Yan Tan Tethera or yan-tan-tethera is a sheep-counting system traditionally used by shepherds in Northern England and some other parts of Britain . The words are numbers taken from Brythonic Celtic languages such as Cumbric which had died out in most of Northern England by the sixth century, but they were commonly used for sheep counting and counting stitches in knitting until the Industrial Revolution , especially in the fells of the Lake District . Though most of these number systems fell out of use by the turn of the 20th century, some are still in use.
70-724: 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
140-471: 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. In Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, the Common Brittonic cluster *rk was spirantized to /rx/ (Welsh rch , Cornish rgh , Breton rc'h ) but
210-567: 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. Ascertaining
280-629: A branch of the Indo-European language family , descended from Proto-Celtic . The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves Pezron , who made the explicit link between the Celts described by classical writers and the Welsh and Breton languages. During the first millennium BC, Celtic languages were spoken across much of Europe and central Anatolia . Today, they are restricted to
350-466: A common Italo-Celtic subfamily. This hypothesis fell somewhat out of favour after reexamination by American linguist Calvert Watkins in 1966. Irrespectively, some scholars such as Ringe, Warnow and Taylor and many others have argued in favour of an Italo-Celtic grouping in 21st century theses. Although there are many differences between the individual Celtic languages, they do show many family resemblances. Examples: The lexical similarity between
420-636: A feature of Cumbric. Further evidence is wanting, however. James 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. Watson 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
490-517: A group rather than when grazing at large on open ground. Their use is also attested in a "knitting song" known to be sung around the middle of the nineteenth century in Wensleydale , Yorkshire , beginning "yahn, tayhn, tether, mether, mimph". The counting system has been used for products sold within Northern England , such as prints, beers, alcoholic sparkling water (hard seltzer in U.S.), and yarns, as well as in artistic works referencing
560-539: 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'. 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 > /rx/ " may have been somewhat later in Cumbric". There
630-747: A regular development in Northern English in which the Old English long vowel /ɑː/ <ā> was broken into /ie/ , /ia/ and so on. This explains the shift to yan and ane from the Old English ān , which is itself derived from the Proto-Germanic * ainaz . Another example of this development is the Northern English word for 'home', hame , which has forms such as hyem, yem and yam all deriving from
700-485: A rich literary tradition . The earliest specimens of written Celtic are Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC in the Alps. Early Continental inscriptions used Italic and Paleohispanic scripts. Between the 4th and 8th centuries, Irish and Pictish were occasionally written in an original script, Ogham , but Latin script came to be used for all Celtic languages. Welsh has had a continuous literary tradition from
770-429: 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[imitive] W[elsh] would be inaccurate", so clearly views it as distinct in some meaningful respect. It has been suggested that Cumbric
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#1732766296786840-592: 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. 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
910-504: 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"). The relevant lines are: Translated as: The form derwennydd however,
980-696: 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. 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
1050-530: Is almost certainly an independent branch on the Celtic genealogical tree, one that became separated from the others very early." The Breton language is Brittonic, not Gaulish, though there may be some input from the latter, having been introduced from Southwestern regions of Britain in the post-Roman era and having evolved into Breton. In the P/Q classification schema, the first language to split off from Proto-Celtic
1120-574: Is an official language of Ireland and of the European Union . Welsh is the only Celtic language not classified as endangered by UNESCO . The Cornish and Manx languages became extinct in modern times but have been revived. Each now has several hundred second-language speakers. Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic form the Goidelic languages , while Welsh, Cornish and Breton are Brittonic . All of these are Insular Celtic languages , since Breton,
1190-458: 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
1260-485: 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. 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
1330-487: 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
1400-431: 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: Several supposed Cumbric elements occur repeatedly in place names of
1470-482: 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: 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
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#17327662967861540-401: 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
1610-610: Is still quite contested, and the main argument for Insular Celtic is connected with the development of verbal morphology and the syntax in Irish and British Celtic, which Schumacher regards as convincing, while he considers the P-Celtic/Q-Celtic division unimportant and treats Gallo-Brittonic as an outdated theory. Stifter affirms that the Gallo-Brittonic view is "out of favour" in the scholarly community as of 2008 and
1680-549: Is that it became extinct in the 12th century, after the incorporation of the semi-independent Kingdom of Strathclyde into the Kingdom of Scotland . Dauvit Broun sets out the problems with the various terms used to describe the Cumbric language and its speakers. The people seem to have called themselves * Cumbri the same way that the Welsh called themselves Cymry (most likely from reconstructed Brittonic * kom-brogī meaning "fellow countrymen"). The Welsh and
1750-520: The Humber , although a few more southerly place-names in Cheshire and, to a lesser extent, Derbyshire and Staffordshire were also included. 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
1820-481: The Life of St Kentigern ( c. 1200) by Jocelyn of Furness has the following passage: When King Rederech ( Rhydderch Hael ) and his people had heard that Kentigern had arrived from Wallia [i.e. Wales] into Cambria [i.e. Cumbria], from exile into his own country, with great joy and peace both king and people went out to meet him. John T. Koch defined the specifically Cumbric region as "the area approximately between
1890-486: 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
1960-407: The medieval period, and continuing to the present in some areas like Slaidburn , farms were granted fell rights , allowing them access to common grazing land. To prevent overgrazing , it was vitally important for each farm to keep accurate, updated head-counts. Though fell rights are largely obsolete in modern agriculture except in upland areas, farms are often subsidised and taxed according to
2030-615: The 11th and 12th centuries. Other examples, standardised from original sources, include Gosmungo ( Saint Mungo ), Gososwald ( Oswald of Northumbria ) and Goscuthbert ( Cuthbert ). 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. There
2100-409: The 18th century; the scholarly consensus is that these derive from a Brittonic language closely related to Welsh. 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
2170-417: 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
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2240-537: The 2000s led to the reemergence of native speakers for both languages following their adoption by adults and children. By the 21st century, there were roughly one million total speakers of Celtic languages, increasing to 1.4 million speakers by 2010. Gaelainn / Gaeilig / Gaeilic Celtic is divided into various branches: Scholarly handling of Celtic languages has been contentious owing to scarceness of primary source data. Some scholars (such as Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; and Schrijver 1995) posit that
2310-530: The 6th century AD. SIL Ethnologue lists six living Celtic languages, of which four have retained a substantial number of native speakers. These are: the Goidelic languages ( Irish and Scottish Gaelic , both descended from Middle Irish ) and the Brittonic languages ( Welsh and Breton , descended from Common Brittonic ). The other two, Cornish (Brittonic) and Manx (Goidelic), died out in modern times with their presumed last native speakers in 1777 and 1974 respectively. Revitalisation movements in
2380-719: The British Isles] all compared very closely to 18th-century Cornish and modern Welsh ". It is impossible, given the corrupted form in which they have survived, to be sure of their exact origin. The counting systems have changed considerably over time. A particularly common tendency is for certain pairs of adjacent numbers to come to resemble each other by rhyme (notably the words for 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 6 and 7, or 8 and 9). Still, multiples of five tend to be fairly conservative; compare bumfit with Welsh pymtheg , in contrast with standard English fifteen . Like most Celtic numbering systems, they tend to be vigesimal ( based on
2450-708: 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 . 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
2520-832: 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. Celtic languages Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Celtic languages ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k / KEL -tik ) are
2590-622: 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: 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
2660-552: 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", Bretnach , or Bretain . The Norse called them Brettar . In Latin, the terms Cymry and Cumbri were Latinised as Cambria and Cumbria respectively. In Medieval Latin, the English term Welsh became Wallenses ("of Wales"), while
2730-559: The Gallic and Brittonic languages are P-Celtic, while the Goidelic and Hispano-Celtic (or Celtiberian) languages are Q-Celtic. The P-Celtic languages (also called Gallo-Brittonic ) are sometimes seen (for example by Koch 1992) as a central innovating area as opposed to the more conservative peripheral Q-Celtic languages. According to Ranko Matasovic in the introduction to his 2009 Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic : "Celtiberian ...
2800-584: 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
2870-492: The Insular Celtic hypothesis "widely accepted". When referring only to the modern Celtic languages, since no Continental Celtic language has living descendants, "Q-Celtic" is equivalent to "Goidelic" and "P-Celtic" is equivalent to "Brittonic". How the family tree of the Celtic languages is ordered depends on which hypothesis is used: " Insular Celtic hypothesis " " P/Q-Celtic hypothesis " Eska evaluates
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2940-465: The Insular Celtic languages were probably not in great enough contact for those innovations to spread as part of a sprachbund . However, if they have another explanation (such as an SOV substratum language), then it is possible that P-Celtic is a valid clade, and the top branching would be: Within the Indo-European family, the Celtic languages have sometimes been placed with the Italic languages in
3010-491: The Larzac piece of lead (1983), the analysis of which reveals another common phonetical innovation -nm- > -nu (Gaelic ainm / Gaulish anuana , Old Welsh enuein 'names'), that is less accidental than only one. The discovery of a third common innovation would allow the specialists to come to the conclusion of a Gallo-Brittonic dialect (Schmidt 1986; Fleuriot 1986). The interpretation of this and further evidence
3080-460: The P-/Q-Celtic hypothesis. Proponents of each schema dispute the accuracy and usefulness of the other's categories. However, since the 1970s the division into Insular and Continental Celtic has become the more widely held view (Cowgill 1975; McCone 1991, 1992; Schrijver 1995), but in the middle of the 1980s, the P-/Q-Celtic theory found new supporters (Lambert 1994), because of the inscription on
3150-407: 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
3220-540: The break-up much earlier at 3200 BC ± 1500 years. They support the Insular Celtic hypothesis. The early Celts were commonly associated with the archaeological Urnfield culture , the Hallstatt culture , and the La Tène culture , though the earlier assumption of association between language and culture is now considered to be less strong. There are legitimate scholarly arguments for both the Insular Celtic hypothesis and
3290-445: The different Celtic languages is apparent in their core vocabulary , especially in terms of actual pronunciation . Moreover, the phonetic differences between languages are often the product of regular sound change (i.e. lenition of /b/ into /v/ or Ø). Yan tan tethera Sheep-counting systems ultimately derive from Brythonic Celtic languages , such as Cumbric ; Tim Gay writes: “[Sheep-counting systems from all over
3360-917: 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- , Eccles < Brittonic eglēsia ). The Cumbric personal names Gospatrick, Gososwald and Gosmungo meaning 'servant of St...' (Welsh, Cornish, Breton gwas 'servant, boy') and
3430-399: 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 . 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
3500-474: The evidence as supporting the following tree, based on shared innovations , though it is not always clear that the innovations are not areal features . It seems likely that Celtiberian split off before Cisalpine Celtic, but the evidence for this is not robust. On the other hand, the unity of Gaulish, Goidelic, and Brittonic is reasonably secure. Schumacher (2004, p. 86) had already cautiously considered this grouping to be likely genetic, based, among others, on
3570-529: 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
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#17327662967863640-724: 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
3710-459: The northwestern fringe of Europe and a few diaspora communities . There are six living languages: the four continuously living languages Breton , Irish , Scottish Gaelic and Welsh , and the two revived languages Cornish and Manx . All are minority languages in their respective countries, though there are continuing efforts at revitalisation . Welsh is an official language in Wales and Irish
3780-632: The number twenty), but they usually lack words to describe quantities larger than twenty; this is not a limitation of either modernised decimal Celtic counting systems or the older ones. To count a large number of sheep, a shepherd would repeatedly count to twenty, placing a mark on the ground, or move a hand to another mark on a shepherd's crook , or drop a pebble into a pocket to represent each score (e.g. 5 score sheep = 100 sheep). In order to keep accurate records (e.g. of birth and death) and to be alert to instances of straying, shepherds must perform frequent head-counts of their flocks. Dating back at least to
3850-535: 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
3920-407: The only living Celtic language spoken in continental Europe, is descended from the language of settlers from Britain. There are a number of extinct but attested continental Celtic languages , such as Celtiberian , Galatian and Gaulish . Beyond that there is no agreement on the subdivisions of the Celtic language family. They may be divided into P-Celtic and Q-Celtic . The Celtic languages have
3990-545: 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
4060-588: 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. In the Book of Aneirin , a poem entitled " Peis Dinogat " (possibly set in the Lake District of Cumbria ), contains
4130-469: The primary distinction is between Continental Celtic and Insular Celtic , arguing that the differences between the Goidelic and Brittonic languages arose after these split off from the Continental Celtic languages. Other scholars (such as Schmidt 1988) make the primary distinction between P-Celtic and Q-Celtic languages based on the replacement of initial Q by initial P in some words. Most of
4200-464: The quantity of their sheep. For this reason, accurate counts are still necessary, and must be performed frequently. Generally, a count is the first action performed in the morning and the last action performed at night. A count is made after moving the sheep from one pasture to another, and after any operation involving the sheep, such as shearing , tagging , foot-trimming, mulesing , etc., although sheep are far less likely to stray while being moved in
4270-507: 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: The linguistic term Cumbric
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#17327662967864340-562: The region, such as Harrison Birtwistle 's 1986 opera Yan Tan Tethera . Jake Thackray 's song "Old Molly Metcalfe" from his 1972 album Bantam Cock uses the Swaledale "Yan Tan Tether Mether Pip" as a repeating lyrical theme. Garth Nix used the counting system to name the seven Grotesques in his novel Grim Tuesday . The word yan or yen for 'one' in Cumbrian , Northumbrian , and some Yorkshire dialects generally represents
4410-399: 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. Derivatives of Common Brittonic *magno , such as Welsh maen and Cornish men , mean "stone", particularly one with
4480-492: The shared reformation of the sentence-initial, fully inflecting relative pronoun *i̯os, *i̯ā, *i̯od into an uninflected enclitic particle. Eska sees Cisalpine Gaulish as more akin to Lepontic than to Transalpine Gaulish. Eska considers a division of Transalpine–Goidelic–Brittonic into Transalpine and Insular Celtic to be most probable because of the greater number of innovations in Insular Celtic than in P-Celtic, and because
4550-563: 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 ,
4620-686: 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
4690-577: The term Cumbrenses referred to Cumbrians ("of Cumbria"). However, in Scots, a Cumbric speaker seems to have been called Wallace – from the Scots Wallis/Wellis "Welsh". In Cumbria itaque: regione quadam inter Angliam et Scotiam sita – "And so in Cumbria: a region situated between England and Scotland". The Latinate term Cambria is often used for Wales; nevertheless,
4760-668: Was Gaelic. It has characteristics that some scholars see as archaic, but others see as also being in the Brittonic languages (see Schmidt). In the Insular/Continental classification schema, the split of the former into Gaelic and Brittonic is seen as being late. The distinction of Celtic into these four sub-families most likely occurred about 900 BC according to Gray & Atkinson but, because of estimation uncertainty, it could be any time between 1200 and 800 BC. However, they only considered Gaelic and Brythonic. A controversial paper by Forster & Toth included Gaulish and put
4830-436: 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
4900-597: 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
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