Cumbric

Cumbric place-names occur in Scotland south of the firths of Forth and Clyde. Brittonic names north of this line are Pictish. Cumbric names are also found commonly in the historic county of Cumberland and in bordering areas of Northumberland. They are less common in Westmorland, east Northumberland, and Durham, with some in Lancashire and the adjoining areas of North Yorkshire. Approaching Cheshire, late Brittonic placenames are probably better characterised as Welsh rather than as Cumbric. As noted below, however, any clear distinction between Cumbric and Welsh is difficult to prove.[6][19][10] Many Brittonic place-names remain in these regions which should not be described as Cumbric, such as Leeds, Manchester and York, because they were coined in a period before Brittonic split into Cumbric and its sister dialects.

Some of the principal towns and cities of the region have names of Cumbric origin, including:

• Bathgate, West Lothian: meaning 'boar wood' (Welsh baedd 'wild boar' + coed 'forest, wood').
• Carlisle, Cumbria: recorded as Luguvalium in the Roman period; the word caer 'fort' was added later.[20] The Welsh form Caerliwelydd is derived by regular sound changes from the Romano-British name.
• Glasgow, Scotland: widely believed[21] to derive from words cognate with [19] glas 'green' and the Welsh gae, 'field' (possibly that below Glasgow Cathedral).[22]
• Lanark, Lanarkshire: from the equivalent of Welsh llannerch 'glade, clearing'.[19]
• Penicuik, Midlothian: from words meaning 'hill of the cuckoo' (W. pen y gog).[23]
• Penrith, Cumbria: meaning 'chief ford' (Welsh pen 'head, chief' + rhyd 'ford').[20]

Several supposed Cumbric elements occur repeatedly in place names of the region. The following table lists some of them according to the modern Welsh equivalent:

Some Cumbric names have historically been replaced by Scottish Gaelic, Middle English, or Scots equivalents, and in some cases the different forms occur in the historical record.

• Edinburgh occurs in early Welsh texts as Din Eidyn and in medieval Scottish records as Dunedene (Gaelic Dùn Èideann), all meaning 'fort of Eidyn'.[19]
• Falkirk similarly has several alternative medieval forms meaning 'speckled church': Eglesbreth etc. from Cumbric (Welsh eglwys fraith); Eiglesbrec etc. from Gaelic (modern Gaelic eaglais bhreac); Faukirk etc. from Scots (in turn from Old English fāg cirice).[1]
• Kirkintilloch began as a Cumbric name recorded as Caerpentaloch in the 10th century, but was partly replaced by the Gaelic words ceann 'head' + tulach 'hillock' later on[19] (plus kirk 'church' from Scots again).
• Kinneil derives from Gaelic ceann fhàil 'head of the [Antonine] Wall' but it was recorded by Nennius as Penguaul (Welsh pen gwawl), and by Bede as Peanfahel, which appears to be a merger of Cumbric and Gaelic.[19]

Among the evidence that Cumbric might have 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 Brittonic language closely related to Welsh.[24] 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 rhymes.[24] These scores are often suggested to represent a survival from medieval Cumbric, a theory first popularized in the 19th century.[24] 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 one way or another, Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola, and Heli Paulasto posit that it remains plausible that the counting systems are indeed of Cumbric origin.[24]

Cumbric, in common with other Brythonic languages, uses a vigesimal counting system, i.e. numbering up to twenty, with intermediate numbers for ten and fifteen. Therefore, after numbering one to ten, numbers follow the format one-and-ten, two-and-ten etc. to fifteen, then one-and-fifteen, two-and-fifteen to twenty. The dialect words for the numbers themselves show much variation across the region. (see chart)

A number of words occurring in the Scots language and Northern English dialects have been proposed as being of possible Brittonic origin.[25] Ascertaining the real derivation of these words is far from simple, due in part to the similarities between some cognates in the Brittonic and Goidelic languages and the fact that borrowing took place in both directions between these languages.

Another difficulty lies with other words which were taken into Old English, as in many cases it is impossible to tell whether the borrowing is directly from Brittonic or not (e.g. Brogat, Crag, below). The following are possibilities:

• Bach – 'cowpat' (cf. Welsh baw 'dung', Gaelic buadhar)
• Baivenjar – 'mean fellow' (Welsh bawyn 'scoundrel')
• Brat – 'apron'. The word appears in Welsh (with meanings 'rag, cloth' and 'pinafore'[26]), Scots[27] and northern English dialects,[28] but may be an Old English borrowing from Old Irish.[29]
• Brogat – a type of mead (Welsh bragod 'bragget' – also found in Chaucer)
• Coble – a type of small, flat-bottomed boat (also in Northeast England), akin to Welsh ceubal 'a hollow' and Latin caupulus; distinct from the round-bottomed coracle.
• Crag – 'rocks'. Either from Brittonic (Welsh craig) or Goidelic (Scottish Gaelic creag).
• Croot – 'small boy' (Welsh crwt, Gaelic cruit 'small person', 'humpback/hunchback')
• Croude – a type of small harp or lyre (as opposed to the larger clàrsach; Welsh crwth 'bowed lyre', later 'fiddle', Gaelic croit)
• Lum – Scottish word for 'chimney' (Middle Welsh llumon)

In Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, the Common Brittonic cluster *rk was spirantized to /rx/ (Welsh rch, Cornish rgh, Breton rc'h) but a number of place names appear to show Cumbric retained the stop in this position. Lanark and Lanercost are thought to contain the equivalent of Welsh llannerch 'clearing'.[23]

There is evidence to the contrary, however, including the place names Powmaughan and Maughanby (containing Welsh Meirchion)[20] and the word kelchyn (related to Welsh cylch).[10] Jackson concludes that the change of Common Brittonic *rk > /rx/ "may have been somewhat later in Cumbric".[10]

There is evidence to suggest that the consonant cluster mb remained distinct in Cumbric later than the time it was assimilated to mm in Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. The cluster remains in:

• Old English Cumbraland "land of Cumbrians" (from Common Brittonic *kombrogi, whence Welsh Cymru "Wales" also originates).
• Crombocwater and Crombokwatre,[20] two 14th-century records of Crummock Water and Crombok an 1189 record for Crummack Dale in Yorkshire[10] (from Common Brittonic *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 Common Brittonic *Cambāco- "crooked stream" (W cam, CB kamm).[20]
• Crimple Beck, Yorkshire, which is said to derive from Common Brittonic. *Crumbopull- "crooked pool".[20] Here the b is assumed to have survived late enough to cause provection.

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.

Jackson notes the legal term galnys, equivalent to Welsh galanas, may show syncope of internal syllables to be a feature of Cumbric. Further evidence is wanting, however.

James[30] mentions that devoicing appears to be a feature of many Cumbric place names. Devoicing of word final consonants is a feature of modern Breton[32] and, to an extent, Cornish.[33] Watson[19] notes initial devoicing in Tinnis Castle (in Drumelzier) (compare Welsh dinas 'fortress, city') as an example of this, which can also be seen in the Cornish Tintagel, din 'fort'. Also notable are the different English names of two Welsh towns named Dinbych ('little fort'); Denbigh and Tenby.

There is also a significant number of place names which do not support this theory. Devoke Water and Cumdivock (< Dyfoc, according to Ekwall) and Derwent (< Common Brittonic Derwentiō) all have initial /d/. The name Calder (< 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 /ɡ/, so would be borrowed with /k/ by sound substitution. This can be seen in names with c, k, ck (e.g. Cocker < Brittonic *kukro-,[20] Eccles < Brittonic eglēsia[10]).

The Cumbric personal names Gospatrick, Gososwald and Gosmungo meaning 'servant of St...' (Welsh, Cornish, Breton gwas 'servant, boy') and the Galloway dialect word gossock 'short, dark haired inhabitant of Wigtownshire' (W. gwasog 'a servant'[19]) apparently show that the Cumbric equivalent of Welsh and Cornish gwas & B gwaz 'servant' was *gos.[19] Jackson suggests that it may be a survival of the original Proto-Celtic form of the word in –o- (i.e. *uɸo-sto[10]).

This idea is disputed by the Dictionary of the Scots Language;[34] and the occurrence in Gospatrick's Writ of the word wassenas 'dependants',[6][35] 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 Brittonic languages and does not amount to a systematic sound change in any of them.

Thomas Clancy opined that the royal feminine personal name in Life of Kentigern, Languoreth, demonstrates the presence of /gw/ Cumbric.[36]

It is noteworthy that the toponym Brenkibeth in Cumberland (now Burntippet; possibly bryn, "hill" + gwyped, "gnats") may display this syllable anglicized as -k-.[37] The name, however, may not be Brittonic at all, and instead be of Scandinavian origin.[37]

In the Book of Aneirin, a poem entitled "Peis Dinogat" (possibly set in the Lake District 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").[3] 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 form derwennydd however, is at odds with the absence of the ending -ydd noted below.

It is to be noted, however, that such semantics are probably archaisms, and rather than being features diagnostic of linguistic distinctiveness, are more likely to be legacies of features once common to all Brittonic speech.[38]

The modern Brittonic languages have different forms of the definite article: Welsh yr, -'r, y, Cornish an, and Breton an, ar, al. These are all taken to derive from an unstressed form of the Common Brittonic demonstrative *sindos, altered by assimilation (compare the Gaelic articles).[10] Throughout Old Welsh the article is ir (or -r after a vowel),[39] 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' (Welsh tal y tir)[20]
• Triermain, Cumbria (Trewermain, Treverman c 1200): 'homestead at the stone' (Welsh tre(f) y maen)[20]
• Treales, Lancashire (Treueles 1086): possibly 'village of the court' (Welsh tre(f) y llys).[20] But note Treflys, Powys which has no article.
• Pen-y-Ghent, Yorkshire (Penegent 1307): 'hill of the border country' (Welsh pen y gaint).[20] The final element is disputed. Ekwall says it is identical to Kent (< Br *Kantion), which is related to Welsh cant 'rim, border', though Mills[23] gives 'coastal district' or 'land of the hosts or armies' for the county.
• Traquair, Borders (Treverquyrd 1124): 'homestead on the River Quair' (Welsh tre(f) y Quair).[40]
• Penicuik, Midlothian (Penicok 1250): 'hill of the cuckoo' (Welsh pen y cog)[40]
• Liscard, Wirral Peninsula (Lisenecark 1260): possibly 'court of the rock' (Welsh llys y garreg),[3][20] but also suggested is Irish lios na carraige of identical meaning.[23]

Of all the names of possible Cumbric derivation, few are more certain than Carlisle and Derwent 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 (in the Medieval Latin genitive case), 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[10] 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' (Welsh mynydd trum).[23] It might also be noted that Medieval Welsh forms of Caerliwelydd[41] and Derwennydd[42] both occur in poems of supposed Cumbrian origin whose rhyme and metre would be disrupted if the ending were absent.

Of additional relevance is that Guto Rhys demonstrated "some robust proof" of the presence of the -ydd ending in the closely aligned Pictish language.[43]

One particularly distinctive element of Cumbric is the repeated use of the element Gos- or Cos- (W. gwas 'boy, lad; servant, attendant') in personal names, followed by the name of a saint. The practice is reminiscent of Gaelic names such as Maol Choluim "Malcolm" and Gille Crìosd "Gilchrist", which have Scottish Gaelic maol (Old Irish máel 'bald, tonsured; servant') and gille ('servant, lad', < Old Irish gilla 'a youth').

The most well-known example of this Cumbric naming practice is Gospatric, which occurs as the name of several notable Anglo-Scottish noblemen in the 11th and 12th centuries. Other examples, standardised from original sources, include Gosmungo (Saint Mungo), Gososwald (Oswald of Northumbria) and Goscuthbert (Cuthbert).[7][44]

• Meg Jorsh (16 June 2009). "New website launched for people who want to talk in Cumbric". News and Star. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
• "Cumbraek: A modern reinvention of the lost Celtic language of Cumbric". Cumbraek. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
• Lewis, Colin (2009). "Cumbrian Welsh – an update" (PDF). Carn. 144: 10. Retrieved 8 December 2010.</ref>