CUMBRIC LANGUAGE

'Cumbric' was the Brythonic Celtic language spoken in England in Cumbria, some parts of Northumbria and in southern Lowland Scotland, i.e. the area anciently referred to as the ''Hen Ogledd''. Place name evidence suggests it may also have been spoken further south, in the Yorkshire Dales. Most linguists believe that it became extinct in the 11th century, after the incorporation of the semi-independent kingdom of Strathclyde into the kingdom of Scotland.
One of the main questions regarding the status of Cumbric, is whether it should be considered a separate language at all. The North-Welsh speaking area was probably isolated from the Welsh speaking kingdoms of Wales after the Battle of Chester in 616, which appears to have sealed the Northumbrian conquest of Lancashire and Cheshire. It is impossible for us to know how long Brittonic speech persisted in these conquered areas (although the Celtic place-name cluster around Wigan suggests there may have been pockets in which the language survived for a considerable time) or whether language innovations were transmitted between the North-Welsh and the Welsh of Wales.
Reconstructions of the Cumbric language are currently being attempted, and a small online beginners guide to Cumbric has been written, named 'Camow Cyntaf yn Gwmbraic' (First steps in Cumbric).
The scarcity of linguistic evidence means that Cumbric's distinctness from Welsh is more deduced than proven. However, Cornish and Welsh evolved into separate, mutually unintelligible languages in the period between 597-1000, after being geographically separated by the fall of the Cotswold region at the Battle of Deorham. It is therefore highly probable that the final stages of Cumbric were very different from Welsh.

Contents

Linguistic evidence

Counting Systems of Possible Cumbric Origin

Scottish words of possible Cumbric origin

Notes

See also

References

Linguistic evidence

Although the language is long extinct it is arguable that traces of its vocabulary persisted into the modern era. In the 19th and 20th centuries sheep counts and children's counting rhymes which are possibly derived from Cumbric were collected throughout northern England and southern Scotland: eg ''Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera, Pimp'' compared to Old Welsh ''Un, Dou, Tri, Petwar, Pimp''. Whether these counting systems bear any relation to the Brittonic dialects spoken in the region is a matter of some debate. It has been argued that these numerals were introduced to England by Welsh shepherds or monks during the medieval period. The fact that some have also been collected outside of the region in which Cumbric was spoken may indicate that they were a later introduction from Wales, or, less probably that they are part of a wider celtic sub-stratum. It is also possible that the counting systems were preserved in the Cumbric speaking region then exported into neighbouring areas.
More concrete evidence of Cumbric exists in the place-names of the extreme northwest of England and the South of Scotland, the personal names of Strathclyde Britons in Scottish, Irish and Anglo-Saxon sources, and a few Cumbric words surviving into the High Middle Ages in South West Scotland as legal terms.
From this scanty evidence, little can be deduced about the singular characteristics of Cumbric, not even the name its speakers used to refer to it. What is known is that the language was Brythonic Insular Celtic, descended from Old North Welsh, related to the presumed ''Brythonic'' Pictish language, and to Cornish and Breton. Due to its location, it is likely that Goidelic and Scandinavian loan-words were incorporated into the language before its demise.

Counting Systems of Possible Cumbric Origin

★	Keswick	Westmorland	Eskdale	Millom	High Furness	Wasdale	Teesdale	Swaledale	Wensleydale	Ayrshire
1	yan	yan	yaena	aina	yan	yan	yan	yahn	yan	yinty
2	tyan	tyan	taena	peina	taen	taen	tean	tayhn	tean	tinty
3	tethera	tetherie	teddera	para	tedderte	tudder	tetherma	tether	tither	tetheri
4	methera	peddera	meddera	pedera	medderte	anudder	metherma	mether	mither	metheri
5	pimp	gip	pimp	pimp	pimp	nimph	pip	mimp(h)	pip	bamf
6	sethera	teezie	hofa	ithy	haata	-	lezar	hith-her	teaser	leetera
7	lethera	mithy	lofa	mithy	slaata	-	azar	lith-her	leaser	seetera
8	hovera	katra	seckera	owera	lowera	-	catrah	anver	catra	over
9	dovera	hornie	leckera	lowera	dowa	-	horna	danver	horna	dover
10	dick	dick	dec	dig	dick	-	dick	dic	dick	dik
15	bumfit	bumfit	bumfit	bumfit	mimph	-	bumfit	mimphit	bumper	-
20	giggot	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The numbers show some similarity to one another, and commonly go into folk etymology, e.g. bumper or into rhyming patterns, e.g. yan, tan or leetera, seetera. In some cases, there is also some shift, e.g. in Ayrshire, "seetera" means seven, but in Keswick, "sethera" is six.
The Cumbric origin of these counting systems is debatable, but there is a clear Celtic component in their origin, e.g ''pethera/methera'' Welsh ''pedwar''. Similar Yan Tan Tethera counts have been collected throughout upland England.
A recent account from a Whitby farmer (North East Yorkshire coast) reports a childhood memory of shepherds in the area counting sheep: Yan, Twea, tiddler, middler, pip (Readman, Nangle 2006). Such an eastern occurrence of count systems of "Cumbric" derivation would suggest widespread usage throughout northern England.

Scottish words of possible Cumbric origin

It is not always easy to distinguish possible Pictish loanwords from those of Cumbric. They have been borrowed into both Lowland Scots and Scottish Gaelic, but because Gaelic is also a Celtic language, it would have shared much vocabulary with Cumbric anyway. However, the presence of such words is one factor that differentiates Scottish and Irish Gaelic.

★ 'Bach' - cowpat (cf Welsh ''bawch'', Gaelic ''buadhar'')

★ 'Baivenjar' - mean fellow (Welsh ''bawyn'')

★ 'Brat' - an apron in Welsh, and the same in Gaelic. Found in Yorkshire

★ 'Brogat' - a type of mead (Welsh ''bragod'' - also found in Chaucer)

★ 'Coble' - small flat bottomed boat (also North East England), akin to Welsh ''ceubal'' and Latin ''caupulus''

★ 'Crag' - rocks (either from Brythonic ''craig'' or Goidelic ''creag'')

★ 'Croude' - type of small harp, as opposed to clarsach (Gaelic 'Cruit', Welsh 'Crwth')

★ 'Croot' - a small boy (Welsh ''crwt'', Gaelic ''cruit'', "someone small and humpbacked")

★ 'Galnes' - weregeld, or fine for homicide (Welsh ''galanas'')

★ 'Linn' - pool in river; waterfall (either from Brythonic ''llyn'' or Goidelic ''linne'')

★ 'Lum' - Well known Scottish word for chimney, Welsh ''llumon''

★ 'Peat' - probably from Brythonic for "piece" (Welsh ''peth'' "thing" vs. Gaelic ''cuid'' "part")

★ 'Pen' - pointed conical hill (Gaelic ''beinn'' probably of Pictish origin)

★ 'Poll' - a pool (Brythonic ''pwll'', Goidelic ''poll'')

★ 'Vendace' - fish of Lochmaben, probably cognate with Gwyniad

Notes

1. Nicolaisen, W.F.H ''Scottish Place Names'' pp 131

See also

★ Cumbrian dialect

References

★ Language and History in Early Britain, , Kenneth H., Jackson, Edinburgh University Press, 1953,

★ An Introduction to the Celtic Languages, Russell, Paul, , , Longman, 1995, ISBN 0-582-10082-8

★ The Celtic Languages, Schmidt, Karl Horst, , , Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-01035-7