Editing Cumbric (section)

==Problems with terminology==

[[Dauvit Broun]] sets out the problems with the various terms used to describe the Cumbric language and its speakers.<ref name=Broun>Broun, Dauvit (2004): 'The Welsh identity of the kingdom of Strathclyde, ca 900-ca 1200', ''Innes Review'' 55, pp 111–80.</ref> The people seem to have called themselves {{lang|xcb|*Cumbri}} the same way that the Welsh called themselves {{lang|cy|[[Etymology of Wales|Cymry]]}} (most likely from reconstructed Brittonic {{lang|cel-154|*kom-brogī}} meaning "fellow countrymen"). The Welsh and the Cumbric-speaking people of what are now southern Scotland and northern England probably felt they were actually one ethnic group{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}. Old Irish speakers called them "Britons", {{lang|sga|Bretnach}}, or {{lang|sga|Bretain}}.<ref>''[[Dictionary of the Irish Language]]'', Royal Irish Academy, 1983. [http://www.dil.ie/ Online]</ref> The Norse called them {{lang|non|Brettar}}.<ref name="PNCu"/> In Latin, the terms {{lang|cy|Cymry}} and {{lang|xcb|Cumbri}} were Latinised as [[Cambria]] and [[Cumbria]] respectively. In Medieval Latin, the English term Welsh became {{lang|la-x-medieval|Wallenses}} ("of Wales"), while the term {{lang|la-x-medieval|Cumbrenses}} referred to Cumbrians ("of Cumbria").<ref name=Forbes>Forbes, A. P. (1874) ''Lives of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern: compiled in the twelfth century''</ref> However, in Scots, a Cumbric speaker seems to have been called {{lang|sco|Wallace}} – from the Scots {{lang|sco|Wallis/Wellis}} "Welsh".{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}
[[File:Cumbric region.png|thumb|right|upright=1.5|The Cumbric region: modern counties and regions with the early medieval kingdoms]]

{{quote|{{lang|la|In Cumbria itaque: regione quadam inter Angliam et Scotiam sita}} &ndash; "And so in Cumbria: a region situated between England and Scotland".<ref>Innes, Cosmo Nelson, (ed). (1843), ''Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis; Munimenta Ecclesie Metropolitane Glasguensis a Sede Restaurata Seculo Incunte Xii Ad Reformatam Religionem'', i, Edinburgh: The Bannatyne Club</ref>}}

The Latinate term [[Cambria]] is often used for Wales; nevertheless, the ''Life of St Kentigern'' ({{circa}} 1200) by [[Jocelyn of Furness]] has the following passage:

{{quote|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.<ref name=Kentiger>(1989) ''Two Celtic Saints: the lives of Ninian and Kentigern'' Lampeter: Llanerch Enterprises, p. 91.</ref>}}

[[John T. Koch]] defined the specifically Cumbric region as "the area approximately between 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.<ref name="CelticCulture" /> [[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 the south by the [[River Ribble]] and in the east by the Southern Scottish Uplands and the Pennine Ridge.<ref name="Jackson" /> 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 the [[Humber]], although a few more southerly place-names in Cheshire and, to a lesser extent, [[Derbyshire]] and [[Staffordshire]] were also included.<ref name="spns24">{{cite web |last1=James |first1=Alan G. |title=The Brittonic Language in the Old North - A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence - Volume 1 Introduction, Bibliography etc. (2024) |url=https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_I_Introduction_Bibliography_etc._2024_edition-2.pdf |website=Scottish Place-Name Society |access-date=11 July 2024}}</ref>