Manx Tells

[matty]

knew an old sailor who would tie his boat up to a 'Boo-ey'

 

That's how the yanks pronounce buoy!

[The Old Git]

Ps dont know if its a tell but i once heard a local lady ask for a pint of semi-skilled milk, and got it without comment, lovely !

 

An old boy at work used to say of a calm sea "it's as calm as a milk pond"

[Freggyragh]

I am interested in how names have changed, if they have at all. Names like Cowley, Tholt-y-will, Voirrey. Were they originally pronounced Cow-la, Tolt-ee-will, and Vurrer? I did buy the old Manx radio cassettes that pronounce two of these names in such a way.

 

- Cowley was pronounced Cowla.

The -ey at the end of a word in Manx is pronounced either as -a or -ya. A good example of thi is the surname 'Killey' which is still pronounced 'Killya'. However, how people say their names changes, and I would say the traditional pronunciation is now historical.

 

Tholt-y-Will; th is always pronounced as a 't' in Manx, 'y' rhymes with English 'the', like the 'y' in 'myrtle'. Tholt -y-Will = The Ruin of the Mill - note that you don't need to use 'the' / y so much in Manx as you do in English, eg; Ellan Vannin = 'The Isle of Man'.

 

- Voirrey is more complicated, it would have been y Voirrey when addressing the person directly, but otherwise Moirrey. It is related to Scottish Moira, as in Moira Anderson. The old pronunciation of Moirrey was Murra, and y Voirrey as 'e Vurra'. Over time the y tended to get dropped, so it became just Voirrey. Because Moirrey and Voirrey are two aspects of the same name it is tricky to decide which is best to use in English. Voirrey is a fair choice . There are lots of other names like this eg;

Seamus -nominative / a Sheamais (Hamish) -vocative,

Mari -nominative / a Mhari (Vari) - vocative.

 

The older pronunciation of Voirrey is now almost never heard in Manx, except when referring to Biblical Marys - in the same way as 'Marie' is currently much more popular than 'Mary'. The best way to be sure of course is to use the pronunciation most Voirreys use themselves - which is 'Vo-ree'.

 

Also I always pronounce Dalby as Dawbee but I have heard that this is the proper way of saying the village and the contradicting version that this is the English way of saying it. It does seem to make sense to pronounce it Dawbee considering the old maps of the area spell it as Dauby? Just wondered if you had any ideas?

 

I'm not from the area - and as it is originally a Norse name I can't be sure myself. I can say that in recordings of old Manx speakers from the 1940's / 50's it sounds to me like they are saying 'Delby'. I haven't seen the old maps you mention, do you have a reference? I assumed it was from Norse 'Dale By' - valley farm - but I haven't looked into it.

 

For Andreas - just listening to Yn Gaue and Y Boddagh - two old speakers recorded in the 40's, one of whom lived most of his life in the middle of the village, they are saying something like 'Andriss' or 'Andrayiss' - with the stress on the first syllable - of course, they may have pronounced it An-dree-us too - in the same way that we say 'al-a-man' casually, but 'Isle of Man' to make ourselves clear to outsiders.

[Freggyragh]

knew an old sailor who would tie his boat up to a 'Boo-ey'

 

That's how the yanks pronounce buoy!

 

Yeah - lots of older English pronunciations are preserved in American English and Manx - and a lot of Americanisms are straight from Gaelic - though probably Irish and / or Scottish Gaelic can take the credit. 'Buddy' is a good example, just like the Douglas 'butty' it seems to be straight from the Gaelic for 'partner'.

[mollag]

I read an article a few years ago. Guardian i think, where it reckoned in the Appalachian areas, Elizibethan [1st] english was still recognisable within common conversation, Cool

[still waters]

yes yes boats tied ta bo-eeys dan cliffeds = seals seal snot = jelly fish up the stair 1 2 3 foo-er 5 fat mollog waste a skin =usless lecky board = MEA.