led to a discussion about the nature of Cumbric and its relationship with other Brythonic languages, in particular with Old Welsh.Linguists appear undecided as to whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language, or a dialect of Old Welsh. Koch calls it a ‘dialect’ but goes on to say that some of the place names in the Cumbric region “clearly reflect a developed medieval language, much like Welsh, Cornish or Breton”. Jackson also calls it a ‘dialect’ but points out that “to call it Pr[imitive] W[elsh] would be inaccurate”, so clearly views it as distinct in some meaningful respect.
It has been suggested that Cumbric was more closely aligned to Pictish than to Welsh, though there is considerable debate regarding the classification of that language. On the basis of place name evidence it has also been proposed that all three languages were very similar.
The whole question is made more complex because no principled distinction can be made in any case between languages and dialects.
Below, some of the proposed differences between Cumbric and Old Welsh are discussed.
Abbreviations:
- W WelshWelsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
- C CornishCornish languageCornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
- B BretonBreton languageBreton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
- Brit. BritishBritish languageThe British language was an ancient Celtic language spoken in Britain.British language may also refer to:* Any of the Languages of the United Kingdom.*The Welsh language or the Brythonic languages more generally* British English...
Retention of British *rk
In WCB the British cluster *rk was spirantizedLenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
to /rx/ (W rch, C rgh, B rc’h) but a number of place names appear to show Cumbric retained the plosive in this position. Lanark
Lanark
Lanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8,253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade"....
and Lanercost
Lanercost
Lanercost is a village in the northern part of Cumbria, England. The settlement is in the civil parish of Burtholme, in the City of Carlisle local government district. Lanercost is known for the presence of Lanercost Priory and its proximity to Hadrian's Wall.-History:Lanercost Priory was founded...
are thought to contain the equivalent of W lannerch ‘clearing’.
There is evidence to the contrary, however, including the place names Powmaughan and Maughanby (containing W Meirchion) and the word kelchyn (related to W cylch). Jackson concludes that the change of Brit. *rk > /rx/ “may have been somewhat later in Cumbric”.
Retention of British *mb
There is evidence to suggest that the consonant cluster mb remained distinct in Cumbric later than the time it was assimilated to mm in WCB. The cluster remains in:- Old English Cumbraland "land of Cumbrians" (from Brit. *kombrogi).
- Crombocwater and Crombokwatre, two 14th century records of Crummock WaterCrummock WaterCrummock Water is a lake in the Lake District in Cumbria, North West England situated between Buttermere to the south and Loweswater to the north. Crummock Water is two and a half miles long, three quarters of a mile wide and 140ft deep. The River Cocker is considered to start at the north of the...
and Crombok an 1189 record for Crummack Dale in YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
(from Brit. *Crumbāco- "curved one" (W crwm "curved")). - Cam Beck, the name of a stream in north Cumbria recorded as Camboc (1169) and believed to be from Brit. *Cambāco- "crooked stream" (W cam, CB kamm).
- Crimple Beck, Yorkshire, which is said to derive from Brit. *Crumbopull- "crooked pool". Here the b is assumed to have survived late enough to cause provectionFortitionFortition is a consonantal change from a 'weak' sound to a 'strong' one, the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a plosive...
.
Jackson notes that only in the north does the cluster appear in place names borrowed after circa 600AD and concludes that it may have been a later dialectal survival here.
A few examples appear to contradict the idea: Old English Cumerland "Cumberland" and Cumera Scotta "Cumbrians and Scots".
Syncope
Jackson notes the legal term galnys, equivalent to Welsh galanasGalanas
Galanas in Welsh law was a payment made by a killer and his family to the family of his or her victim. It is similar to Ericfine in Ireland and the Anglo-Saxon Weregild....
, may show syncope of internal syllables to be a feature of Cumbric. Further evidence is wanting, however.
Devoicing
James mentions that devoicing appears to be a feature of many Cumbric place names. Devoicing of word final consonants is a feature of modern Breton and, to an extent, Cornish. Watson notes initial devoicing in Tinnis Castle, DrumelzierDrumelzier
Drumelzier , is a village on the B712 in the Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders.The area of the village is extensive and includes the settlements of Wrae, Stanhope, Mossfennan and Kingledoors. To the north is Broughton and to the south the road passes Crook Inn to Tweedsmuir.The Drumelzier or...
(W dinas ‘fortress, city’) as an example of this, which can also be seen in the Cornish Tintagel
Tintagel
Tintagel is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The population of the parish is 1,820 people, and the area of the parish is ....
from C din ‘fort’.
There are also a significant number of place names which do not support this theory. Devoke Water & Cumdivock (which Ekwall derives from Dyfoc) and Derwent (< Brit. Derwentiō) all have initial d-. The name Calder (from Brit. *Caletodubro-) in fact appears to show a voiced Cumbric consonant where Welsh has Calettwr by provection
Fortition
Fortition is a consonantal change from a 'weak' sound to a 'strong' one, the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a plosive...
, which Jackson believes reflects an earlier stage of pronunciation. Jackson also notes that Old English had no internal or final /g/ so would be borrowed with /k/ by sound substitution. This can be seen in names with c, k, ck (e.g. Cocker < Brit. *kukro-, Eccles < Brit. eglēsia).
Loss of /w/
The Cumbric personal names Gospatrick, Gososwald and Gosmungo meaning ‘servant of St…’ (WCB gwas ‘servant, boy’) and the Galloway dialect word gossock ‘short, dark haired inhabitant of Wigtownshire’ (W. gwasog ‘a servant’) apparently show that the Cumbric equivalent of WCB gwas ‘servant’ was *gos. Jackson suggests that it may be a survival of the original Proto-Celtic form of the word in –o- (i.e. *wosto-).This idea is disputed by the Dictionary of the Scots Language and the occurrence in Gospatrick's Write of the word wassenas ‘dependants’, thought to be from the same word gwas, is evidence against Jackson’s theory. Koch notes that the alternation between gwa- and go- is common among the Brythonic languages and does not amount to a systematic sound change in any of them.
Semantics of Penn
In the Book of Aneirin, a poem entitled ‘Peis Dinogat’ (possibly set in the Lake DistrictLake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
of Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
), contains a usage of the word penn "head" (attached to the names of several animals hunted by the protagonist), that is unique in medieval Welsh literature and may, according to Koch, reflect Cumbric influence ("[r]eferring to a single animal in this way is otherwise found only in Breton, and we have no evidence that the construction ever had any currency in the present-day Wales"). The relevant lines are:
- Pan elei dy dat ty e vynyd
- Dydygei ef penn ywrch penn gwythwch penn hyd
- Penn grugyar vreith o venyd
- Penn pysc o rayadyr derwennyd
Translated as:
- When your father went to [the] mountain
- He brought a head of buck, head of wild pig, head of stag
- Head of speckled grouse from [the] mountain
- Head of fish from [the] falls of Derwent
The definite article
The modern Brythonic languages have different forms of the definite articleDefinite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
: W yr, y, C an, B an, ar, al. These are all taken to derive from an unstressed form of the British demonstrative *sindos, altered by assimilation (compare the Gaelic articles). Throughout Old Welsh the article is ir (or -r after a vowel), but there is evidence in Cumbric for an article in -n alongside one in -r. Note the following:
- Tallentire, Cumbria (Talentir 1200-25): ‘brow/end of the land’ (W tal y tir)
- Triermain, Cumbria (Trewermain, Treverman c 1200): ‘homestead at the stone’ (W tre(f) y maen)
- Treales, Lancashire (Treueles 1086): possibly ‘village of the court’ (W tre(f) y llys). But note Treflys, PowysPowysPowys is a local-government county and preserved county in Wales.-Geography:Powys covers the historic counties of Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, most of Brecknockshire , and a small part of Denbighshire — an area of 5,179 km², making it the largest county in Wales by land area.It is...
which has no article. - Pen-y-Ghent, Yorkshire (Penegent 1307): ‘hill of the border country’ (W pen y gaint). The final element is disputed. Ekwall says it is identical to Kent (< Br *Kantion), which is related to W cant ‘rim, border’, though Mills gives ‘coastal district’ or ‘land of the hosts or armies’ for the county.
- Traquair, Borders (‘‘Treverquyrd 1124): ‘homestead on the River Quair’ (W tre(f) y Quair).
- Penicuik, MidlothianMidlothianMidlothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy area. It borders the Scottish Borders, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh council areas....
(Penicok 1250): ‘hill of the cuckoo’ (W pen y cog) - Liscard, Wirral PeninsulaWirral PeninsulaWirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in North West England. It is bounded by three bodies of water: to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey and to the north by the Irish Sea. Both terms "Wirral" and "the Wirral" are used locally , although the...
(Lisenecark 1260): possibly ‘court of the rock’ (W. llys y garreg), but probably Irish lios na carraige of identical meaning. Although Koch cites this as an example of Cumbric, it lies outside his own definition of the Cumbric region.
Absence of -ydd
Of all the names of possible Cumbric derivation, few are more certain than Carlisle and DerwentRiver Derwent
River Derwent is the name of several rivers in England:*River Derwent, Derbyshire*River Derwent, North East England on the border between County Durham and Northumberland*River Derwent, Cumbria in the Lake District*River Derwent, Yorkshire in Yorkshire...
which can be directly traced back to their Romano-British recorded forms Luguvalium and Derventio.
The modern and medieval forms of Carlisle (Luel c1050, Cardeol 1092, Karlioli c1100 (Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
genitive), Cærleoil 1130) and Derwent (Deorwentan stream c890 (Old English), Derewent) suggest derivations from Br *Luguvaljon and *Derwentjō. But the Welsh forms Caerliwelydd and Derwennydd are derived from alternative forms *Luguvalijon, *Derwentijō which gave the -ydd ending. This appears to show a divergence between Cumbric and Welsh at a relatively early date.
If this was an early dialectal variation, it can’t be applied as a universal sound law, as the equivalent of W mynydd ‘mountain’ occurs in a number of Cumbric names with the spirant intact: E.g. Mindrum (Minethrum 1050) from ‘mountain ridge’ (W. mynydd trum). It might also be noted that Medieval Welsh forms of Caerliwelydd
and Derwennydd both occur in poems of supposed Cumbrian origin whose rhyme and metre would be distrupted if the ending were absent.
Date of extinction
It is impossible to give an exact date of the extinction of Cumbric. However, there are some pointers which may give a reasonably accurate estimate. In the mid 11th century some landowners still bore what appear to be Cumbric names. Examples of such landowners are Dunegal (Dyfnwal), lord of Strathnith or NithsdaleNithsdale
Nithsdale , also known by its anglicised gaelic name Strathnith or Stranit, is the valley of the River Nith in Scotland, and the name of the region...
; Moryn (Morien), lord of Cardew and Cumdivock near Carlisle and Eilifr (Eliffer), lord of Penrith.
There is a village near Carlisle called Cumwhitton
Cumwhitton
Cumwhitton is a small village and civil parish close to Carlisle in Cumbria, England. There is a church called St Mary's and a public house or inn called The Pheasant which offers a wide range of food and a good reputation for Real Ale....
(earlier Cumquinton). This appears to contain the Norman name Quinton There were no Normans in this area until 1069 at the earliest.
In the Battle of the Standard
Battle of the Standard
The Battle of the Standard, sometimes called the Battle of Northallerton, in which English forces repelled a Scottish army, took place on 22 August 1138 on Cowton Moor near Northallerton in Yorkshire. The Scottish forces were led by King David I of Scotland...
in 1138, the Cumbrians are noted as a separate ethnic group. Given that their material culture was very similar to their Gaelic and Anglian neighbours, it is arguable that what set them apart was still their language. Also the castle at Castle Carrock
Castle Carrock
Castle Carrock is a village and civil parish on the B6413 road, in the City of Carlisle District, in the English county of Cumbria. It has a pub , a primary school and many walks...
– Castell Caerog dates from around 1160-1170. Barmulloch
Barmulloch
Barmulloch is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde. Formerly rural, it was developed as a post war overspill housing area, largely featuring Prefabricated housing. Barmulloch shares the Red Road complex of multi-storey flats with the neighbouring...
earlier Badermonoc (Cumbric *bod-ir-monoc – Monk’s Dwelling) was given to the church by King Mael Choluim IV between 1153 and 1165.
A more controversial point is the surname Wallace. It means “Welshman”. It is possible that all the Wallaces in the Clyde area were medieval immigrants from Wales, but given that the term was also used for local Cumbric speaking Strathclyde Welsh it seems equally if not more likely that the surname refers to people who were seen as being "Welsh" due to their Cumbric language. Surnames in Scotland were not inherited before 1200 and not regularly until 1400. William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
(known in Gaelic as Uilleam Breatnach – namely William the Briton or Welshman) came from the Renfrew area – itself a Cumbric name. Wallace slew the sheriff of Lanark (also a Cumbric name) in 1297. Even if he had inherited the surname from his father it is possible that the family spoke Cumbric within memory in order to be thus named.
There are also some historical pointers to a continuing separate ethnic identity. Prior to being crowned king of Scotland in 1124, David I
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
was invested with the title Prince of the Cumbrians. William I of Scotland
William I of Scotland
William the Lion , sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", reigned as King of the Scots from 1165 to 1214...
between 1173-1180 made an address to his subjects, identifying the Cumbrians as a separate ethnic group. This does not prove that any of them still spoke Cumbric at this time.
The legal documents in the Lanercost Cartulary dating from the late 12th century show witnesses with Norman French or English names, and no obvious Cumbric names. Though these people represent the upper classes, it seems significant that by the late 12th century in the Lanercost area, Cumbric is not obvious in these personal names. In 1262 in Peebles, jurymen in a legal dispute over peat cutting also have names which mostly appear Norman French or English, but possible exceptions are Gauri Pluchan, Cokin Smith and Richard Gladhoc, where Gladhoc has the look of an adjective similar to Welsh "gwladog" = "countryman". In the charters of Wetherall
Wetherall
Wetherall is a surname, and may refer to:* David Wetherall , English footballer* Frances Wetherall , British sprint canoer* Frederick Augustus Wetherall , British General...
Priory near Carlisle there is a monk called Robert Minnoc who appears as a witness to 8 charters dating from around 1260. His name is variously spelled Minnoc/Minot/Mynoc and it is tempting to see an equivalent of the Welsh "mynach" – "Robert the Monk" here.
Given that the Anglicisation of the upper classes in general has happened before the Anglicisation of the peasantry in other areas which have given up speaking Celtic languages it is not implausible that the peasantry continued to speak Cumbric for at least a little while after. Around 1200 there is a list of the names of men living in the area of Peebles
Peebles
Peebles is a burgh in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders, lying on the River Tweed. According to the 2001 Census, the population was 8,159.-History:...
. Amongst them are Cumbric names such as Gospatrick: servant or follower of St Patrick, Gosmungo: servant of St Mungo, Guososwald: servant of St Oswald and Goscubrycht: servant of St Cuthbert. Two of the saints — Oswald and Cuthbert —are from Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
showing influence on Cumbric not found in Welsh.
The royal seal of Alexander III (who reigned 4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) bore the title "Rex Scotorum et Britanniarum", or "King of Scots and Britons".
In 1305 Edward I of England prohibited the laws of the Scots and the Brets
Leges inter Brettos et Scottos
The Leges inter Brettos et Scottos or Laws of the Brets and Scots was a legal codification under David I of Scotland...
The term Brets or Britons refers to the native, traditionally Cumbric speaking people of southern Scotland.
It seems that Cumbric could well have survived into the middle of the 12th Century as a community language and even lasted into the 13th on the tongues of the last remaining speakers. Certain areas seem to be particularly dense in Cumbric place-names even down to very minor features. The two most striking of these are around Lanercost
Lanercost
Lanercost is a village in the northern part of Cumbria, England. The settlement is in the civil parish of Burtholme, in the City of Carlisle local government district. Lanercost is known for the presence of Lanercost Priory and its proximity to Hadrian's Wall.-History:Lanercost Priory was founded...
east of Carlisle and around Torquhan south of Edinburgh. If the 1262 names from Peebles do contain traces of Cumbric personal names then we can imagine Cumbric dying out between 1250 and 1300 at the very latest.
In the 2000s a group of enthusiasts proposed a revival of the Cumbric language, and launched a social networking site a "revived Cumbric" guidebook to promote it. Writing in Carn
Carn
Carn is the official magazine of the Celtic League. The name, which is cognate with the English word 'cairn', was chosen for its symbolic value and because it can be found in each of the living Celtic languages...
magazine, Colin Lewis noted that there was disagreement in the group about whether to base "revived Cumbric" on the surviving sources for the language, or try to reconstruct the form Late Cumbric may have taken after the attested period.
See also
- Cumbrian dialectCumbrian dialectThe Cumbrian dialect is a local English dialect spoken in Cumbria in northern England, not to be confused with the extinct Celtic language Cumbric that used to be spoken in Cumbria. As in any county, there is a gradual drift in accent towards its neighbours...
- Etymology of Cumbrian place namesEtymology of Cumbrian place namesCumbrian toponymy refers to the study of place names in Cumbria, a county in North West England, and as a result of the spread of the ancient Cumbric language, further parts of northern England and the Southern Uplands of Scotland....
- GillemachoiGillemachoiGillemachoi was a serf quitclaimed by King William I of Scotland to Jocelin, Bishop of Glasgow. His name means "lad" or "servant" of "St Mungo". In a charter issued at Selkirk at some point between 1175 and 1190, King William acknowledges the full ownership of "Gillemachoi de Conglud" and all his...
- Kenneth H. JacksonKenneth H. JacksonKenneth Hurlstone Jackson was an English linguist and a translator who specialised in the Celtic languages. He demonstrated how the text of the Ulster Cycle of tales, written circa AD 1100, preserves an oral tradition originating some six centuries earlier and reflects Celtic Irish society of the...
- Kingdom of StrathclydeKingdom of StrathclydeStrathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...