Cumbrian dialect


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.

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. 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', 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, Kendal from Kent dalr and Elterwater from eltr vatn. Many of the traditional dialect words are also remnants of Norse influence, including beck, laik, lowp and glisky.
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 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.
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 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

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 EnglishCumbrian
as in 'bad'
as in 'bard'
as in 'house'
as in 'bay' in the North-East, and elsewhere
as in 'bear'
as in 'bide',
as in 'boat'
as in 'bud'
as in 'boo', or

When certain vowels are followed by, an epenthetic schwa 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. 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 . Medially and, in some cases, finally it is as in Thorfinsty .
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 . As a result, some speakers pronounce clarty'' as, "clean" as, and "likely" and "lightly" may be indistinguishable.

Stress

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

Dialect words

General words

  • aye yes
  • thee's / thou's / thine yours
  • thee / thou you
  • yous / thous you
  • yat gate
  • us, es me
  • our, mine
  • where’s t’... where is the...
  • deùin doing
  • divn't don't
  • hoo'doo How are you doing?
  • canna can't
  • cannae can't
  • deù do
  • frae from
  • yon that
  • reet Right
  • areet All right?
  • be reet It'll be all right or “it’d be right” when referring to something somewhat negative
  • nèa No
  • yonder there
  • owt aught; anything
  • nowt naught; nothing
  • bevvie drink
  • eh? what/ isn't it?
  • yan/yā One

    Adjectives

  • clarty messy, muddy
  • kaylied intoxicated
  • kystie squeamish or fussy
  • lāl small
  • oal old. "T'oal 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
  • ower/ovver over/enough
  • sec/sic such
  • 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
  • biddies fleas or head lice or old people "old biddies"
  • bog toilet
  • britches trousers
  • byat boat
  • beùts boots
  • cack/kack faeces
  • tyeble or teàble table
  • clout/cluwt punch or hit "Aa’s gan clout thou yan" ; also clout means a cloth
  • crack/craic gossip "’ow marra, get some better crack"
  • cur dog sheepdog - collie
  • ceàk cake
  • den toilet
  • doilem idiot
  • dookers swimming trunks
  • fratch argument or squabble
  • feàce 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"
  • mowdy or mowdywarp a mole
  • peeve drink
  • push iron or push bike bicycle
  • scran food
  • scrow a mess
  • shillies small stones or gravel
  • skemmy or skem beer
  • snig small eel
  • steàn stone
  • watter water
  • wuk work, as in: Aa’s gān te wuk
  • yam home, as in: Aa’s gān yam
  • yat gate
  • heùk hook