The dialect of Cumberland, spoken in its purity only in the central
parts of the county, may be admitted to be deficient in rhythm; and
remarkable as it is for force and expression, its harshness of cadence
renders it scarcely available for any poetry except the humorous or
descriptive. By those unaccustomed or unattached to it, it may probably
be considered hard and coarse even in prose compositions.
Its principal peculiarity is to be found in its vowel and diphthongal
sounds, which, for the most part, are made either broader or deeper
than in ordinary pronunciation; and this may be indicated with
sufficient ease and distinctness, by means of phonetic spelling, when
written or printed, to enable any reader with a little practice and
care to pronounce broad Cumbrian with tolerable correctness.
The most important instance of this vowel peculiarity exists in the
pronunciation of the long A and the short U, the former of which
is sounded generally _yah_ and the latter _uh_; thus to secure the
Cumbrian pronunciation—ale must be spelled _yahl_ and ace, _yahss_,
lame is made _lyahm_, name _nyahm_, etc., etc., all monosyllabic,
or, to prevent the accent being laid upon the Y, and so making two
syllables, these words might be written _leahm_, _neahm_. As regards
the U, the first syllable of cunning is in Cumberland lengthened out
exactly to the sound of the German _kuhn_, and come is made _kuhm_.
These sounds can only be conveyed by the interposition of the H. When I
first scribbled in the folk-speech of Cumberland I wrote it after this
fashion, and the efficacy of the method was proved by the fact that
intelligent or painstaking readers, knowing nothing of the dialect as
spoken, were able to repeat the verses called “Branthet Neuk Boggle”
in a style that might have satisfied even an exigeant professor of our
Cumbrian philology.
The Cumberland dialect so written, however, had a remarkably ugly and
uncouth appearance when printed, and the remonstrances of my present
provincial publisher induced me to abandon the H orthography, and
endeavour to secure the proper pronunciations by means of accent marks,
spelling the words instanced above _leàm_, _neàm_, _cūnning_, _cūm_, et
similia similiter.
The broad O and Oa are in our Cumberland speech altered into _eà_, with
the sound of _yah_, home becoming _heàm_, broad _breàd_, etc. There
are exceptions to this as to most other rules, for lane is rendered
as _lwoan_ or _lonnin’_, choke as _chowk_, croak as _crowk_, road as
_rwoad_, and more as _mair_, while shore has its ordinary sound. Almost
in reversal of these changes the broad A as in ball, a dance, Al, as
in walk, Aw, as in awful, are sounded like the broad O or Oa, thus
_boall_, _woak_, _oaful_, etc.; but the L is preserved in _oala’s_, for
always, scalp is pronounced _scowpe_, and ball, a plaything, is _bo’_,
all, _oa’_, call, _co’_, hall, _ho’_, etc., etc.
Ea gets the pronunciation properly given to it in veal and mead; so
that bread is _breed_, head, _heed_, dead, _deed_, etc., etc.; but
when this diphthong precedes R, as in bear, wear, etc., it becomes
dissyllabic like fear, as commonly pronounced, and mare too becomes
_mee-ar_.
Ei becomes _ay_, either and neither becoming _ayder_ and _nayder_,
sometimes _owder_ and _nowder_.
The broad I in bite, write, etc., the Cumbrians deepen almost as is
done by well educated people in the southern counties, with notable
exceptions however, the first personal pronoun being made Ah; Igh,
shortened and gutturalized by the Scotch, being sounded like _Ee_,
night being _neet_, light, _leet_, etc., and find and bind pronounced
like wind, viz.—_finnd_, _binnd_.
The double O is generally pronounced _eù_, or more exactly _yuh_
shortly, fool being _feùl_, school, _scheùl_, etc., in one short
syllable. Do and too are often pronounced according to this rule,
but almost equally often are made into _dee_ and _tee_, while the
preposition to is for the most part changed into _till_ or _tull_.
With Ou and Ow Cumberland speakers are somewhat capricious, round being
made _roond_, town, _toon_, etc., but found and bound become _fūnd_ and
_būnd_, ought, _owte_, nought, _nowte_, etc.
O with the sound of the short U is treated in a very arbitrary
manner—one being called _yan_, none, _nin_, and oven, _yubben_.
Qu is generally softened into _wh_, aspirated distinctly—quick being
pronounced w_hick_, and quite, _white_, and Quaker, with old people, is
_Whaker_.
Y is sometimes converted into G, as in _garth_ for yard, _garn_ for
yarn; and again that habit is sometimes reversed, as in _yatt_ for gate.
The corruptions or variations of consonants are not so marked as those
of vowels. The most notable are the hardening of Th into Dd, making
father, _fadder_, mother, _mūdder_, etc.; and the dropping of the two
last of the three letters in the definite article, well illustrated
by the Whitehaven boy’s reply to an enquiry as to what ships had come
in:—“_T’_ ’Enry, an’ _t’_ ’Ebe, an’ _t’_ Ant, an’ _t’_ Atlas, an’ _t’_
Aurora;” i.e. the Henry, the Hebe, the Ant, the Atlas, and the Aurora.
Then we may notice the discarding of the final letter from all words
ending in ing, and changing that syllable in all present participles to
_an_, the participle of pass being in Cumberland more like the French
pass_ant_ than the English pass_ing_; also the final age being made
_ish_, as in _cabbish_ for cabbage, _manish_ for manage, etc.; the
final ous too undergoing the same change, as in _faymish_ for famous,
_parlish_ for parlous, etc.; also idge as in _poddish_ for porridge, or
primarily, potage.
V is often converted into B or Bb—evening, eleven, Whitehaven being
called _ebenin’_, _elebben_, _Whitehebben_, etc.
These corruptions and deviations comprise nearly all the points
wherein the dialect of Cumberland differs in sound and pronunciation
from ordinary English speech; and set forth roughly, as they are,
(abbreviations explaining themselves, and archaic words being given
in a concise glossary) they may, with a little attention, enable the
uninitiated reader to understand all the Cumbrian pieces contained in
this volume.
Some irregular verbs, as well as some not commonly classed as
irregular, are curiously varied in Cumbrian conjugations. I give a few
of these, written down as they rise in recollection, and arranged a la
Lindley Murray.
_Present._ _Past._ _Past Participle._
Break Brack Brocken
Bring Brong, and Brang Browte
Brust (burst) Brast Brossen
Cleed (clothe) Cleàd Cled
Clim’ Clam Clim’t and Clum
Cūm (come) Com Cum’t
Cut Cot and Cuttit Cutten
Drink Drunk Drucken and Drocken
Drive Dreàv Druvven
Fling Flang Flung
Git (get) Gat Gitten
Gi’e (give) Gev Gi’en
Ga and Gang (go) Went Geàn
Greet (weep) Grat Grūtten
Hit Hat and Hot Hitten
Ho’d (hold) Hodit Hodden
Let Let Letten
Kest (cast) Kest Kessen
Knead Knod Knodden
May May’d or Med
Mun (must) Mūd
Put Pot Putten
Rive Reàv Ruvven
Run Ron Run
Rise Reùz Ruzzen
Stick Stack Stuck and Stucken
Set Set Setten
Tak Tok and Teùk Tocken
Thrust Thrustit Throssen
Minced or modified oaths are remarkably numerous in Cumberland, and
in very common use. Most of them have descended from the old Roman
Catholic times when, as Dr. Newman in speaking of Roman Catholic
populations of the present day, avers, habitual swearing indicated
piety and reverence for things sacred, and not profaneness. As heard
now in Cumberland, these ancient expletives are as void of piety as
of profanity, being used without any knowledge of their original
signification, and merely to add force to asseveration, and to express,
as varied in tone, surprise, disgust, pleasure, or indeed almost
any feeling or emotion whatever. I append a few of these with their
probable, often obvious, etyma:—
’Scush or Skerse God’s curse
Goy, and Goy Sonn God, and God’s Son
Gock, and Gock Sonn Ibid. Ibid.
’Od’s wuns an’ deeth God’s wounds and death
Loavin’ days Loving Jesus
’Od’s wintry wuns God’s sundry, or wondrous, wounds
’Od’s wyte leet on thee God’s blame fall on you
’Od rot, ’Od sink, etc., etc. See _Dickinson’s_ Glossary
’ Marry By Mary
’ Mess By the Mass
Dār, Dy, and Dyne Damn
Faix, and Faikins Faith
Cock’s wunters God’s wonders
Loze Lord
My song My soul
Deil bin Devil be in
The peculiarities of the Scottish dialect have been explained by many
writers, much more ably, as well as more at length, than may be done by
me. Therefore the only assistance towards the understanding my Scots
rhymes that I offer the reader is to intermingle, in the glossary
appended, such Scottish words as I have used, with those proper to
Cumberland and those common to both sides the Border.
The brief glossary here given consists, then, only of the words used
in Scotland or Cumberland, or both, which appear in the foregoing
_Tales and Rhymes_; corruptions and abbreviations being omitted.
The significations I alone am answerable for, having, in nearly all
instances, adopted the sense I can recollect the words being used in
by the people speaking them in their daily talk. The quotations are
intended to make these significations more intelligible, and also,
by showing the manner in which the words so illustrated are used by
others, to prove that the meanings I have so adopted are generally
correct.