was the
Brythonic Celtic Language centred in
Cumbria , and spoken from southern
Lowland Scotland south as far as
Greater Manchester , i.e. the area anciently referred to as ''
Y Gogledd Hen ''. Cumbric was once referred to as North
Welsh and
Cornish as South, or West, Welsh.
The distinction of the Old Brittonic dialects into separate languages begins in about the
5th Century , and Cumbric was most likely dead by the
11th Century (though extinction dates as late as the
13th Century have been suggested). However, in this time, it is possible that it was moving further away from Welsh grammatically, and developing as a distinct, non-mutually intelligible tongue. It is possible that at its height, Cumbric was spoken by around 30,000 people.
The biggest problems with modern-day knowledge of the language lies with the fact that Cumbric may have been a
Dialect of Welsh, and not distinct at all. The old northern British kingdoms of
Rheged ,
Strathclyde ,
Elmet and
Gododdin spoke
Old Welsh , but given time, many
Linguist s consider that this tongue was distinguishable from Old Welsh at the time of its demise.
Although the language is long extinct it appears 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". Often these numerals were extremely bastardised.
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.
Much of the origin and character of the Cumbric language remain a mystery. Apart from several insignificant
Latin observational texts and place names, the language is today undocumented. What is known is that the language was Brythonic Insular Celtic, most likely descended from Old North Welsh, related to the presumed ''Brythonic''
Pictish Language , and progressively more distantly, to Cornish. Due to its location, words of
Goidelic and Scandinavian origin may have enriched the language.
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 there is some shift, e.g. in Ayrshire, "seetera" means seven, but in Keswick, "sethera" is six.
The Cumbric number system gave rise to the
Shepherd jargon of
Yan Tan Tethera , used to count
Sheep .
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.
- - Cowpat, Welsh ''bawch'', Gaelic ''buadhar''
- - Mean fellow, Welsh ''bawyn''
- - an apron Welsh, and Gaelic same. Found in Yorkshire
- - A type of mead Welsh ''bragod'' (also found in Chaucer )
- - Small flat bottomed boat (also North East England), cognate with Welsh ''ceubal'' and Latin ''caupulus''
- - Rocks, either from Brythonic ''craig'' or Goidelic ''creag''
- (Gaelic: '''Cruit''') - type of small harp, as opposed to Clarsach
- - a small boy, Welsh ''crwt''
- - Weregeld , or fine for homicide Welsh ''galanas''
- - Pool in river; waterfall either from Brythonic ''llyn'' or Goidelic ''linne''
- - Well known Scottish word for chimney, ?Welsh ''llumon''
- - Probably from Brythonic for "piece"
- - pointed conical hill, cf "Ben" (Gaelic: ''beinn'' probably of Pictish origin)
- - A pool either from Brythonic ''pwll'' or Goidelic ''poll''
- - Fish of Lochmaben , probably cognate with Gwyniad
Reconstructed
Cognate s in the language only number around 50, and the Celtic Culture of Northwest England has long since been forgotten. Despite this, several forms of "Revived" Cumbric are in their infancies. One is noted to be very similar to Old Welsh, while the other re-creates a hypothetical, distinct language representing what the language may have been like today had it never died out.
The following are a list of words that have continued in story and slang by some in rural Cumbria until the 21st century.
Cumbrian Dialect
