It is fascinating to note that Cumbrian shepherds used the old Celtic numerals to count sheep until the beginning of this century. While some observers thought they were using “gibberish,” a comparison with other British Celtic forms shows the numerals to be fairly undistorted.

 

 

CUMBRIAN

WELSH

CORNISH

BRETON

1

yau

un

onen

un

2

tau

dau

deu

daou

3

tethera

tri/tair

try

tri

4

methera

pedwar

peswar

peder

5

pimp

pump

pymp

pemp

6

[missed]

chwe-ch

whegh

c’hoéc’h

7

sethera

saith

seyth

seic’h

8

lethera

wyth

eth

eiz

9

nothera

naw

naw

na

10

dothera

deg

dek

dék

10

dick

deg

dek

dék

It will be observed that the number 6 has been missed in the Cumbrian tradition. Looking at the Welsh, Cornish, and Breton comparisons, it is obvious that 6 is a very difficult and un-English sound. Therefore the sound was not retained in memory as the knowledge of the language and its sound system became lost. To make up the first ten numerals, the number 10 was simply repeated with a variation. Like the other Celtic languages, the Cumbrians retained the unit of 20 for counting. Other numerals have been recorded up to 20, including 15, which is pimptheg—pymptheg in Welsh, pempthak in Cornish, and pemzak in Breton. [See D. B. Gregor, Celtic: A Comparative Study, Cambridge, 1980; see also Times Literary Supplement, July 14, 1979, p. 799.]

Cunedda

[W] Cunedda and his eight sons settled in Wales and founded the Welsh kingdoms. His story is similar to the story of Míl and his eight sons, who went to Ireland and founded the kingdoms there. Tybion, Cunedda’s eldest son, for example, like Donn, eldest son of Míl, dies before the family settles in Wales, although his son Meirion takes his father’s place (as Lugaid, son of Ith, does in Irish myth). Cunedda is the eponymous founder of the