The Iceland Bus (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781310675737)

This book explores the linguistic connections between Cumbria, Iceland and Scandinavia. The English Lake District in 600CE was peopled by Cymbrogi - 'companions' in Welsh and they called it Rheged. Traces of their speech can now include yan-tan-tether counting. Angles with their own Germanic speech from the kingdom of Northumbria expanded westwards and displaced them. The distinctive vowels of old Northumbrian English still dominate Cumbria, the north east, and Scotland. Then some Vikings who had settled to farming around their capital Yorvik moved westwards as far as the Eden valley. Separately, a group of refugees from the Isle of Man found asylum in the central Lakes. The Iceland Bus also took colonists in the other direction, as most of the first women colonists of Iceland came from Britain. A comprehensive glossary of Lakeland vocabulary shows the distinctive sound of West Norse. These colonists spoke a slightly different dialect of the Donsk tunga that still provides hundreds of common nouns and place names in modern Cumbria.

The Authors

Jean Scott-Smith lives in Shap where she was born and has spent all her life, she can trace her father's family in the parish for over 500 years. She married and raised two children then worked in hospitality and catering before moving into administration before retirement, and now holds the position of Parish Clerk. She is a natural speaker of Westmorland Dialect and has been involved as an officer of the Lakeland Dialect Society for over 40 years and holds the position of Secretary. She is Vice Chairman and a founder member of Shap Local History Society.

Edward Conduit lives in the West Midlands but married into Cumbria, as his wife and mother-in-law come from Langdale. He has practised as a clinical psychologist and also taught speech therapists. His interest in language was stirred at this time so he went on to gain a Master's degree in linguistics at Manchester University. His other books include "The Black Country Dialect", "Lakeland Language" and The Body Under Stress". Discover other books by Ed Conduit at Kindle.