Ethnic Cleansing?

There are different levels to this question. In the first instance, we can talk about the physical survival of the British inhabitants so they could go on and have children, the survival of their material culture; the survival of their language - and the non material culture transmitted through it, or the survival of their ethnic identity, however modified, even after they stopped speaking Cumbric.

Johnathan Shaw quotes the historian Michael McCormick who says that by the eighth century, English civilisation considered itself completely Anglo-Saxon, spoke only Anglo-Saxon and thought that everyone had "come over on the Mayflower as it were." [35]  To all intents and purposes since that time the English have not generally acknowledged any descent from the Britons and characterise the indigenous Britons as "Welsh" who have been subjected to centuries of racial abuse and derision.  Shaw reports findings from a DNA study that explored DNA from Y chromosomes, i.e. those passed from father to son, and found that on a line from east to west, British men had not passed down their Y chromosomes and instead the Y chromosomes were Germanic. English town dwellers were  "indistinguishably genetically" from the inhabitants of the Dutch province of Friesland.   However, the persistence of mitrochondrial DNA suggests the survival of British females. The study concluded that there had been a massive replacement of native men. The article also talks about the lower status of Britons and Anglo-Saxons in early English law. 

As a comparison, the Y chromosomes of part of Colombia are 95% European, but the mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother) is 95% native American. This supports a view of conquering men taking the local women they want.  This is not surprising, we see it to this day where conquering fighters take the local women.

The British monk Gildas writes of the savage attacks of the Anglo-Saxons on the Britons and paints a picture of the genocide of the Britons at the hands of the Anglo-Saxons [36].  Nennius presents the Anglo-Saxon conquest and the British resistance very much as an ethnic conflict [37].  Bede is critical of the Britons and virulent against some of them. He is clearly an English writer and the Britons are a foreign people of low regard. He builds a case for the supremacy of his own English people [38] Bede referring to the Northumbrian king Aethelfrith says that he ravaged the Britons more cruelly than any other English leader [28].

The Anglo-Saxon chronicle has repeated entries on how the Anglo-Saxons slew thousands of the Britons (or Welsh) and took their land . One entry for 607 says "If the Welsh will not have peace with us, they shall perish at the hands of the Saxons".

The poetry cycle called Canu Heledd talks about how the Lloegrwys  (the English) come and despoil. Owain ab Urien in the battle of Gwen Ystrad talks about how the Lloegrwys sleep with a light in their eyes (i.e. are dead). Armes Prydein Vawr talks about a battle to be fought between the Cymry and the Saxons. In retrospect, this has always been presented as an ethnic conflict.

Though some authors have played down the ethnic nature of the conflict between Briton and Saxon that led eventually to the almost total Anglicisation of the once British island, I think to do so is to see it with an Anglocentric eye. The Welsh have never forgotten that the island was theirs and the continued erosion of their language and culture is a continuation of a struggle that has gone on for 1500 years. It began in Anglo-Saxon times, continued with the Acts of Unions and the Victorian attempt to eradicate Welsh through the education system. Bedwyr Lewis Jones, professor of Welsh at Bangor, and expert on place-names, when asked by a newspaper in the 1990s,  what his greatest regret was said the Coming of the Saxons.  

In terms of the survival of the Britons, O'Sullivan, using possibl out of date information on place-name distributions makes the still valid observation that in Devon, which came under Anglo-Saxon control around the same time as our region came under Northumbrian control in the 7th Century, British place-names are only about 1% of the total. She notes that in the modern county of Cumbria they are common in the north but rare in the south - around the same as Devon in south Cumbria. She quotes Kenneth Jackson's view that the names in the north of Cumbria date from the expansion of Strathclyde in the 10th Century and I infer from that she is suggesting that without the re-conquest of Cumberland by the Strathclyde Britons, the number of British names, and therefore the extent of British linguistic survival in Cumbria would be about the same as in Devon [39]

There is more to ethnicity than language and Angus Winchester looked at the pattern of multiple estates in Cumbria. He said that the multiple estate which has its administrative core around the mother church and lord's dwelling in the lowland fringe, then had large area of upland to exploit. He identifies the church at Brigham and the later castle at Cockermouth with the Derwent Fells as the common upland, then St Bees as the church with the later castle at  Egremont and lord's holdings at Coulderton with uplands into Ennerdale. Then at Millom with uplands in Dunnerdale. He finds the same pattern around Furness and says it is repeated across Cumbria and Southern Scotland [40]. The tenants held the land with tributes in cornage - a tax paid in cattle - and seawake on the Cumberland coast, which he argues is an ancient practice of watching the coast - we could fantasise how ancient - back to Roman times maybe?  Winchester talks about the duty of tenants to work on bordland - which seems to be a translation of the Welsh tir bwrdd - with the identical purpose of proving food for the lord's table [40].  Winchester cites G W S Barrow, who believed that these multiple estates found throughout Northern England and Southern Scotland were Celtic in origin, and thus the Anglo-Saxons had taken them over, with or without their original Britons.

Cornage - the payment of cattle tribute is the distinguishing features of Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland and Durham and North Lancashire. It is equivalent to the Welsh commorth and was known in Northumbria as metreth de vacca  - that is the Cumbric word metreth apparently meaning cow  tax (Welsh bu treth   though mu for bu "cow, head of cattle" can occur so a possible Cumbric/Welsh mu trethF-  ) of cows [41]. There is little doubt that this is a survival of British practices into Anglo-Saxon times.  In North Lancashire the beltancu  was the May Cow - equivalent to the Welsh treth Calan Mai. 

Ard Crags NY 207 198, Derwent Fells.

Ard Crags NY 207 198, Derwent Fells.  A high ridge.  It's tempting to see this as a part translation of Creigiau Ardd - "High Crags". However, rather than being Cumbric, it is not impossible that it is a version of Gaelic  Creagan Àrd with the same meaning. I am not persuaded by a Gaelic explanation. There was an established Cumbric speaking community in this area, while Gaelic speakers were much rarer immigrants (though they did exist). The name isn't discussed in Place Names of Cumberland (Armstrong et al. 1950) but Whaley suggests a dialect word meaning parched, dry or a Celtic word meaning "height" or she suggests a Celtic word for heigh comparing Welsh ardd and Irish árd (Whaley 2006).

Henry Lewis notes that original -rd changed to -rδ in Welsh (Lewis 1983). We have long presumed that Cumbric went with Welsh in phonology, however James cites Kenneth Jackson's suggestion that this happened late in Cumbric, if at all (James 2011, citing Jackson).  If Cumbric went with Welsh, we might expect *Arth Crags? (the Welsh spelling represents a δ not a hard "d").  James lists arδ "a height, a hill" and notes that it is rare in Welsh and only in place names in Cornish and Breton. The examples he gives seem to show /arδ/ alternating with /ard/ (James 2012). James discusses features of Pictish phonology and argues convincingly that there are traces of it further south into Southern Scotland and north Cumbria. One feature is the absence of spirantisation of voiceless stops after liquids - so original -rk- became rχ, and -rt became -rθ in Welsh (and Cornish), but not apparently in the North. However, he does mention Dr Padel's comment that -rk and -rt are still regularly appearing in Cornish names taken into English in the 10th and 11th Centuries, even after the change had occurred in the original Cornish (James 2013).  

Old English had the sound /rδ/ (cf. byrðen) and in later borrowings of Welsh names, it preserves this cf. Carmarthen from Caerfyrddin, therefore it is possible that Ard Crags is not *Arth Crags, because Cumbric in this area had not yet developed spirantisation of -rd to -rδ, as it is suggested that Pictish dialects further north did not.  Or, the Ard here is Gaelic, which I still find unconvincing. We need more evidence.

Addacomb - NY195198 near Crummock Water

Adwy Gwm - "Gap leading to the Coombe".

Welsh:  Adwy "gap, mountain pass" plus Cwm  "bowl shaped depression, valley". Cwm was borrowed into Old English as cumba and is found as an English word locally, but this name seems to be from the Cumbric directly.

Welsh names that are similar to the proposed Adwy Gwm - are Adwy'r Waun, Adwy'r Ddol, Adwy'r Llan, all with the definite article but see also Craig Adwy Wynt (SJ125535) in Denbighshire. The -g- is Realised as -k- as there was not medial /g/ in Old English (Hogg 1992).

 Dating Issues

We see that Welsh -wy- /ui/ -which developed before 700 (Jackson 1953) - was borrowed into Old English as the Anglo-Saxon rounded front vowel /y/ (Campbell 1959) which then by 1100 had unrounded into /i/.  We see that /wy/ had arisen in the Brittonic speech of Staffordshire and Yorkshire before the English Conquest of those areas: -  Luitgoed -> Litchfield and Gedluid, which King Ecgfrith gave to St Cuthbert in 677, and of course in North Wales so it is very likely the sound was found in place names in Cumberland and Northumberland. After c.1100, the Old English /y/ was not available and so it had to be borrowed differently.  If Addacomb is Adwy Gwm, it was borrowed after the loss of /y/ in the late Old English period  but before the development of /ui/ due to French influence  in Middle English and also before the development of medial /g/ in Middle English, which was due to Norse influence (Minkova 2013). So Adwy Gwm seems to have come into English before significant Norse influence - perhaps the 10th Century, which dates it to the resurgent Cumbrian kingdom of Strathclyde.

Other Points

Addacombe is not mentioned in Place Names of Cumberland (Armstrong et al. 1950), or by Diana Whaley (Whaley 2006). There is a an Addycombe, near Rothbury, Northumberland. The Addy- here could be a diminutive of the personal name Adam, but I think it's also possible that Addycombe is the same name as Addacomb (i.e. Adwy Gwm) but borrowed earlier than Addacomb, which is no surprise.

The Representation of Initial Voiced Stops as Unvoiced Stops in Anglicised Brittonic Place-names.

Introduction

Watson analyses the name Prenbowgall (Watson, 1926: 351) as being composed of equivalents to Welsh pren "tree" and bugail "shepherd" and goes on to discuss the occurrence of the word pren in Scottish placenames. James, however notes that initial devoicing of stops is often seen in Brittonic names in the "Old North" (that is the historically Brittonic speaking of area of Northern England and Southern Scotland whose language has been called Cumbric) and that Prenbowgall might in fact be bryn bugail (James, 2012). Other names in the Old North with this feature of p- for b- are  Plenmeller  Blaenmoelfre (Ekwall, 1960: 368),  with blaen  as "plen", probably in Plenderleith near Kelso.  Paisley is said to come from Brittonic basaleg  We also have t- for d- in Tennis Castle, Drummelzier which is dinas  (Watson, 1926). 

However, the representation of Brittonic names with initial voiced stops as unvoiced stops in English is not restricted to the Old North.  If we look at other parts of Britain we find Tenby for Welsh  Dinbych in Pembrokeshire, Tintern for Dindyrn in Monmouthshire (Owen & Morgan, 2007) and Tintagell for Cornish Dintagell (Padel, 1988). In terms of personal names we also have Taffy for Dafydd.

An initial possibility might be that voiced initial stops were devoiced as a development of the Cumbric language. However, the fact that we see this feature in names adopted into English in Wales and Cornwall where we know that the initial voiced stops were certainly not devoiced in Welsh and Cornish, suggests that this is not a feature of the Cumbric language in fact but a phenomenon arising when English adopted Brittonic place-names.

We have noted how some names with initial voiced stops in Brittonic are rendered in English by unvoiced stops. The problems is that this is not uniform. If it were, we would expect to see the earliest borrowings such as Dover and Berkshire borrowed as *Tover and *Perkshire. So the earliest borrowings (though in fact their date may be a red herring and it might be their geographical location which is the determining factor, see below) and the later borrowing in Wales and Cornwall preserve the Brittonic voice.  We therefore need a solution which explains the rendering of Brittonic initial voiced stops as Old English unvoiced stops at certain times and places.

Brittonic vs Anglo-Saxon phones.

A phoneme is a segment of sound which, by contrast with other segments of sound, creates semantic differences. In English tip is a different word from dip (International Phonetic Association, 1999). The significant difference is the voice added to the initial stop in dip. Furthermore, phonemes are not identical across languages. For example in Indian dialects [v] and [w] are allophones of the Hindi phoneme /v/ but to English ears they are different phonemes namely /v/ and /w/. In Icelandic [k^h] and [k] are two different phonemes but in English they are one cf. kit [k^hɪt] but school [sku:l], where both seem to represent the same sound to English ears, namely the phoneme /k/, though they are phonetically different.

Phonemic contrast within a language does not seem to be an on/off phenomenon. It has been argued that rather it is a gradient (Scobbie & Stuart-Smith, 2006). In the production of any speech-sound there will be different elements such as aspiration, voice and length. Goblirsch notes how linguists have talked of fortis/lenis contrasts where the phonemic distinction is produced by producing a sound either strongly or weakly. He feels that talking of fortis/lenis is merely a over vague way of meaning contrasts in voice, length and aspiration (Goblirsch, 2010).  Aspiration here does not mean spirantization but merely the presence of a noticable breathing after the production of the stop. In specific languages, some of these features will be redundant in terms of producing a contrast, while others will produce phonemic distinction.

The addition of voice became a very important grammatical marker in Brittonic after the lenition of British consonants (Jackson, 1953)

We know that voice initially or in internal position was not phonemic for fricatives in Old English. Therefore the allophones θ ~ ð, f ~ v, s ~ z in internal positions were without any semantic inference and therefore were perceived by the Anglo-Saxons as the same sound. Laker argues that it was the adoption of Old English by historically Brittonic speakers who spoke a language, where θ and ð were different phonemes, that produced the later phonemicisation of these sounds in English (Laker, 2009). Modern English speakers perceive s and z for example as different sounds but Old English speakers did not and phonemicisation of initial fricatives is though to have occurred with French influence (Blake, 1992).

In contrast to fricatives where in Old English  voice contrast was not important initially, the generally accepted position is that the difference between initial voiced/unvoiced stops was phonemic in Old English (Hogg, 1992: 89).  However, it might not be voice that was the distinguisher, but aspiration. Goblirsch (2010) says that initial p,t,k in Southern Old English had developed distinctive aspiration before vowels while b,d,g initially had lost distinctive voice. The North Sea Germanic dialect closest to English - Frisian - shares the pattern of aspiration with Southern English. However not all English dialects had (or have) this pattern and Northern English and Scots (except the Highlands due to Gaelic influence there) do not have aspirated initial stops.

Goblirsch says that "In English… Gmc. p, t, k, have been aspirated initially before vowels and sonorants, except following s-, while NWGmc. b, d, g, have been fully or partially devoiced initially. Medially, b,d,g have remained voiced in a voiced environment…" (Goblirsch, 2010: 187) But he adds, "not all modern English dialects have aspiration… While there is aspiration in the South and Midlands there is generally no aspiration in Northern English or Scots." (ibid: 188)

Spaargaren (Spaargaren, 2007: 115) talks about different language groups, those which use voice to make phonemic distinction and those which use aspiration.  She says that English is an "aspiration language". She says that the distinction is between aspirated and unspecifed "plain" stops. This may be misperceived as a voice distinction where in fact it is an aspiration distinction.

Taken together with Goblirsch's comment that p,t,k were aspirated in Southern Old English and b,d,g were fully or partially devoiced, we have a phonemic opposition in Southern Old English between aspirated initial stops and "plain" (that is unaspirated) stops. In referring to German Spaargaren says that the “voiceless” stops in German can be written as follows:  Pass /p^h­as/   while unaspirated stops are written bin  /b̥ɪn/  Spaargaren characterises English with German as having a contrast between voiceless aspirated stops in foot-intial position pin  /p^hɪn/ and  attack /athhak/ and “plain voiceless obstruents” such as bin  /b̥ɪn/.  

Spanish stops are not aspirated and this leads a Spanish speaker to hear an English “b^h” more like a Spanish “p” than a Spanish “b”. This leads anecdotally to the famous Beatles song as heard in Spain "Let it Pee".  

So the difference for Spaargaren in present day English is not a voiced/unvoiced contrast but a plain/aspirated contrast. I presume she is using standard Southern English in view of what has already been said about Scots and Northern English not having initial aspirated stops. This system seems ancient in that Goblirsch seems to be saying it arose pre or immediately post English settlement for southern dialects of Old English. So when Old English speakers in Kent and Middlesex came across Brittonic names with aspirated initial stops they were able to accommodate them directly to their own aspirated stops. However, when Anglian settlers further north encountered Brittonic aspirated initial stops (which they did not have in their phonetic inventory in their northern English dialect) the foreign aspiration cued them to ascribe the initial voiced (but aspirated) Brittonic stops to their own unvoiced phonemes, because Brittonic  /bh/ sounded more like their /p/ than their / b̥/.

Laker cites Weinreich's ideas of an 'over-differentiation of phonemes'  where speakers of one language hear allophones of another and assimilate them as representing phonemic distinctions - as Weinreich puts it "involves the imposition of phonemic distinctions from the primary system on the sounds of the secondary system, where they are not required" Laker citing Weinreich, (1979: 18)

We actually see that to English speakers Welsh initial voiced stops still sounded like English unvoiced stops as late as Shakespeare's time. German (2009) notes that Shakespeare’s representation of the Welsh pronunciation of English shows that what should be initial voiced stops sounded unvoiced to English ears when pronounced by Welshmen.  in Shakespeare’s Fluellen Shakespeare’s representation of his Welsh accent has him pronouncing born as “porn” and brains as “prains”.  Shakespeare invites mockery by having Fluellen pronounce Alexander the Big (i.e. Great) as “Alexander the Pig” (German 2009).

Brittonic d- , -d-, -d

Old English had a d-, -d- but not a -d until Middle English. Brittonic had d, -d- and -d.

A quick look at Watson (Watson, 1926: 372) shows there are examples of intial Brittonic d- remaining as d- in Anglicised placenames such as in Dunpelder (Dinpeleidyr). As far as internal Brittonic internal -d- we see it both as -t- as in Tintern but also as -d- in Dunpelder. The -t- in Tintern can be explained as it is at the beginning of the second syllable, a privileged position which is treated almost like being word initial according to Jackson (Jackson, 1953).

Internally the Anglo Saxons seem to have borrowed Brittonic -d- as d,  We see the names such as Redmain rhyd maen and personal names such as Caedmon for Cadfan and Caedwalla for Cadwallon. However, we do find the Cumbric/Welsh personal name Gwaspadrig "St Patrick's Servant" as Cwaespatrick (Jackson, 1953: 390) showing not only the devoicing of the final [-g] in accordance with the general English system but also internal [d] being rendered as [t]. If Rutter Falls in Westmorland represents rhaeadr  "cataract" then internal [d] is also devoiced. These names seem to be borrowed much later than the earlier examples of Caedmon and Caedwalla and may be as late as 10th or 11th Century.

Finally, -d can exist in Old English cf tīd "time". However, sometimes final -d is rendered -t as in the Afon Tanad , River Tanat in Powys. In Cornish final stops become unvoiced in unstressed syllables. (Williams, 2012). This might be due to the influence of English as this does not happen generally in Breton or Welsh. Fulk says that a tendency to devoice final voiced stops in noticeable in the English of the West Midlands and in Scots (Fulk, 2012). It seems that any Brittonic -d appearing as English -t can be seen as a process within English not a Cumbric dialect feature.

Brittonic g-, -g-, -g

Brittonic g- arises from British/Latin g-. Medially and finally it arises from British -k- .

In the earliest Old English there was no initial /g-/. The sound was /γ/ initially and medially. The initial /γ/ became a stop /g/ by Classical Old English according to Hogg (Hogg, 1992) so therefore around 900. Borrowings from Brittonic after this can be adopted with g-.  Jackson discusses Förster's view that some early borrowings of Brittonic g- were rendered with k- but he dismisses it. Generally Brittonic names beginning with g- were substituted by early Old English γ which then was treated as Anglo-Saxon and palatalised as in Yarrow from garw and Yeavering from Geifrfryn.

Medially there was no -g- in Old English and it was regularly substituted with -k-.  This can explain for example Dacre apparently from Deigr and Melkinthorpe apparently containing the personal name Maelgwn and the river Cocker from a British *kukrā giving a Welsh *cogr.

Names such as Culgaith represent borrowings when internal -g- developed in early Middle English due to Norse or French influence, therefore 10th Century at the earliest.

In combination -tg- was borrowed as Old English "cc" /tʃ/ as in Litchfield in the 7th Century (Hogg, 1992; Jackson, 1953: 333)

Brittonic b-, -b-, -b

In Old English intial b- occurred freely but medial -b- is only in geminates -bb- (Hogg, 1992)

Then we have blaen names in Cumberland which generally remain b-  such as Blencow Blaencau, Blencogo Blaencwgw, etc.  Internally we see names such as Tenby where medial -b- is retained. 

References

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Kim, H., Kamiyama, T. and Halle, P. (2009)“Phonetic Enhancement in Feature-Driven Loanword Adaptation: A case of Japanese speakers’ perception of Korean stops”  Accessed [05.02.2011]Available at http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/ocp6/ocp6-abbk.pdf

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