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Not to be confused with the Celtic Cumbric language Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language spoken in England in Cumbria, Lancashire, some parts of Northumbria and Yorkshire and in southern Lowland Scotland, i. ...

Cumbria, in the extreme North West of England, is by no means unique in having a traditional local dialect, but the isolation of the area and its rich history mean that this is perhaps one of the most interesting rural dialects in Great Britain. As in any county, there is a gradual drift in accent towards its neighbours. Barrow-in-Furness, in the south of Cumbria, has a similar accent to much of Lancashire whilst the northern parts of Cumbria have a more North-East English sound to them. Whilst clearly being an English accent approximately between Lancashire and Geordie it shares much vocabulary with Scots. 'Cumbrian' here refers both to Cumbria but also to Cumberland, the county which existed up to the enactment of local government re-organisation in 1974, when the distinction between Cumberland and Westmorland was lost. There is a Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore, which was written by William Rollinson, but is much harder to find a copy of than the respective dictionaries for Lancashire and Yorkshire. Cumbria (IPA: ), is a shire county in the extreme North West of England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Barrow-in-Furness is a town in Cumbria, England. ... Cumberland is one of the 39 traditional counties of England. ... The Local Government Act 1972 (1972 c. ... Cumberland is one of the 39 traditional counties of England. ... Westmorland (formerly also spelt Westmoreland, an even older spelling is Westmerland) is an area of north west England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. ...

Brief History of the People and Language

The Celtic Influence

Despite the modern county being created only in 1974 from the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and north Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire, Cumbria is an ancient land. Before the arrival of the Romans the area was the home of the Carvetii tribe, which was later assimilated to the larger Brigantes tribe. These people would have spoken Brythonic, which developed into Old Welsh, but around the 5th century AD, when Cumbria was the centre of the kingdom of Rheged, the language spoken in northern England and southern Scotland from Yorkshire to Strathclyde had developed into a separate language known as Cumbric. Remnants of Brythonic and Cumbric are most often seen in place names, in elements such as caer 'fort' as in Carlisle, pen 'hill' as in Penrith and craig 'crag, rock' as in High Crag. The Carvetii were one of the Celtic tribes living in the British Islands, previous to the Roman invasion of Britain. ... The Brigantes were a British Celtic tribe which lived between Tyne and Humber. ... Brythonic is one of two major divisions of Insular Celtic languages (the other being Goidelic). ... Old Welsh (Hen Gymraeg) is the label attached to the Welsh language from the time it developed from the Brythonic language, generally thought to be in the period between the middle of the 6th century and the middle of the 7th century, until the early 12th century when it developed... Entrance to the Rheged Discovery Centre Rheged was a Brythonic nation of Sub-Roman Britain, where the natives spoke Cumbric. ... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Strathclyde (Srath Chluaidh in Gaelic) was one of the regional council areas of Scotland from 1975 to 1996. ... Evolution and Extinction Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language spoken in much of Cumbria, Northern Northumbria, and parts of lowland Scotland until about the 11th century. ...

The most well known Celtic element in Cumbrian dialect is the sheep counting numerals which are still used in various forms by shepherds throughout the area, and apparently for knitting. The word 'Yan' (meaning 'one'), for example, is prevalent throughout Cumbria and is still often used, especially by less "well"-spoken people and children, eg. "That yan owr there," or "Can I have yan of those?" Yan Tan Tethera was a traditional numeric jargon used by shepherds to count sheep in northern England and southern Scotland. ...

The Northern subject rule may be attributable to Celtic Influence. The Northern Subject Rule is a grammatical pattern inherited from Northern Middle English. ...

Before the 8th century AD Cumbria was annexed to English Northumbria and Old English began to be spoken in parts, although evidence suggests Cumbric survived in central regions in some form until the 11th century. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon[1], Old English: ) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ...

The Norse Influence

A far stronger influence on the modern dialect was Old Norse, spoken by Norwegian settlers who probably arrived in Cumbria in the 10th century via Ireland and the Isle of Man. The majority of Cumbrian place names are of Norse origin, including Ulverston from Ulfrs tun ('Ulfr's farmstead'), Kendal from Kent dalr ('valley of the River Kent') and Elterwater from eltr vatn ('swan lake'). Many of the traditional dialect words are also remnants of Norse settlement, including beck (bekkr, 'stream'), laik (leik, 'to play'), lowp (hlaupa, 'to jump') and glisky (gliskr, 'shimmering'). Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ...

Old Norse seems to have survived in Cumbria until fairly late. A 12th century inscription found at Loppergarth in Furness bears a curious mixture of Old English and Norse, showing that the language was still felt in the south of the county at this time, and would probably have hung on in the fells and dales (both Norse words) until later. Furness (IPA: ) is a peninsula in the southern part of Cumbria, in north-west England. ...

Once Cumbrians had assimilated to speaking English, there were few further influences on the dialect. In the Middle Ages, much of Cumbria frequently swapped hands between England and Scotland but this had little effect on the language used. In the nineteenth century miners from Cornwall and Wales began relocating to Cumbria to take advantage of the work offered by new iron ore, copper and wadd mines but whilst they seem to have affected some local accents (notably Barrow-in-Furness) they don't seem to have contributed much to the vocabulary. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

One of the lasting characteristics of still found in the local dialect of Cumbria today is an inclination to drop vowels, especially in relation to the word "the" which is frequently abbreviated. Unlike the Lancashire dialect, where 'the' is abbreviated to 'th', in Cumbrian (as in Yorkshire) the sound is harder like the letter '?' or simply a 't' and in sentences sounds as if it is attached to the previous word, for example "int'" instead of "in the" "ont'" instead of "on the".

The Accent and Pronunciation

Cumbria is a large area with several relatively isolated districts, so there is quite a large variation in accent, especially between north and south or the coastal towns. There are some uniform features that should be taken into account when pronouncing dialect words.

Vowels

When certain vowels are followed by the glides /ɹ/ or /l/, an epenthetic schwa [ə] is often pronounced between them, creating two distinct syllables: Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (, from Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ... The IPA symbol for the Schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean: An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel. ...

• 'feel' > [fiəl]; 'fear' > [fiə]
• 'fool' > [fuəl]; 'moor' > [muə]
• 'fail' > [fɪəl]
• 'file' > [faɪəl]; 'fire' > [faɪə]

This was once common across Britain, but it is now confined to Cumbria, most of Yorkshire and the more rural parts of Lancashire.^{[citation needed]} Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ...

Consonants

Most consonants are pronounced as they are in other parts of the English speaking world. A few exceptions follow:

<g> and <k> have a tendency to be dropped or unreleased in the coda (word- or syllable-finally). Look up coda in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

<h> is realised in various ways throughout the county. When William Barrow Kendall wrote his Furness Wordbook in 1867, he wrote that <h> 'should never be dropped',^[1] suggesting the practice had already become conspicuous. It seems the elision of both <h> and <t> began in the industrial towns and slowly spread out. In the south, it is now very common.

<l> in the word final position may be dropped or realised as [w]: woo wool [wəw]; pow pole [pɒw].

<r> is realised as [ɾ] following consonants and in word-initial position but is often elided in the coda, unless a following word begins with a vowel: ross [ɾɒs]; gimmer [gɪmə]; gimmer hogg [gɪməɾ ɒg].

<t> is traditionally always pronounced, although in many places it has been replaced by the glottal stop [ʔ] now common throughout Britain.

<y> may be consonantal [j] as in yam home [jam]. As the adjectival or adverbial suffix -y it may be [ɪ] or [iː] as in clarty muddy [klaːtɪ]. Medially and, in some cases, finally it is [ɐː] as in Thorfinsty (a place) [ˈθɔːfɪnˌstɐː].

Stress

Stress is usually placed on the initial syllable: yakeren acorn [ˈjakɜɾˌən].

Unstressed initial vowels are usually fully realised, whilst those in final syllables are usually reduced to schwa [ə].

Dialect Words

General words

• ars I am
• awez Come on
• cowie thing or sometimes can refer to an ectasy pill
• thew you
• thine yours
• us, es me
• wherst where is the
• djarn doing (as in 'whut yer djarn? - what you doing?)

Adjectives

• kaylied intoxicated
• kystie squeamish or fussy
• la'al small
• ladgeful embarrassing or unfashionable (mainly in and around Penrith)
• slape slippery or smooth as in slape back colly, a border colly with short wirey hair
• yon used when indicating a place or object that is usually in sight but far away. abbreviation of yonder.

Adverbs

• gey very
• owwer over ("ars garn owwer yonder fer a kip" - I'm going over there for a sleep)
• vanya almost, nearly. vanear is a coastal variant

Nouns

• bait packed meal that is carried to work
• bait bag bag in which to carry bait
• biddies fleas
• bift/bifter cigarette
• britches trousers
• cheble or chable table
• cur dog sheepdog - collie
• garn thread for knitting (Furness)
• kets sweets
• lewer money
• scrow a mess
• shillies small stones or gravel
• skemmy beer
• snig small eel
• yam home, as in: as garn yam (I'm going home)
• jinnyspinner A Daddy Long Legs

Verbs

• bowk retch (as in before vomiting)
• bray beat (as in beat up someone)
• bubble cry
• chess chase
• chor steal (Romany origin, cf. Urdu chorna)
• clarten messing about
• deek look (Romany origin, cf Urdu dekhna)
• doss play (wanna doss hide and seek? - Do you wish to play hide and seek?)
• fistle to fidget
• gander look
• gar go
• garn going
• howk to pick at or gouge out
• hoy throw
• jarn or jurn doing
• laik play
• lait look for
• lowp jump
• nash run away
• ratch to search for something
• scop to throw
• scower look at
• sow sexual intercourse
• skit make fun of
• twat hit someone ("I twatted him in the face")
• twine to whine or complain

People

• bairden child
• buwler/bewer girl
• gammerstang awkward person
• mot woman/girl/girlfriend
• offcomer a non-native in Cumbria
• potter gypsy
• gadgey man
• charva man
• marra friend
• t'ol fella father
• t'ol lass mother

Farming Terms

• boos a division in a shuppon
• cop the bank of earth on which a hedge grows
• fodder gang passage for feeding cattle (usually in a shuppon)
• liggin' kessin when an animal is lying on its back and can't get up
• stoop a gate post
• lonnin country lane
• yat gate

The Weather

• hossing raining heavily (it's hossing it duwn)
• glisky when the sky is really bright so you can't see properly
• mizzlin misty drizzly rain
• syling pouring rain

Phrases

• ars garn yam I'm going home
• hasta Have you?
• oust fettal How are you
• werst thew of te where are you going
• wh'ista Who are you? (especially used in Appleby)
• werst t' frae Where are you from?
• owz it gan? How is it going? (how are you)
• howays then provoke fight
• wha ya de'yan? What are you doing?
• wer y'ofta? Where are you off to? (Where are you going)

Cumbrian numbers

Main article: Yan Tan Tethera

The Cumbrian numbers, often called 'sheep counting numerals' because of their (declining) use by shepherds to this very day, show clear signs that they may well have their origins in Cumbric. The table below shows the variation of the numbers throughout Cumbria, as well as the relevant cognate in Welsh and Cornish, which are the two geographically closest British languages to Cumbric, for comparison. Yan Tan Tethera was a traditional numeric jargon used by shepherds to count sheep in northern England and southern Scotland. ...

NB: when these numerals were used for counting sheep, reputedly, the shepherd would count to fifteen or twenty and then move a small stone from one of his pockets to the other before beginning again, thus keeping score. Numbers eleven, twelve etc. would have been 'yandick, taendick', while sixteen and seventeen would have been 'yan-bumfit, tyan-bumfit' etc. The Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick. ... Westmorland (formerly also spelt Westmoreland, an even older spelling is Westmerland) is an area of north west England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. ... The following places have the name Eskdale: Eskdale, the valley in Cumbria, England Eskdale in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland Eskdale in North Yorkshire, England Eskdale in Victoria, Australia This is a disambiguation page &#8212; a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... , Millom is a town on the estuary of the River Duddon in Cumbria, England, which, in Victorian Times, was merely a small hamlet by the name of Holborn Hill. ... Furness (IPA: ) is a peninsula in the southern part of Cumbria, in north-west England. ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ... For the Cornish-English dialect, see West Country dialects. ...

Cumbrian poetry

The following poets are known for writing about Cumbria-

• William Wordsworth
• Derwent Pickering was a local writer who wrote in Cumbrian
• Norman Nicholson lived in Millom and wrote many poems about his native county

William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 – April 23, 1850) was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their 1798 joint publication, Lyrical Ballads. ... Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson OBE, (January 8, 1914 – May 30, 1987), was an English poet, known for his association with the Cumberland town of Millom. ...

See also

• Cumbria
• Cumbric
• Dialect
• Etymology of Cumbrian Place Names

Cumbria (IPA: ), is a shire county in the extreme North West of England. ... Evolution and Extinction Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language spoken in much of Cumbria, Northern Northumbria, and parts of lowland Scotland until about the 11th century. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ... The county of Cumbria in the north west of England has a long and complex history of human settlement. ...

References

External links

• Sounds Familiar? — Listen to examples of regional accents and dialects from across the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
• Listen to Pronunciation
• Lakeland Dialect Society