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The Cumberland dialect is a local Northern English dialect in decline, spoken in
Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...
,
Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...
and Lancashire North of the Sands, not to be confused with the area's extinct
Celtic language The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...
,
Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
. Some parts of Cumbria have a more North-East English sound to them. Whilst clearly spoken with a Northern English accent, it shares much vocabulary with Scots. A ''Cumbrian Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore'' by William Rollinson exists, as well as a more contemporary and lighthearted ''Cumbrian Dictionary and Phrase Book''.


History of Cumbrian language


Northumbrian origin

As with other English dialects north of the
Humber-Lune Line The Humber-Lune Line is a term used for the traditional dialect boundary in England between descendants of Northumbrian Old English to the north and Mercian Old English to the south. It is considered the most significant dialect boundary within th ...
and the closely-related Scots language, Cumbrian is descent from Northern Middle English and in turn
Northumbrian Old English Northumbrian was a dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Together with Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-categories of Old English devised and employed by modern scholars. The dialect w ...
. Old English was introduced to Cumbria from
Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
where it was initially spoken alongside the native Cumbric language.


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 division. Before the arrival of the Romans the area was the home of the
Carvetii The Carvetii (Common Brittonic: *''Carwetī'') were a Brittonic Celtic tribe living in what is now Cumbria, in North-West England during the Iron Age, and were subsequently identified as a ''civitas'' (canton) of Roman Britain. Etymology The ...
tribe, which was later assimilated to the larger
Brigantes The Brigantes were Ancient Britons who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England. Their territory, often referred to as Brigantia, was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire. The Greek geogr ...
tribe. These people would have spoken Brythonic, which developed into
Old Welsh Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...
, but around the 5th century AD, when Cumbria was the centre of the kingdom of
Rheged Rheged () was one of the kingdoms of the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North"), the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and ba ...
, the language spoken in northern England and southern Scotland from
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
and
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
to
Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...
had developed into a dialect of Brythonic known as
Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
(the scarcity of linguistic evidence, however, means that Cumbric's distinctness from Old Welsh is more deduced than proven). 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 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 non-speakers of 'received pronunciation' and children, e.g. "That yan owr there," or "Can I have yan of those?" The
Northern subject rule The Northern Subject Rule is a grammatical pattern that occurs in Northern English and Scots dialects. Present-tense verbs may take the verbal ‑''s'' suffix, except when they are directly adjacent to one of the personal pronouns ''I'', ''you'' ...
may be attributable to Celtic Influence. Before the 8th century AD Cumbria was annexed to English Northumbria and
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
began to be spoken in parts, although evidence suggests Cumbric survived in central regions in some form until the 11th century.


Norse influence

A far stronger influence on the modern dialect was
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
, spoken by Norwegian settlers who probably arrived in Cumbria in the 10th century via
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and the
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
. 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 seems to have survived in Cumbria until fairly late. A 12th-century inscription found at Loppergarth in
Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...
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. Once Cumbrians had assimilated to speaking English, there were few further influences on the dialect. In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, 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 earliest recordings of the dialect were in a book published by
Agnes Wheeler Agnes Wheeler or Ann Coward (bap. 1734 – 1804) was a British writer on the Cumbrian dialect. She is known for one book published in 1790. ''The Westmorland Dialect, in three familiar Dialogues: in which an Attempt is made to illustrate the ...
in 1790. ''The Westmoreland dialect in three familiar dialogues, in which an attempt is made to illustrate the provincial idiom.'' There were four editions of the book. Her work was later used in ''Specimens of the Westmorland Dialect'' published by the Revd Thomas Clarke in 1887. One of the lasting characteristics 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".


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 , an
epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek language, Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable (''prothesis (linguistics), prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syll ...
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
is often pronounced between them, creating two distinct syllables: *'feel' > *'fool' > *'fail' > *'file' > The pronunciation of ''moor'' and ''poor'' is a traditional feature of Received Pronunciation but is now associated with some old-fashioned speakers. It is generally more common in the north of England than in the south. The words ''cure, pure, sure'' may be pronounced with a triphthong .


Consonants

Most consonants are pronounced as they are in other parts of the English speaking world. A few exceptions follow: and have a tendency to be dropped or unreleased in the
coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
(word- or syllable-finally). This can sometimes occur in the onset as well in words such as ''finger.'' is realised in various ways throughout the county. When William Barrow Kendall wrote his Furness Wordbook in 1867, he wrote that 'should never be dropped', suggesting the practice had already become conspicuous. It seems the elision of both and began in the industrial towns and slowly spread out. In the south, it is now very common. in the word final position may be dropped or realised as : ''woo'' ''wool'' ; ''pow'' ''pole'' . is realised as following consonants and in word-initial position but is often elided in the coda, unless a following word begins with a vowel: ''ross'' ; ''gimmer'' ; ''gimmer hogg'' . is traditionally always pronounced as a voiceless alveolar plosive, although in many places it has been replaced by the glottal stop now common throughout Britain. may be consonantal as in ''yam'' ''home'' . As the adjectival or adverbial suffix ''-y'' it may be or as in ''clarty'' (muddy) . Medially and, in some cases, finally it is as in ''Thorfinsty'' (a place) . Finally, in some parts of the county, there is a tendency to palatalize the consonant cluster in word-initial and medial position, thereby rendering it as something more closely approaching l As a result, some speakers pronounce ''clarty'' (muddy) as , "clean" as , and "likely" and "lightly" may be indistinguishable.


Stress

Stress is usually placed on the initial syllable: "acorn" . Unstressed initial vowels are usually fully realised, whilst those in final syllables are usually reduced to schwa .


Dialect words


General words

* (pronounced eye) yes * yours *thee / thou you (singular) *yous / thous you (plural) *yat gate *us, es me *our, mine *wherst where is the *djarn doing (as in 'whut yer djarn? - what are you doing?) *divn't don't (as in 'divn't do that, lad') *hoo'doo How are you doing? (strain of 'How do?') *canna can't (as in 'ye canna djur that!' - 'You can't do that!') *cannae can't (more typically Scottish, but used throughout the North) *djur do *frae from *yon that (when referring to a noun which is visible at the time) *reet Right *(h)arreet All right? (Greeting) *be reet It'll be all right or “it’d be right” when referring to something somewhat negative *nae No *yonder there (as in 'ower yonder') *owt aught; anything (got owt? - got anything?) *nowt naught; nothing (owt for nowt - something for nothing) *bevvie drink (alcoholic) *eh? what/ isn't it? (that's good eh?) *yan/yaa One


Adjectives

*clarty messy, muddy *kaylied intoxicated *kystie squeamish or fussy *la'al small *T'ol old. "T'ol fella" dad, old man *ladgeful embarrassing or unfashionable *slape slippery or smooth as in slape back collie, a border collie with short wiry hair *yon used when indicating a place or object that is usually in sight but far away. abbreviation of yonder.


Adverbs

*barrie good *geet/gurt very *gey very *owwer/ovver over/enough ("a'rs garn owwer yonder fer a kip" - I'm going over there for a sleep) *secca/sicca such a *vanna/vanya almost, nearly.


Nouns

*attercop spider *bab'e/bairn baby *bait packed meal that is carried to work *bait bag bag in which to carry bait *bar pound (money) (used in Carlisle and occasionally in West Cumberland) *biddies fleas or head lice or old people "old biddies" *bog toilet (as garn't bog / I'm going to the toilet) *britches trousers (derived from breeches) *byat boat *byuts boots (wuk byuts / work boots) *cack/kack faeces (load a cack) *cheble or chable table *clout/cluwt punch or hit "aas gonna clout thou yan" (I'm going to punch you one); also clout means a cloth * crack/craic gossip "ow marra get some better crack" *cur dog sheepdog - collie *cyak cake *den toilet *doilem idiot *dookers swimming trunks *fratch argument or squabble *fyass face *'

ginnel a narrow passage *jinnyspinner a daddy long legs *kecks trousers/pants or underpants *keppards ears *ket/kets sweets *kebbie a stick *lewer money *lugs ears *mebby maybe *mockin or kack faeces / turd "I need to have a mockin" (see also above, cack) *mowdy or mowdywarp a mole (the animal) *peeve drink (alcoholic) *push iron or push bike bicycle *scran food *scrow a mess *shillies small stones or gravel *skemmy or skem beer *snig small eel *styan stone (styans / stones) *watter water *wuk work, as in: as garn twuk (I'm going to work) *yam home, as in: as garn yam (I'm going home) *yat gate *yhuk hook ("yuk es a wurm on't yhuk" / throw me a worm on the hook)


Verbs

*beal cry *bowk retch (as in before vomiting) *bray beat (as in beat up someone) *chess chase *chor steal (Romany origin, cf. Urdu chorna) *chunder vomit *clarten messing about *clout/cluwt hit "al clout ya yan" *deek look (Romany origin, cf Urdu dekhna) *doss Idle or skive. To mess about and avoid work * wikt:fettle, fettle to fix or mend. ("as i' bad fettle" - I'm not very well) *fistle to fidget *gander look *gan going to somewhere *gar / gaa go *garn / gaan going *git go ("gar on, git yam" / go on, go home) *hoik to pick at or gouge out *hoy throw *jarn/jurn doing *laik play *lait look for *liggin lying down *lob throw *lowp jump *nash run away *radged broken (radged in the head/mental) *ratch to search for something *scop to throw *scower look at *shag sexual intercourse *skit make fun of *smowk smoking ("As garrn out for a smowk") *sow sexual intercourse *twat hit someone ("I twatted him in the face") *twine to whine or complain *whisht one word command to be quiet *wukn working *yit yet ("ars nut garn yam yit" / i'm not going home yet) *yuk to throw


People

*bairden/bairn/barn child *boyo brother/male friend (Carlisle/ West Cumberland) *buwler/bewer ugly girl *cus or cuz friend (from cousin) (East Cumberland) *gammerstang awkward person *mot woman/girl/girlfriend *offcomer a non-native in Cumberland *potter gypsy *gadgey man *charva man/friend (West Cumberland, Carlisle) *marra friend (West Cumberland) *t'ol fella father *t'ol lass mother *t'ol bastard Grandparent *our lass wife/girlfriend *laddo male of unknown name *lasso female of unknown name *jam eater used in
Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...
to describe someone from
Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...
, and vice versa.


Farming terms

*boose a division in a shuppon *byre cow shed *cop the bank of earth on which a hedge grows *dyke raised bank, often topped with a hedge. Many small roads are flanked by dykes *fodder gang passage for feeding cattle (usually in a shuppon) *kack crap/feces/excrement *ky cow *liggin' kessin when an animal is lying on its back and can't get up *lonnin country lane *stoop a gate post *yakka farmer (There is however in some cases a distinction between yakka and farm-yakker) *yat gate *yow sheep (ewe)


Weather

*hossing raining heavily (it's hossing it doon) *glisky when the sky is really bright so you can't see properly *mizzlin misty drizzly rain *syling pouring rain *gey windy 'appen very windy *hoyin it doown teeming it down with rain *yukken it down (it's throwing it down with rain) *whaarm warm(it's gey whaarm / it's very warm)


Places

*Barra Barrow *Cockamuth Cockermouth *Jam Land, Whitehaven or Workington *Pereth Penrith *Kendul Kendal *Kezik, Kesik Keswick (It is a silent 'w') Norse 'cheese' and -vik 'place' *Langtoon Longtown *Merrypoort Maryport *Mire-Us or My-Rus Mirehouse *Sanneth Sandwith *Sloth Silloth *Spatry / Speeatry Aspatria *Trepenah, Trappena Torpenhow (Tor, Pen, and How are all words for "hill") *Wukington, Wukinton, Wukintun, Wukiton, Wukitn, Wuki'n, Wucki'n Workington


Phrases

*assa marra used by Cumbrians to refer to the Cumbrian dialect *nevva evva av a sin owt like it never ever have I seen anything like it *i ope thou's garna put that in ye pocket I hope you're going to put that in your pocket *ars garn yam I'm going home *av ye? Have you? *en wo? and what? *i urd ye fathas wure in't bad fettle I heard your father was in a bad way or not very well *werst thew of te where are you going *wh'ista*''who ar ye?'' Who are you? (especially used in Appleby) (H is silent in second version) *whure ye from? Where are you from? *owz't ga'an? How is it going? (how are you) *gaan then provoke fight *wha ya de'yan? What are you doing? *where y'ofta? Where are you off to? (Where are you going?) *ahreet, mattttte. All right, mate? (emphasis the A and T a little) *cought a bug illness *mint/class/necta Excellent (Updated-1 February 2016) *lal lad's in bovver that young man is always in trouble *Tha wants f'ot git thasel 'a pint a 'strangba You really ought to be drinking strongbow *Vaas boddy Who is that (female) *Hoo'ista How are you *Sum reet tidy cluwt oot on tuwn like There are some nice looking girls out *hasta iver deeked a cuddy loup a 5 bar yat have you ever seen a donkey jump a 5 bar gate *out the road not in the way *shy bairns/barns get nowt shy children get nothing; if you don't ask, you will not receive


Cumbrian numbers

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, Cornish and Breton, which are the three geographically closest British languages to Cumbric, for comparison. NB: when these numerals were used for counting sheep, repeatedly, 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, tyandick', while sixteen and seventeen would have been 'yan-bumfit, tyan-bumfit' etc. Although yan is still widely used, wan is starting to creep into some
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
s of the area.


Survey of English Dialects sites

There were several villages in Cumbria that were used during the
Survey of English Dialects The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Professor Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before loca ...
to minutely detail localised dialects. At the time, Cumbria did not exist as a unit of local government; there were 12 sites within modern Cumbria spread across four different counties: *Longtown () *Abbey Town () *Brigham () *Threlkeld () *Hunsonby () *Great Strickland (We1) *Patterdale (We2) *Soulby (We3) *Staveley-in-Kendal (We4) *Coniston (La1) *Cartmel (La2) *Dent (Y5)


Cumbrian poetry

There were several among the well-educated in the 18th century who used dialect in their poetry. One of the earliest was the Rev.
Josiah Relph Josiah Relph (3 December 1712 – 26 June 1743) was a Cumberland poet (his first name is given as Joseph in earlier editions of the ''Dictionary of National Biography''). His poetical works were first published in 1747 under the title of ''A Miscel ...
, whose imitations of Theocritan
Pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
s self-consciously introduce the demotic for local colour. Although written about 1735, they were not published until after the author's death in ''A Miscellany of Poems'' (Wigton, 1747), followed by two further editions in 1797 and 1805. The Rev. Robert Nelson followed him in the same tradition with ''A choice collection of poems in Cumberland dialect'' (Sunderland, 1780). Ewan Clark, a contemporary of Nelson's, also wrote a handful of dialect imitations that were included in his ''Miscellaneous Poems'' (Whitehaven 1779). Female members of the gentry writing in dialect at this time included
Susanna Blamire Susanna Blamire (12 January 1747 – 1794) was an English Romantic poet, sometimes known as 'The Muse of Cumberland' because many of her poems represent rural life in the county and, therefore, provide a valuable contradistinction to those am ...
and her companion Catherine Gilpin. Miss Blamire had written songs in Scots that were set to music by
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
. Her work in Cumbrian dialect was less well known and remained uncollected until the publication of ''The Muse of Cumberland'' in 1842. This was followed by ''Songs and Poems'', edited by Sidney Gilpin in 1866, in which Miss Gilpin's work also appeared. In the 19th century appeared a few poems in dialect in the ''Miscellaneous Poems'' of John Stagg (Workington, 1804, second edition the following year). Known as 'the Cumbrian Minstrel', he too wrote in Scots and these poems appeared in the new editions of his poems published from Wigton in 1807 and 1808. What seems to have lifted use of Cumbrian dialect from a passing curiosity to a demonstration of regional pride in the hands of labouring class poets was the vogue of
Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...
, among whose disciples the
calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...
worker Robert Anderson counted himself. His ''Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect'' were published from Carlisle in 1805 and were reprinted in several different formats over the following decades. Some of these publications also incorporated the work of his precursors and a few other contemporaries, such as Ewan Clark and Mark Lonsdale. One such collection was ''Ballads in the Cumberland dialect, chiefly by R. Anderson'' (1808, second edition 1815, Wigton), and a third from Carlisle in 1823. A more ambitious anthology of dialect verse, ''Dialogues, poems, songs, and ballads, by various writers, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland dialects'', followed from London in 1839. This contained work by all the poets mentioned already, with the addition of some songs by John Rayson that were later to be included in his ''Miscellaneous Poems and Ballads'' (London, 1858). Another anthology of regional writing, Sidney Gilpin's ''The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland'' (London, 1866), collects together work in both standard English and dialect by all the poets mentioned so far, as well as Border Ballads, poems by
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...
and family, and other verse of regional interest. Some later poets include John Sewart (''Rhymes in the Westmoreland Dialect'', Settle, 1869) and Gwordie Greenup (the pseudonym of Stanley Martin), who published short collections in prose and verse during the 1860s and 1870s. A more recent anthology, ''Oor mak o' toak: an anthology of Lakeland dialect poems, 1747-1946'', was published from Carlisle in 1946 by the Lakeland Dialect Society.Title page o
Google Books
/ref>


Barrovian Dialect

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...
is unique within Cumbria and the local dialect tends to be more
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
orientated. Like
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
this is down to the large numbers of settlers from various regions (including predominantly
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, elsewhere in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
amongst other locations). In general the ''Barrovian'' dialect tends to drop certain letters (including ''h'' and ''t'') for example holiday would be pronounced as '' 'oliday'', and with the drop of the ''h'' there is more emphasis on the letter ''o''. The indefinite article used would be 'an'. 'A hospital' becomes an 'ospital. Another example is with the letter ''t'' where twenty is often pronounced twen'y (again an emphasis on the ''n'' could occur).


See also

*
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
*
Cumbric language Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
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Dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
* Etymology of Cumbrian place names *
Northumbrian dialect The Northumbrian dialect refers to any of several English language varieties spoken in the traditional English region of Northumbria, which includes most of the North East England government region. The traditional Northumbrian dialect is a m ...


References


Bibliography

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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
www.dokeswick.com
Lakeland Dialect Society

The GonMad Cumbrian Dictionary (online since 1997)

Cumbrian Dictionary

The BabelSheep
online English to Cumbrian translator
The Routes of English
B.B.C. radio programme on the Cumbrian dialect, sound files, 2000

Books: * ''Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect, by R. Anderson, with Notes and a Glossary; and an Essay on the Manners and Customs of the Cumberland Peasantry, by Thomas Sanderson.'' 1828
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* ''Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects. Dialogues, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, by various Writers, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialects, now first collected: with a copious Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties.'' London, 1839
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* ''The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland, to which are added Dialect and other Poems; with biographical Sketches, Notes, and Glossary. Edited by Sidney Gilpin.'' 1866
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* ''A Bibliography of the Dialect Literature of Cumberland and Westmorland, and Lancashire North-of-the-Sands. By Archibald Sparke.'', Kendal, 1907
Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cumbrian Dialect Culture in Cumbria British English Dialects by location Dialects of English