Cumbric Language

Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. Place-name evidence suggests Cumbric may also have been spoken as far south as Pendle and the Yorkshire Dales. The prevailing view is that it became extinct in the 12th century, after the incorporation of the Kingdom of Strathclyde into the Kingdom of Scotland.

Problems with terminology

Dauvit Broun sets out the problems with the various terms used to describe the Cumbric language and its speakers.Broun, Dauvit (2004): 'The Welsh identity of the kingdom of Strathclyde, ca 900-ca 1200', ''Innes Review'' 55, pp 111–80. The people seem to have called themselves the same way that the Welsh called themselves (most likely from reconstructed Brittonic meaning "fellow countrymen"). The Welsh and the Cumbric-speaking people of what are now southern Scotland and northern England probably felt they were actually one ethnic group. Old Irish speakers called them "Britons", , or . The Norse called them . In Latin, the terms and were Latinised as Cambria and Cumbria respectively. In Medieval Latin, the English term Welsh became ("of Wales"), while the term referred to Cumbrians ("of Cumbria").Forbes, A. P. (1874) ''Lives of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern: compiled in the twelfth century'' However, in Scots, a Cumbric speaker seems to have been called – from the Scots "Welsh".

The Latinate term Cambria is often used for Wales; nevertheless, the ''Life of St Kentigern'' ( 1200) by Jocelyn of Furness has the following passage:

John T. Koch defined the specifically Cumbric region as "the area approximately between the line of the River Mersey and the Forth-Clyde Isthmus", but went on to include evidence from the Wirral Peninsula in his discussion and did not define its easterly extent. Kenneth H. Jackson described Cumbric as "the Brittonic dialect of Cumberland, Westmorland, northern Lancashire, and south-west Scotland" and went on to define the region further as being bound in the north by the Firth of Clyde, in the south by the River Ribble and in the east by the Southern Scottish Uplands and the Pennine Ridge. The study Brittonic Language in the Old North by Alan G. James, concerned with documenting place- and river-names as evidence for Cumbric and the pre-Cumbric Brittonic dialects of the region ''Yr Hen Ogledd'', considered Loch Lomond the northernmost limit of the study with the southernmost limits being Liverpool Bay and the Humber, although a few more southerly place-names in Cheshire and, to a lesser extent, Derbyshire and Staffordshire were also included.

Available evidence

The evidence from Cumbric comes almost entirely through secondary sources, since no known contemporary written records of the language survive. The majority of evidence comes from place names of the north of England and the south of Scotland. Other sources include 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 southwest Scotland as legal terms. Although the language is long extinct, traces of its vocabulary arguably have persisted into the modern era in the form of " counting scores" and in a handful of dialectal words.

From this scanty evidence, little can be deduced about the singular characteristics of Cumbric, not even the name by which its speakers referred to it. However, linguists generally agree that Cumbric was a Western Brittonic language closely related to Welsh and, more distantly, to Cornish and Breton.

Around the time of the battle described in the poem ''Y Gododdin'', c. 600, Common Brittonic is believed to have been transitioning into its daughter languages: Cumbric in North Britain, Old Welsh in Wales, and Southwestern Brittonic, the ancestor of Cornish and Breton. Kenneth Jackson concludes that the majority of changes that transformed British into Primitive Welsh belong to the period from the middle of the fifth to the end of the sixth century. This involved syncope and the loss of final syllables. If the poem ultimately dates to this time, it would have originally been written in an early form of Cumbric, the usual name for the Brythonic speech of the Hen Ogledd; Jackson suggested the name "Primitive Cumbric" for the dialect spoken at the time. However, scholars date the poem to between the 7th and the early 11th centuries, and the earliest surviving manuscript of it dates to the 13th, written in Old Welsh and Middle Welsh.

Place names

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 and West 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. Many Brittonic place-names remain in these regions which should not be described as Cumbric, such as Leeds, Manchester, Wigan 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 'wild boar' + 'forest, wood').
* Bryn, Metropolitan Borough of Wigan: from the word meaning "hill" (W. ''bryn'').
* Carlisle, Cumberland: recorded as in the Roman period; the word 'fort' was added later.Ekwall, E. (1960) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', 4th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press. The Welsh form is derived by regular sound changes from the Romano-British name.
*Glasgow, Scotland: widely believed to derive from words cognate with glas 'green' and the Welsh gae, 'field' (possibly that below Glasgow Cathedral).
*Lanark, Lanarkshire: from the equivalent of Welsh ' glade, clearing'.
* Penicuik, Midlothian: from words meaning 'hill of the cuckoo' (W. ).
* Penrith, Westmorland & Furness: meaning 'chief ford' (Welsh 'head, chief' + 'ford').

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 and in medieval Scottish records as (Gaelic ), all meaning 'fort of Eidyn'.
*Falkirk similarly has several alternative medieval forms meaning 'speckled church': etc. from Cumbric (Welsh ); etc. from Gaelic (modern Gaelic ); etc. from Scots (in turn from Old English ).
* Kirkintilloch began as a Cumbric name recorded as in the 10th century, but was partly replaced by the Gaelic words 'head' + 'hillock' later on (plus 'church' from Scots again).
* Kinneil derives from Gaelic 'head of the [Antonine] Wall' but it was recorded by Nennius as (Welsh ), and by Bede as , which appears to be a merger of Cumbric and Gaelic.

Derivatives of Common Brittonic ''*magno'', such as Welsh ''maen'' and Cornish ''men'', mean "stone", particularly one with a special purpose or significance. In the Cumbric region, the word "Man" frequently occurs in geographical names associated with standing stones (most notably the Old Man of Coniston) and it is possible, albeit "hard to say" according to Alan G. James, if the Cumbric reflex ''*main'' had any influence on these.

Counting systems

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.Filppula, Klemola, & Paulasto, pp. 102–105. 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. These scores are often suggested to represent a survival from medieval Cumbric, a theory first popularized in the 19th century. 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.

Cumbric, in common with other Brythonic languages, used 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)

Scots and English

A number of words occurring in the Scots language and Northern English dialects have been proposed as being of possible Brittonic origin. 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 'dung', Gaelic )
* ''Baivenjar'' – 'mean fellow' (Welsh 'scoundrel')
* ''Brat'' – 'apron'. The word appears in Welsh (with meanings 'rag, cloth' and 'pinafore'), Scots and northern English dialects, but may be an Old English borrowing from Old Irish.
* ''Brogat'' – a type of mead (Welsh ' 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 ) or Goidelic (Scottish Gaelic ).
* ''Croot'' – 'small boy' (Welsh , Gaelic 'small person', 'humpback/hunchback')
* ''Croude'' – a type of small harp or lyre (as opposed to the larger ; Welsh 'bowed lyre', later 'fiddle', Gaelic )
* ''Lum'' – Scottish word for 'chimney' (Middle Welsh )

Equivalence with Old Welsh

The linguistic term Cumbric is defined according to geographical rather than linguistic criteria: that is, it refers to the variety of Brittonic spoken within a particular region of North Britain and implies nothing about that variety except that it was geographically distinct from other varieties. This has led to a discussion about the nature of Cumbric and its relationship with other Brittonic languages, in particular with Old Welsh.

Linguists appear undecided as to whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language, or a dialect of Old Welsh. Koch calls it a dialect but goes on to say that some of the place names in the Cumbric region "clearly reflect a developed medieval language, much like Welsh, Cornish or Breton". Jackson also calls it a dialect but points out that "to call it Pr mitiveW lshwould be inaccurate",Jackson, K. H. (1956): Language and History in Early Britain, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press so clearly views it as distinct in some meaningful respect.

It has been suggested that Cumbric was more closely aligned to the Pictish language than to Welsh, though there is considerable debate regarding the classification of that language. On the basis of place name evidence it has also been proposed that all three languages were very similar. In all probability, the "Cumbric" of Lothian more nearly resembled the "Pictish" of adjacent Fife than the Welsh dialects spoken over 300 miles away in Dyfed and accordingly, Alan G. James has argued that all 3 languages may have formed a continuum.

The whole question is made more complex because there is no consensus as to whether any principled distinction can be made between languages and dialects.

Below, some of the proposed differences between Cumbric and Old Welsh are discussed.

Retention of Brittonic ''*rk''

In Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, the Common Brittonic cluster ''*rk'' was spirantized to (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'.Mills, A.D. (2003): Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford: OUP

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

Retention of Brittonic ''*mb''

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'', two 14th-century records of Crummock Water and ''Crombok'' an 1189 record for Crummack Dale in Yorkshire (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'').
* Crimple Beck, Yorkshire, which is said to derive from Common Brittonic. ''*Crumbopull-'' "crooked pool". 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.

Syncope

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.

Devoicing

JamesJames, A. G. (2008): 'A Cumbric Diaspora?' in Padel and Parsons (eds.) A Commodity of Good Names: essays in honour of Margaret Gelling, Shaun Tyas: Stamford, pp 187–203 mentions that devoicing appears to be a feature of many Cumbric place names. Devoicing of word final consonants is a feature of modern Breton and, to an extent, Cornish. WatsonWatson, W. J. (1926): History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 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 . 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 , so would be borrowed with by sound substitution. This can be seen in names with ''c, k, ck'' (e.g. Cocker < Brittonic ''*'', Eccles < Brittonic ''eglēsia'').

Loss of

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') apparently show that the Cumbric equivalent of Welsh and Cornish ''gwas'' & B ''gwaz'' 'servant' was ''*gos''. Jackson suggests that it may be a survival of the original Proto-Celtic form of the word in –o- (i.e. ''*uɸo-sto'').

This idea is disputed by the ''Dictionary of the Scots Language''; and the occurrence in Gospatrick's Writ of the word ''wassenas'' 'dependants', 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.

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

Semantics of ''Penn''

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 (" ferring 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"). 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 hemountain
: He brought a head of buck, head of wild pig, head of stag
: Head of speckled grouse from hemountain
: Head of fish from hefalls 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.

Definite article

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). Throughout Old Welsh the article is ''ir'' (or ''-r'' after a vowel), 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'')
*Triermain, Cumbria (''Trewermain, Treverman'' c 1200): 'homestead at the stone' (Welsh ''tre(f) y maen'')
*Treales, Lancashire (''Treueles'' 1086): possibly 'village of the court' (Welsh ''tre(f) y llys''). But note Treflys, Powys which has no article.
*Pen-y-Ghent, Yorkshire (''Penegent'' 1307): 'hill of the border country' (Welsh ''pen y gaint''). The final element is disputed. Ekwall says it is identical to Kent (< Br ''*Kantion''), which is related to Welsh ''cant'' 'rim, border', though Mills 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'').Mackay, George (2002): Scottish Place Names, New Lanark: Lomond Books
*Penicuik, Midlothian (''Penicok'' 1250): 'hill of the cuckoo' (Welsh ''pen y cog'')
*Liscard, Wirral Peninsula (''Lisenecark'' 1260): possibly 'court of the rock' (Welsh ''llys y garreg''), but also suggested is Irish ''lios na carraige'' of identical meaning.

Absence of ''-ydd''

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'' 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''). It might also be noted that Medieval Welsh forms of ''Caerliwelydd''
and ''Derwennydd'' 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.

Use of the name element ''Gos-''

One particularly distinctive element of Cumbric is the repeated use of the element or (W. '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 (Old Irish 'bald, tonsured; servant') and ('servant, lad', < Old Irish '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).Koch, J. T. (1983) 'The Loss of Final Syllables and Loss of Declension in Brittonic' in ulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 30: 214-220/ref>

Date of extinction

It is impossible to give an exact date of the extinction of Cumbric. However, there are some pointers which may give a reasonably accurate estimate. In the mid-11th century, some landowners still bore what appear to be Cumbric names. Examples of such landowners are Dunegal (Dyfnwal), lord of Strathnith or Nithsdale; Moryn (Morien), lord of Cardew and Cumdivock near Carlisle; and Eilifr (Eliffer), lord of Penrith.Phythian-Adams, Charles (1996): Land of the Cumbrians, Aldershot: Scolar Press

There is a village near Carlisle called Cumwhitton (earlier Cumquinton). This appears to contain the Norman name Quinton, affixed to a cognate of the Welsh ''cwm'', meaning valley.Armstrong, A. M., Mawer, A., Stenton, F. M. and Dickens, B. (1952) The Place-Names of Cumberland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. There were no Normans in this area until 1069 at the earliest.

In the Battle of the Standard in 1138, the Cumbrians are noted as a separate ethnic group. Given that their material culture was very similar to their Gaelic and Anglian neighbours, it is arguable that what set them apart was still their language. Also the castle at Castle Carrock – Castell Caerog – dates from around 1160–1170. Barmulloch, earlier Badermonoc (Cumbric "monk's dwelling"), was given to the church by Malcolm IV of Scotland between 1153 and 1165.

A more controversial point is the surname Wallace. It means "Welshman". It is possible that all the Wallaces in the Clyde area were medieval immigrants from Wales, but given that the term was also used for local Cumbric-speaking Strathclyde Welsh, it seems equally, if not more, likely that the surname refers to people who were seen as being "Welsh" due to their Cumbric language.

Surnames in Scotland were not inherited before 1200 and not regularly until 1400. Sir William Wallace (known in Gaelic as Uilleam Breatnach – namely William the Briton or Welshman) came from the Renfrew area – itself a Cumbric name. Wallace slew the sheriff of Lanark (also a Cumbric name) in 1297. Even if he had inherited the surname from his father, it is possible that the family spoke Cumbric within memory in order to be thus named.

There are also some historical pointers to a continuing separate ethnic identity. Prior to being crowned king of Scotland in 1124, David I was invested with the title Prince of the Cumbrians. William the Lion between 1173 and 1180 made an address to his subjects, identifying the Cumbrians as a separate group. This does not prove that any of them still spoke Cumbric at this time.

The legal documents in the Lanercost Cartulary, dating from the late 12th century, show witnesses with Norman French or English names, and no obvious Cumbric names. Though these people represent the upper classes, it seems significant that by the late 12th century in the Lanercost area, Cumbric is not obvious in these personal names.Todd, J. M. (ed.) (1991) The Lanercost Cartulary, Carlisle: CWAAS In 1262 in Peebles, jurymen in a legal dispute over peat cutting also have names which mostly appear Norman French or English,Chambers, W. (1864) A History of Peebleshire, Edinburgh: W & M Chambers but possible exceptions are Gauri Pluchan, Cokin Smith and Robert Gladhoc, where ''Gladhoc'' has the look of an adjectival noun similar to Welsh "gwladog" = "countryman".Prifysgol Cymru. (2002) Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru In the charters of Wetherall Priory near Carlisle there is a monk called Robert Minnoc who appears as a witness to 8 charters dating from around 1260.Prescott, J. E. (ed.) (1897) Register of Wetheral Priory, Carlisle: CWAAS His name is variously spelled Minnoc/Minot/Mynoc and it is tempting to see an equivalent of the Welsh "mynach" – "Robert the Monk" here.

Given that in other areas which have given up speaking Celtic languages, the upper classes have generally become Anglicised before the peasantry, it is not implausible that the peasantry continued to speak Cumbric for at least a little while after. Around 1200 there is a list of the names of men living in the area of Peebles. Amongst them are Cumbric names such as Gospatrick: servant or follower of Saint Patrick, Gosmungo: servant of Saint Mungo, Guososwald: servant of Oswald of Northumbria and Goscubrycht: servant of Cuthbert. Two of the saints – Oswald and Cuthbert — are from Northumbria showing influence on Cumbric not found in Welsh.

In 1305 Edward I of England prohibited the '' Leges inter Brettos et Scottos''.Barrow, G. W. S. (2005) Robert Bruce & the Community of the Realm of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press The term Brets or Britons refers to the native, traditionally Cumbric speaking people of southern Scotland and northern England as well as the Pictish speakers in Northern Scotland.

It seems that Cumbric could well have survived into the middle of the 12th century as a community language and even lasted into the 13th on the tongues of the last remaining speakers. Certain areas seem to be particularly dense in Cumbric place-names even down to very minor features. The two most striking of these are around Lanercost east of Carlisle and around Torquhan south of Edinburgh. If the 1262 names from Peebles do contain traces of Cumbric personal names then we can imagine Cumbric dying out between 1250 and 1300 at the very latest.

See also

* Cumbrian dialect
* Cumbrian toponymy
* Kenneth H. Jackson
*Kingdom of Strathclyde

Notes

References

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External links

Cumbric.org - Language and History
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Reconstuctions

* https://spns.org.uk/resources/bliton

Constructed languages

*
{{Authority control

Languages attested from the 6th century
Languages extinct in the 12th century
Western Brittonic languages
Extinct Celtic languages
Extinct languages of Scotland
Languages of the United Kingdom
Unsolved problems in linguistics
History of Cumbria
History of the Scottish Borders
Medieval languages
Languages of England
Languages of Scotland
North West England
Hen Ogledd