A project of Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC · Open to qualified specialists
Revitalised Cumbric is an active project of Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC. The project is maintained and developed by PBC, which is responsible for the integrity of the dataset, the application of the NBTRF methodology, and the ongoing relationship with the Polyglot™ platform through which all data is published.
At the same time, Revitalised Cumbric is not a closed project. The NBTRF methodology is explicitly designed to accommodate contributions from qualified specialists — linguists, onomasticians, archaeologists, historians of the Old North, and anyone who can bring peer-quality evidence to bear on the northern Brittonic record. This page explains how that works.
This site is a downstream consumer of the Polyglot™ reference dataset. Polyglot™ holds the master data — the full row-by-row table of forms across all 21 languages including Revitalised Cumbric — and this site inherits those data structures directly. When new or revised Cumbric forms are validated and entered into Polyglot™, they appear here automatically on the next update cycle.
This means that all contributions to Revitalised Cumbric are made through Polyglot™, not directly to this site. A contributor proposes a new or revised xcb (Cumbric) cell value; that value is evaluated by Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC against the NBTRF specification; and if accepted, it is entered into the Polyglot™ dataset and flows through to this site.
The contribution pathway: Specialist produces dissertation → Dissertation evaluated against NBTRF → Accepted forms entered into Polyglot™ → Forms appear in Revitalised Cumbric.
All contributions must take the form of a written dissertation. This is a firm requirement, not a suggestion. The dissertation requirement exists because Revitalised Cumbric is a conservative academic project constrained by evidentiary standards — and because the NBTRF evaluation process requires a documented chain of reasoning that can be inspected, challenged, and refined over time.
A dissertation submitted for Revitalised Cumbric need not be long, but it must be rigorous. At minimum, it should cover:
Peer review by a recognised university Celtic Studies, onomastics, or historical linguistics department is strongly desirable and will carry significant additional weight in evaluation. Contributors are encouraged to seek review from departments at Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, or any institution with a recognised Brittonic or Celtic languages programme.
However, university affiliation and peer review are not required. Independent scholars, advanced amateur specialists, and heritage professionals who can demonstrate evidentiary rigour are equally welcome to submit. The evaluation is of the argument and its evidence, not of the contributor's institutional status.
Dissertations are submitted confidentially via the Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC website at www.penrithbeacon.com. Your submission will be reviewed by PBC and, where appropriate, by external specialist advisers. You will receive a written response. Accepted contributions will be credited in the internal NBTRF trace log and, where the contributor consents, in a public acknowledgement on this site.
Important: Submitting a dissertation does not guarantee acceptance. Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC reserves the right to decline, defer, or request revision of any submission. The conservatism of this project is a deliberate feature: a well-grounded identity result (xcb = owl) is always preferable to a speculative departure from Old Welsh.
The NBTRF — Northern Brittonic Toponymic Reconstruction Framework — is the governing specification for all Cumbric forms on this site and in the Polyglot™ dataset. It is not a loose set of guidelines; it is a structured evidentiary framework with explicit rules about what constitutes admissible evidence and what does not. Contributors must understand it thoroughly before submitting.
The full specification is available on this site at the NBTRF page. Key points that every contributor must understand:
Every Cumbric (xcb) cell value is derived from the Old Welsh (owl) cell value through three sequential, constrained stages. A contribution must be framed in terms of this pipeline — not as a direct proposal of a Cumbric form, but as an argument about what happens at each stage.
B1 (Lexical Fossil Model) asks: does attested northern Brittonic place-name, personal name, or other documentary evidence establish a specifically northern form of this word? If the answer is yes, that form is noted. If the answer is no — as it is for the vast majority of grammatical forms, verb paradigms, and pronouns — B1 is identity (xcb = owl at this stage). No speculation is permitted at B1.
B2 (Phonological Realisation) applies historically documented northern Brittonic phonological patterns to the B1 output. This stage may only vary from Old Welsh where the phonological evidence is clear and the change is historically plausible. Where evidence is absent or ambiguous, B2 is also identity.
B3 (Orthographic Attestation) models how the B2 output would appear in written historical records — medieval scribal practice, Latin transcription conventions, and Anglo-Norman administrative spelling. Where B2 is unchanged from Old Welsh, B3 is unchanged too. No orthographic change may introduce a phonological or lexical change.
Certain categories of row are immutable: for pronouns, verb paradigms (to be, to have, modal verbs, all action verbs), days, months, seasons, and greetings, the xcb value is always identical to the owl value. No contribution can alter this — it is a foundational constraint of the framework, reflecting the structural identity of Cumbric and Old Welsh in these domains. Contributions proposing alterations to immutable categories will be declined unless accompanied by a peer-reviewed dissertation that justifies a formal revision to the NBTRF process itself — in which case the submission will be assessed as a proposed amendment to the framework, not as a row-level contribution.
The categories open to non-identity contributions are: colour adjectives, size and feeling adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and cardinal numbers 1–20 (where the yan-tan-tethera system provides direct attested evidence). Even within these categories, identity remains the correct default unless evidence exists to the contrary.
Revitalised Cumbric is constrained by evidence, not imagination. The project's value rests entirely on its intellectual honesty: every form that appears here either has documentary grounding or transparently inherits from Old Welsh with that fact stated clearly. A speculative xcb form that overstates the evidence does not enrich the project — it damages it.
Contributors who understand this conservatism, and who can nonetheless bring genuine new evidence to expand what the framework can demonstrate, are the contributors this project needs.
Before submitting a contribution, a contributor is expected to have reached Stage 1 competency across all seven Celtic languages represented in the Polyglot™ and Revitalised Cumbric datasets:
Stage 1 competency means completing all 24 sections of Stage 1 on the Polyglot™ training programme — covering pronouns, verb paradigms, numbers, days, months, greetings, and essential vocabulary — and doing so with attention to all seven Celtic language columns.
For a genuine specialist in northern Brittonic linguistics, this is not a demanding hurdle. It amounts to a structured survey of the Brittonic and Goidelic families from a reference perspective — precisely the kind of comparative foundation that rigorous NBTRF work requires. The purpose of this requirement is not gatekeeping; it is to ensure that contributors approach Cumbric forms with a working grasp of the wider Celtic linguistic landscape within which those forms sit.
A contributor who has not worked through the Stage 1 material is likely to miss the comparative context that makes NBTRF arguments meaningful. Welsh, Cornish, and Breton provide the living comparative framework; Irish and Scottish Gaelic provide the Goidelic contrast that sharpens understanding of Brittonic distinctiveness; Old Welsh is the direct ancestor from which all xcb values are derived. Knowing all seven is knowing the territory.
Begin Stage 1 at polyglot.kingarthursroundtable.com. The training programme is free, requires no account, and can be completed at your own pace. It is recommended to use ChatGPT or Google Gemini in voice mode alongside the programme to practise pronunciation — this is considered an integral part of the learning process even for specialist contributors.
When you are ready to submit, visit the Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC website and use the confidential submission channel:
In your submission, please include: your name and contact details; your institutional affiliation if applicable; the Polyglot™ row IDs covered by your dissertation; and whether you consent to being named in public acknowledgement should your contribution be accepted. All submissions are treated as confidential by default.
Questions about the submission process or the NBTRF specification can be directed via the same channel. Penrith Beacon Communications | PBC welcomes early-stage conversations with potential contributors who wish to discuss scope or methodology before investing time in a full dissertation.