Cumbric Language - Date of Extinction

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.

There is a village near Carlisle called Cumwhitton (earlier Cumquinton). This appears to contain the Norman name Quinton 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 *bod-ir-monoc – Monk’s Dwelling) was given to the church by King Mael Choluim IV 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. 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 I of Scotland between 1173–1180 made an address to his subjects, identifying the Cumbrians as a separate ethnic 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. In 1262 in Peebles, jurymen in a legal dispute over peat cutting also have names which mostly appear Norman French or English, but possible exceptions are Gauri Pluchan, Cokin Smith and Robert Gladhoc, where Gladhoc has the look of an adjective similar to Welsh "gwladog" = "countryman". 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. 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 the Anglicisation of the upper classes in general has happened before the Anglicisation of the peasantry in other areas which have given up speaking Celtic languages 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 St Patrick, Gosmungo: servant of St Mungo, Guososwald: servant of St Oswald and Goscubrycht: servant of St Cuthbert. Two of the saints – Oswald and Cuthbert —are from Northumbria showing influence on Cumbric not found in Welsh.

The royal seal of Alexander III (who reigned 4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) bore the title "Rex Scotorum et Britanniarum", or "King of Scots and Britons".

In 1305 Edward I of England prohibited the laws of the Scots and the Brets. The term Brets or Britons refers to the native, traditionally Cumbric speaking people of southern 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.

In the 2000s a group of enthusiasts proposed a revival of the Cumbric language, and launched a social networking site a "revived Cumbric" guidebook to promote it, though this would appear to have met with little success. Writing in Carn magazine, Colin Lewis noted that there was disagreement in the group about whether to base "revived Cumbric" on the surviving sources for the language, or try to reconstruct the form Late Cumbric may have taken after the attested period, though his own suggestion was to simply use Modern Welsh with its rich literature, culture and history.