A Standardised Cumbric Orthography

There is no standardised way of representing hypothetical Cumbric forms and different authorities use different methods. The orthography given here is not intended to be a definitive one, it is merely a convenient way to represent possible Cumbric forms on this website.

The tables below give the correspondences between the Cumbric orthography and those of the existing Brythonic languages. No attempt is made to describe the actual phonology of Cumbric here, the symbols only represent the possible reflexes influenced by the evidence we have of Cumbric.

Vowels & Diphthongs

Cumbric	Welsh	Cornish	Breton
a	a	a	a
e	e	e	e
ê	oe	o, oo	oe, oa
ı	y	e, y	e
i	i	i	i
o	o	o	o
ǫ	aw, o	eu, e	eu, e
u	w	ou, o	ou, o
ü	u	u	u
ǝ	y	-	-
ow	au	ow	(a)ou
ai	ae	e	e
ei	ai, ei	e	e
ui	wy	o, oo	oue, oe, oa

Notes:

The length of vowels follows roughly the same rules as Welsh.
The symbol ‹ǝ› represents (1) reduced ‹u›; (2) reduced ‹ı›; (3) the epenthetic vowel. It is probable that (1) and (2) were pronounced differently.

Consonants

Cumbric	Welsh	Cornish	Breton
b	b	b	b
β	f	v	v
c	c	c, k	k
χ	ch	gh	c'h
χw	chw	hw	c'hw
d	d	d-, s	d
ð	dd	dh	z
f	ff	f	f
g	g	g	g
gw	gw	gw	gw, gou, go
h	h	h	h
l	ll-, l	l	l
m	m	m	m
μ	f	v	ñv
n	n	n	n
ŋ	ng	ng	ng
p	p	p	p
r	rh-, r	r	r
s	s	s	s
t	t	t	t
θ	th	th	zh
w	w	w	v

Notes:

It is possible that Cumbric had 'strong' l and r, as in Welsh ll, rh but it is not shown in this orthography.