Cumbrian dialect

Last updated

Cumbrian dialect
Native to England
Region Cumbria
Ethnicity English
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
IETF en-u-sd-gbcma
Cumb.svg
Cumbria within England
Coordinates: 54°30′N3°15′W / 54.500°N 3.250°W / 54.500; -3.250
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Cumbrian dialect or Cumberland dialect is a local dialect of Northern England in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands. Some parts of Cumbria have a more North-East English sound to them. Whilst clearly spoken with a Northern English accent, the Cumbrian dialect 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. [1]

Contents

History of the dialect

Northumbrian origin

As with other English dialects north of the Humber-Lune Line and the closely related Scots language, Cumbrian is descended from Northern Middle English and in turn Northumbrian Old English. Old English was introduced to Cumbria from Northumbria, 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 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 Lancashire and Yorkshire to Strathclyde had developed into a dialect of Brythonic known as Cumbric (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 , glinn 'valley' and redïn 'ferns, bracken' as in Glenridding , 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 may be attributable to Celtic Influence.

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.

Norse influence

A far stronger influence on the modern dialect was Old Norse, spoken by Norse and/or Norse-Gael settlers who probably arrived on the coasts of Cumbria in the 10th century via Ireland and the Isle of Man. Many Cumbrian place names in or near coastal areas 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 influence, including beck (bekkr, 'stream'), laik (leik, 'to play'), lowp (hlaupa, 'to jump') and glisky (gliskr, 'shimmering').

Once Cumbrians had assimilated to speaking Northumbrian 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 earliest recordings of the dialect were in a book published by Agnes Wheeler 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. [2]

One of the lasting characteristics still found in the local dialect of Cumbria today is definite article reduction. Unlike the Lancashire dialect, where 'the' is abbreviated to 'th', in Cumbrian (as in Yorkshire and south Durham) the sound is harder 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

Non-native speaker describing and using Cumbrian dialect.

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

RP English Cumbrian
/æ/ as in 'bad'[a]
/ɑː/ as in 'bard'[aː]
/aʊ/ as in 'house'[uː] (North only)
/eɪ/ as in 'bay'[ɪə] in the North-East, and [eː] elsewhere
/eə/ as in 'bear'[ɛː]
/aɪ/ as in 'bide'[ɐː] (South), [eɪ] (North)
/əʊ/ as in 'boat'[oː]
/ʌ/ as in 'bud'[ʊ]
/uː/ as in 'boo'[əu], [ɪu] or [uː]

When certain vowels are followed by /l/, an epenthetic schwa [ə] is often pronounced between them, creating two distinct syllables:

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 [ɪuə].

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). This can sometimes [3] occur in the onset as well in words such as finger.

⟨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', [4] 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]: woowool[ˈwəw]; powpole[ˈpɒw].

⟨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[ˈɾɒs]; gimmer[ˈɡɪmə]; gimmer hogg[ˈɡɪməɾ‿ɒɡ].

⟨t⟩ is traditionally always pronounced as a voiceless alveolar plosive, although in many places it has been replaced by the glottal stop [ʔ] now common throughout Britain.

⟨y⟩ may be consonantal [j] as in yamhome[ˈjam]. As the adjectival or adverbial suffix -y it may be [ɪ] or [iː] as in clarty (muddy) [ˈklaːtɪ]. Medially and, in some cases, finally it is [ɐː] as in Thorfinsty (a place) [ˈθɔːfɪnstɐː].

Finally, in some parts of the county, there is a tendency to palatalize the consonant cluster ⟨cl⟩ in word-initial and medial position, thereby rendering it as something more closely approaching [tl]. As a result, some speakers pronounce clarty (muddy) as [ˈtlaːtɪ], "clean" as [ˈtliːn], and "likely" and "lightly" may be indistinguishable.

Stress

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

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

Dialect words

General words

Adjectives

Adverbs

Nouns

Verbs

People

Farming terms

Weather

Places

Phrases

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.

  Keswick Westmorland Eskdale Millom High Furness Welsh Cornish Breton
1yanyanyaenaainayanunonen/unnunan/ un
2tyantyantaenapeinataendau/dwydew/diwdaou/div
3tetheratetherietedderaparateddertetri/tairtri/teyrtri/teir
4metherapedderamedderapederameddertepedwar/pedairpeswar/pederpevar/peder
5peenpippimppimppimppumppymppemp
6setherateeziehofaithyhaatachwe(ch)wheghc'hwec'h
7letheramithylofamithyslaatasaithseythseizh
8hoverakatraseckeraoweralowerawythetheizh
9doverahornieleckeraloweradoweranawnawnav
10dickdickdecdigdickdegdekdek
15bumfitbumfitbumfitbumfitmimphpymthegpymthekpemzek
20giggot----ugainugensugent

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 sociolects of the area.

Survey of English Dialects sites

There were several villages in Cumbria that were used during the Survey of English Dialects 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:

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, whose imitations of Theocritan Pastorals 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), [7] 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). [8] 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 and her companion Catherine Gilpin. Miss Blamire had written songs in Scots that were set to music by Joseph Haydn. 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, among whose disciples the calico 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), [9] 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. [10] 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 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. [11]

Barrovian Dialect

Barrow-in-Furness is unique within Cumbria and the local dialect tends to be more Lancashire orientated. Like Liverpool this is down to the large numbers of settlers from various regions (including predominantly Scotland, elsewhere in England and Ireland 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) or twe'y (realised as /ˈtwɛ.ʔɪ/).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbria</span> Ceremonial county of England

Cumbria is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Carlisle, which is also its county town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland</span> Historic county of England

Cumberland is an area of Northern England which was historically a county and is now fully part of Cumbria. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish counties of Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire to the north. The area includes the city of Carlisle, part of the Lake District and North Pennines, and the Solway Firth coastline.

Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North", in what became the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, and also Northumberland and northern parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire 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 semi-independent Kingdom of Strathclyde into the Kingdom of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A595 road</span> Road in Cumbria, England

The A595 is a primary route in Cumbria, in Northern England that starts in Carlisle, passes through Whitehaven and goes close to Workington, Cockermouth and Wigton. It passes Sellafield and Ravenglass before ending at the Dalton-in-Furness by-pass, in southern Cumbria, where it joins the A590 trunk road. The road is mostly single carriageway, apart from in central Carlisle, where it passes the castle as a busy dual carriageway road named Castle Way, and prior to that as Bridge Street and Church Street, where it passes close to the McVitie's or Carr's biscuit factory. The Lillyhall bypass is also dual carriageway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buttermere</span> Lake in Cumbria, England

Buttermere is a lake in the Lake District in North West England. It has a length of approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) and a maximum width of 0.54 kilometres (0.34 mi), an area of 0.9 square kilometres (0.35 sq mi), a maximum depth of 28.6 metres (94 ft), and a surface elevation of 100.3 metres (329 ft) above sea level. Its primary outflow is Buttermere Dubs, a short stream which connects the lake to Crummock Water. From Crummock Water the River Cocker flows to Cockermouth, where it joins the River Derwent and finally enters the Irish Sea at Workington. The lake is in the unitary authority of Cumberland, and the ceremonial county of Cumbria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanna Blamire</span> English Romantic poet

Susanna Blamire 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 amongst the poems of William Wordsworth that regard the same subject, in addition to those of the other Lake Poets, especially those of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and in addition to those of Lord Byron, on whose The Prisoner of Chillon her works may have had an influence. Blamire composed much of her poetry outside, sat beside a stream in her garden at Thackwood. She also played the guitar and the flageolet, both of which she used in the process of the composition of her poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wigton</span> Market town in Cumbria, England

Wigton is a market town in Cumberland, Cumbria, England. It lies just outside the Lake District. Wigton is at the centre of the Solway Plain, between the Caldbeck Fells and the Solway coast. It is served by Wigton railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line, and the A596 road to Workington. The town of Silloth-on-Solway lies 12 miles (19 km) to the west, beyond Abbeytown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English language in Northern England</span> Collection of accents and dialects

The spoken English language in Northern England has been shaped by the region's history of settlement and migration, and today encompasses a group of related accents and dialects known as Northern England English (or, simply, Northern (English) in the United Kingdom).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunmail</span>

Dunmail is a legendary king of Cumbria associated with Dunmail Raise. According to tradition, Dunmail was the last king of Cumbria, and buried beneath the cairn at Dunmail Raise after having been slain by the English. Dunmail Raise, meaning "Dyfnwal's Cairn", may well be named after the historical Dyfnwal ab Owain, King of Strathclyde.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbrian toponymy</span> Study of place names in Cumbria, England

Cumbrian toponymy refers to the study of place names in Cumbria, a county in North West England, and as a result of the spread of the ancient Cumbric language, further parts of northern England and the Southern Uplands of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Cumbria</span> History of the English county

The history of Cumbria as a county of England begins with the Local Government Act 1972. Its territory and constituent parts however have a long history under various other administrative and historic units of governance. Cumbria is an upland, coastal and rural area, with a history of invasions, migration and settlement, as well as battles and skirmishes between the English and the Scots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baggrow railway station</span> Disused railway station in Cumbria, England

Baggrow railway station was in the former county of Cumberland, now Cumbria, England. It was a stop on the Bolton Loop of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northumbrian dialect</span> Any of several English varieties of Northumbria, England

Northumbrian dialect or Northumbrian English is any one of several traditional English dialects spoken in the historic counties of Northumberland and County Durham. The term Northumbrian can refer to the region of Northumbria but can also refer specifically to the county of Northumberland. This article focuses on the former definition and thus includes varieties from throughout the wider region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Anderson (poet)</span>

Robert Anderson (1770–1833), was an English labouring class poet from Carlisle. He was best known for his ballad-style poems in Cumbrian dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of medieval Cumbria</span>

The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse, Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Sanderson (poet)</span>

Thomas Sanderson (1759–1829) was an English poet. He spent almost his entire life in Cumberland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes Wheeler</span> British writer

Agnes Wheeler or Ann Coward 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 provincial Idiom was an early attempt at recording the local dialect. 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.

Cumbrian is an English dialect spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and surrounding northern England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland (unitary authority)</span> District in Cumbria, England

Cumberland is a unitary authority area in Cumbria, England, which means that it is a non-metropolitan county and district. It borders Scotland, Northumberland, Westmorland and Furness, and the Irish Sea. Part of the area is in the Lake District National Park and notable landmarks include Carlisle Cathedral, Carlisle Castle and Hadrian's Wall.

References

  1. ↑ Gibson, Dan (2 December 2012). The Gonmad Cumbrian Dictionary & Phrase Book. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-4810-9530-3.
  2. ↑ Roy Palmer, 'Wheeler , Agnes (bap. 1734, d. 1804)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 1 June 2017
  3. ↑ Orton, H.; Sanderson, S.; Widdowson, J. (1978). The Linguistic Atlas of England. London: Croom Helm ltd.
  4. ↑ "Wm. Barrow Kendall 'Forness Word Book', 1867; PDF version available at".
  5. ↑ "The Development of Cumbrian in One Phrase" – via www.youtube.com.
  6. ↑ "Who are the Jam-eaters". Whitehaven News. CN Group. 2 October 2008. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  7. ↑ "A Miscellany of Poems: Consisting of Original Poems, Translations, Pastorals ..." printed by Robert Foulisfor Mr. Thomlinson inWigton. 3 August 1747 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ "A choice collection of poems in Cumberland dialect: I The harvest or bashful shepherd, a pastoral by the Rev. Mr. Robert Nelson, late of Greatsalkeld near Penrith in Cumberland. II Hay-Time ; or the constant lovers a pastoral. III St. Agnes fast or the amorous maiden. A pastoral. And other subjects no less entertaining". Printed by R. Wetherald. 3 August 1780 – via Open WorldCat.
  9. ↑ Anderson, Robert (3 August 1815). "Ballads in the Cumberland dialect, chiefly by R. Anderson, with notes and a glossary" – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ "Westmoreland and Cumberland dialects. Dialogues, poems, songs, and ballads, by various writers, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland dialects, now first collected". John Russell Smith, 4, Old Compton Street, Soho. 3 August 1839 – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ Title page on Google Books

Bibliography

Books:

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.