Cumbrian Dialect

Ignoring the southern accent I am a proud Kendalian, of Scottish descent. While at school I always remember a friend of mine messing about. When asked what she was doing she replied “Nowt”, only to receive a swift sharp reply of “What?!”.

Dialect levelling is the process of eradicating regional dialects and for the past 50 years it’s been fairly proficient. However over recent years there has been a surge as Cumbrians scramble to retain our culture and heritage, primarily as we prepare to follow Scotland in it’s ultimate devolution and we set up the independent nation of Cumbria where we not only allow Cumbrian to be spoken but will be reviving the ancient language of Cumbric. If you’re reading this in 2029; Blaen Cwm.

Let us also not shy around the fact that Cumbrian words on tea towels sell very well. So that might be helping the resurgence. Whether the Cumbrian dialect renaissance is financially or pride driven we wanted to help boost the profile of the more commonly used phrases still spoken by locals around cumbria.

When researching this blog what I found interesting was the number of words I used to regularly use and came to realise how unique some sayings are. While below is a large list below I’ve compiled my a collection of common words. I also found, while researching, that I am following in many footsteps including that of Anthony (Angela and Alisons brother). You can read his post on the LowNestFarm.co.uk site.

 

Common Cumbrian Words

Nowt
La’al
How’doo
Be reet
Canna
Kaylied
Bog
Dookers
Chunder
Clowt
Gander
Kecks
Lob
Whaarm
Yow

 

General Words

Aye – Yes
Thou’s – Yours
Thee/Thou – you (singular)
Yat Gate
Wherst – Where is the
Djarn – Doing (as in ‘whut yer djarn? – what are you doing?)
Divn’t – Don’t (as in ‘divn’t do that, lad’)
How’doo – How are you doing? (strain of ‘How do?’)
Canna – Can’t (as in ‘ye canna djur that!’ – ‘You can’t do that!’)
Djur – Do
Frae – From
Yon – That (when referring to a noun which is visible at the time)
Reet – Right
(H)arreet – All right? (Greeting)
Be reet – It’ll be all right
Nae – No
Yonder – Over there (as in ‘ower yonder’)
Owt – Anything (got owt? – got anything?)
Nowt – Nothing (owt for nowt – something for nothing)
Bevvie – Drink (alcoholic)
Eh? – What/ isn’t it? (thats good eh?)
Yan – One

 

Adjectives

Kaylied – Intoxicated
La’al – Small
Slape – Slippery or smooth as in slape back collie, a border collie with short wiry hair
Yon – Used when indicating a place or object that is usually in sight but far away. abbreviation of yonder.

 

Nouns

Bairn – Baby
Bait – Packed meal that is carried to work
Bog– Toilet (as garn’t bog / I’m going to the toilet)
Britches – Trousers
Cack – Faeces (just off for a cack)
Clout – Punch or hit “aas gonna clout thou yan”(im going to punch you one)
Craic – Gossip “ow marra get some better crack”
Dookers – Swimming trunks
Ginnel – A narrow passage
Kecks – trousers/pants or underpants
Marra – Friend
Offcomer – Non-native Cumbrian
Peeve – Drink (alcoholic)
Scran – Food
Skemmy or skem – Beer
Watter – Water
Wuk – Work, as in: as garn t’wuk (I’m going to work)
Yam – Home, as in: as garn yam (I’m going home)
Yow – Ewe, female sheep
Yakka – Farmer

 

Verbs

Bowk – Retch (as in before vomiting)
Bray – Beat (as in beat up someone)
Bubble – Cry
Chess – Chase
Chunder – Vomit
Clarten – Messing about
Clout/cluwt – Hit “al clout ya yan”
Doss – Idle or skive. To mess about and avoid work
Fettle – To fix or mend. (“as i’ bad fettle” – I’m not very well)
Gander – Look
Gar/gaa – Go
Gan – Going to somewhere
Git – Go (“gar on, git yam” / go on, go home)
Yit – Yet (“ars nut garn yam yit” / i’m not going home yet)
Garn/gaan – Going
Hoik – To pick at or gouge out
Lob – Throw
Laik – Play
Lowp – Jump
Yuk – To throw
Scower – Look at
Sow – Sexual intercourse
Skit – Make fun of
Twat – Hit someone (“I twatted him in the face”)
Twine – To whine or complain
Whisht – One word command to be quiet
Wukn – Working
Whaarm – Warm. “It’s affy wharm” (It’s awfully warm)

 

Numbers

1 – Yan
2 – Tyan
3 – Tethera
4 – Methera
5 – Pimp
6 – Sethera
7 – Lethera
8 – Hovera
9 – Dovera
10 – Dick
15 – Bumfit
20 – Giggot

Sheep Terminology

If you visit an agricultural show, a shepherds meet or a stock auction you’ll rarely hear the word Sheep. Farmers have a wide terminology and vocabulary describing not just the gender, but age and purpose of the sheep.

Cull Yow – An old female yaw (ewe) that is too old for breeding.

Gimmer – Female sheep

Lamb – A sheep under 12 months of age.

Mule – A cross breed sheep. The most common mule is a Northern Mule. It’s a cross between a Bluefaced Leicester Tup and a Swaledale yow.

Pet Lamb – Also known as a bottling lamb. These are orphaned lambs that are raised by bottle feeding and often come out quite small because of it. Around lambing season you can find many a lamb in a farmers house being bottle fed.

Shearling – Also known as a Hogg. A lamb/young sheep that has finished weaning but has yet to have its first shearing. Generally 9 to 18 months, yet to cut its first two teeth.

Store – A weaned lamb that is often sold off for fattening.

Tup – Northern/Scottish for Ram. Male sheep used for breeding.

Wether – A castrated male sheep.

Yow – Cumbrian/Northern/Scottish for Ewe. A female sheep, which has given birth.

Introducing our new apartment; Stybarrow

 

We are proud to announce the opening of our brand new apartment; Stybarrow.

 

Stybarrow Living Area

Stybarrow Living Area

Stybarrow Kitchen

Stybarrow Kitchen

Stybarrow Kitchen Diner

Stybarrow Kitchen Diner

Stybarrow Hidden Bed Area

Stybarrow Hidden Bed Area

Stybarrow Bathroom

Stybarrow Bathroom

Stybarrow Dining Room

Stybarrow Dining Room

When taking on somewhere as special and successful as Low Nest Studios making a personal stamp can be hard. However we hope we have done so with Stybarrow.

Unlike Dollywaggon, White Side and Raise, Stybarrow not only has a seperate bedroom (making it a one bed apartment) but a pull down murphy bed offering accommodation for up to 4! But there’s no sharing facilities as each room is an ensuite. In fact the main room has a bath! The only Low Nest Apartment to have one.

Stybarrow is available to rent from the end of September. If you’ve already booked contact us for an upgrade!

New Logo

When we took over Low Nest Studios we never inherited a logo. For website and social media purposes we needed to cobble one together, which we did. As the months have rolled on while we did really like the logo we’d done, it never really felt quite right.

Over the last couple of months there is one thing that we are constantly photographing and which has stunned all visitors, the view.

Whether it’s sun, snow or torrential rain we’re constantly grabbing our cameras to photograph the constantly changing view over the Helvellyn range. So we decided to mould it into the logo.

It started out from a panoramic photograph, with the outline traced over the top:

It light look like an odd squiggle, but that is in fact the outline of the mountain range beyond High Rigg with the double top of Helvellyn at the far right, dipping down into Dunmale Raise.

We then tweaked a few lines, made it thicker, turned it into a deep red to reflect the colour of the bracken on High Rigg and added the name:

Over the next couple of weeks and months we will inevitably make tweaks to it. But we hope to have something finalised so we can add it to little nooks and crannies around the place.

Please do let us know your thoughts!