The inhabitants of the Lake District before the Norman conquest were from three main ethnic groups: Britons, Anglo-Saxons and Norsemen.

The British (or Brythonic) people were the ancient inhabitants and spoke a language similar to Welsh.

The Anglo-Saxons had migrated from Anglia, on the border of modern Denmark and Germany, and spoke old German.

The Norsemen had arrived by sea, and spoke Old Norse, which is similar to modern Icelandic. These languages give Lakeland speech its distinctive quality. We explore these roots in our book Lakeland Language.

The old languages are best-preserved in the speech of sheep farmers and stone workers. A shepherd might be asked ‘as ta leit them twinters? an ow meny dids’t ta find?’ If you find the Icelandic version of Google on the internet, the search button is marked leit, and twinter is close to their word for a two-winter sheep.

Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon is preserved in vowel sounds. The vowels of South Westmorland are illustrated in the tale of an indignant wife finding her husband, who had not returned from a funeral. “On i’ t’afternoon sho co’ back drivin Jonathan afoar her wi’ a lang hazel stick, an’ he sartly was a sairy object. His Sunda cleeas leuk’t as if he’d been sleepin i’ them ont’ top of a dirty fluer. . . Sike a pictur ye niver see the like of.”

Welsh words are harder to find, mainly because the Anglo-Saxons were fairly hostile to the original inhabitants of England. The word ‘Cumbria’ itself comes from a Welsh word meaning companions.

A few Lakeland words include ‘brat’ – an apron, ‘crag’ and ‘coble’ – a boat.

Lakes speakers make verbs by ading ‘s’. For example “ah gahs te this spot”, “tho gahs in et t’dooer”. This is called the Northern Subject rule and may derive from Old English contact with Brythonic.

Yan-tan-tether is a system of counting derived from Welsh, which will be described in a later article.

The Welsh language faded in Cumbria after the fall of the kingdom of Rheged about 780, but continued for another 300 years a little further north in the kingdom of Strathclyde.

The name Glasgow comes from two Welsh words meaning green hollow.

Most readers will be hard-pressed to find a Welshman in Cumbria or Strathclyde, but there is one you have probably heard of – William Wallace. Wallis is actually the Anglo–Saxon name for the country of Wales.

So Scots Anglo-Saxons were calling him William Wales. You probably also know the Welsh and Gaelic side of this language divide: ‘Saesneg/ Sassenach’, meaning ‘Saxon’.

So local dialect continues to remind of the ethnic tangle that makes up the Lake District.