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Cumbric language
Cumbric was the Brythonic Celtic language, often considered to be a dialect of Welsh, spoken in Northern England and southern Lowland Scotland, i.e. the area anciently referred to as the Hen Ogledd ("old north") and centred on Cumbria. Place name evidence suggests it may also have been spoken as far south as 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. It is debatable whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language or a dialect of Welsh. 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 Cheshire, dividing the Brythonic peoples into 3 areas (Modern Wales, Cornwall and Northwest England. The latter two later accepted the King of Wessex's dominance and dissolved into England. It is impossible for us to know how long Brythonic 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. The scarcity of linguistic evidence means that Cumbric's distinctness from Welsh is more deduced than proven. However, Cornish and Welsh evolved into separate languages with low mutual intelligibility 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.
Equivalence with Old WelshSome linguists argue that the differences between Cumbric and Old Welsh are not enough to classify it as a language. Since, at some stages in its development and usage, it was probably mutually intelligible with Welsh, it is not certain whether and when exactly it should be classified as having existed as a separate language. Linguistic evidenceAlthough 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 Brythonic 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
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. "Cumbric Place-names"Cumbric placenames are found in the whole of Northern England and southern Scotland, particularly Cumbria and Lancashire. Here is a list of some of these names and their translations. These come with estimated Cumbric root words that are not yet certain until the attempted revivals are completed.
Scots and English words of possible Cumbric originA number of words occurring in Scottish and Northern England dialects of English have been proposed as being of possible Brythonic origin[1]. 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:
NotesSee alsoReferences
an:Idioma cumbrico de:Kumbrisch es:Idioma cúmbrico fr:Cambrien (langue) gl:Lingua cúmbrica it:Lingua cumbrica lt:Kambr? kalba nl:Cumbrisch no:Kumbrisk pl:J?zyk kumbryjski ru:??????????? ???? sv:Kumbriska zh:???? Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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