12 Facts About Cumbric language

Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" in what is Northern England and southern Lowland Scotland.

The Welsh and the Cumbric language-speaking people of what are now southern Scotland and northern England probably felt they were actually one ethnic group.

However, in Scots, a Cumbric language speaker seems to have been called – from the Scots "Welsh".

Evidence from Cumbric comes almost entirely through secondary sources, since no known contemporary written records of the language survive.

However, linguists generally agree that Cumbric was a Western Brittonic language closely related to Welsh and, more distantly, to Cornish and Breton.

Related searches

Cumbric language place-names occur in Scotland south of the firths of Forth and Clyde.

Cumbric language names are found commonly in the historic county of Cumberland and in bordering areas of Northumberland.

Several supposed Cumbric language elements occur repeatedly in place names of the region.

Some Cumbric language names have historically been replaced by Scottish Gaelic, Middle English, or Scots equivalents, and in some cases the different forms occur in the historical record.

Linguistic term Cumbric language 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.

Linguists appear undecided as to whether Cumbric should be considered a separate language, or a dialect of Old Welsh.

The term Brets or Britons refers to the native, traditionally Cumbric language speaking people of southern Scotland and northern England as well as the Pictish speakers in Northern Scotland.