Bradbury 55 Appendix 21 Old Forms of Sheep Counting

APPENDIX 21 Old Forms Of Sheep Counting

The old forms of sheep counting found in the Lakeland valleys, including the Cockermouth area and with variations from valley to valley, are very similar to numerals used in old Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

The Borrowdale version gives the numbers one to ten as

yan, tyan, tethera, methera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera and dick;

and Eskdale, on the other side of us, has yaena, taena, teddera, meddera, pimp, hofa, lofa, seckera, leckera and dec.

‘Yan’ or ‘tin’ with slight variations represents ‘one’ in various Lakeland valleys and in Old Welsh, Cornish and Breton; likewise pimp’, ‘pemp’ or ‘pymp is five and ‘dick’, ‘dee’ or ‘dek’ is ten. [5]

It has been said that, judging by place names, Aethelfrith, king of Northumbria AD 593-616, could have ridden from the Solway to the Mersey through Anglian-held territory. He would not have gone through the mountainous dome or the central valleys, for here, except for a few in Borrowdale, Anglian names do not occur. The invaders favoured crops rather than sheep and consequently liked the loams and boulder clays below abqut 250 feet. They brought with them a heavy plough drawn by oxen, which ploughed a deep furrow on land which was too heavy for the implements of the British before them.

Bradbury - Appendix 21 - Old Forms of Sheep Counting

APPENDIX 21 Old Forms Of Sheep Counting

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