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Manx English
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Manx English, or Anglo-Manx, is the dialect of English which was formerly spoken by the people of the Isle of Man. It has many borrowings from the original Manx language, a Goidelic language, and it differs widely from any other English, including other Celtic-derived dialects such as Welsh English and Hiberno-English.
Early strata of Anglo-Manx contain much of Gaelic and Norse origin, but more recent Anglo-Manx displays heavy influence from Liverpool and Lancashire in North West England.
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Encyclopedia
Manx English, or Anglo-Manx, is the dialect of English which was formerly spoken by the people of the Isle of Man. It has many borrowings from the original Manx language, a Goidelic language, and it differs widely from any other English, including other Celtic-derived dialects such as Welsh English and Hiberno-English.
Early strata of Anglo-Manx contain much of Gaelic and Norse origin, but more recent Anglo-Manx displays heavy influence from Liverpool and Lancashire in North West England. A.W. Moore noted that the dialect varied to some slight extent from parish to parish and from individual to individual, but in the main the same turns of phrase and the same foundational stock of words pervaded the whole Island.
The best known recorder of the Anglo-Manx dialect was the poet, T.E. Brown.
In recent years, the Anglo-Manx dialect has almost disappeared in the face of increasing immigration and cultural influence from the United Kingdom. A few words remain in general use, but apart from the Manx accent, little remains of this dialect and it is seldom heard on the island in its original form today.
Sources such as A.W. Moore's A Vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx Dialect (Oxford University Press, 1924) and W.W. Gill's Manx Dialect Words and Phrases (J.W. Arrowsmith, 1934) document the dialect in the last stages before its decline from common use - few of the words noted are still in common parlance today.
Moore's work notes the specific patterns of pronunciation for words in the dialect, many of which are no longer present in the last vestiges of the Manx dialect because of the influence of mainstream English.
Modern Anglo-Manx lexicon
Some of the following terms surviving from the original Anglo-Manx dialect are still in occasional use today. The task of identifying dialectical usage is complicated by the large cross-over between Manx Gaelic, idiomatic usage and technical/organisational terms such as "advocate" and "deemster".
- Across - the UK i.e. across the water.
- At - in possession of - from Gaelic usage. "He's got a nice house at him". (from Gaelic description of possession)
- Aye - yes
- Boy - common address from one male to another, originally an unmarried male (from Gaelic usage).
- Bumbee - bumblebees (which were thought to be bad fairies)
- Coalie - a coal fish
- Comeover - a non-Manx-born person living in the Isle of Man.
- Down is used for going North, Up for going South, out for going West. The topology of the Isle of Man means that to go to the flat, glacial plains of the North of the island, one has to go down, whilst going South means climbing the slate uplands. This is in contrast to the English "Up North", which new residents are more used to.
- Fairy Flower - Red Campion Silene dioica
- Feller/Fella - a man/mate (fellow), common to other dialects, but much more frequent in Anglo-Manx
- For - towards, to ; at the period of; wherefore, the reason why; in order to. "Are you for goin' ?" (From Gaelic usage (erson)).
- Gilpin - young fish of indeterminate species, especially Callig
- Herrin - herring, pronounced the same as 'heron' (In Manx-Gaelic: Skeddan)
- Hey Boy - informal verbal greeting to a male.
- Himself - the master of the house, the husband. "Is himself in?" (from gaelic usage)
- In - in existence. "The best that's in" - From Gaelic usage - direct translation of oan in it. there (is).
- Ginnie Nettle - Local term for stinging nettle. Pronounced "jinn-ee"
- Keill - a small ancient monastic cell or chapel.
- Lhergy - a hill-slope, or high wasteland. 'Goin' down the lhergy' = going downhill in life.
- Little People - fairies, supernatural beings
- Mann - the Isle of Man - "Gaut made it, and all in Mann"
- Manx and Manks - pertaining to, or originating from the Isle of Man
- Manxie - a Manx person or a Manx cat
- Mark - a fishing-ground distinguished by landmarks
- Middlin' - tolerable - an equivalent of the Manx "castreycair"
- Neck - impudence - "Oh, the neck of him !" (cf "Brass neck")
- Skeet - news, gossip, [possibly cognate with "skite" in English dialect] also to take a look at something. A partial translation from the Manx.
- Skutch - a quantity of something - "There were a skutch of people there"
- Snigs - young eels, or sand-eels
- Sowel - archaic form of address. "Poor Sowel!" (soul)
- Themselves - fairies, supernatural beings
- Twenty Four - the House of Keys
- Ukered - knackered (as in tired)
- Yessir - Recorded by A.W. Moore in 1924 as a "disrespectful form of addressing a boy or man", is used as an informal address to a local acquaintance in modern Anglo-Manx. Early 20th-Century sources suggest that its origin may lie in a contraction of "You,Sir", but Gaelic scholars have suggested that it is a hangover from "Ussey", the emphatic form of "You" in Manx Gaelic, which is used in a similar context. Not congruous with "Yes, Sir" in mainstream English.
Manx loanwords
Words of Manx Gaelic origin frequently cropped up in the original dialect, as did patterns of speech derived from Gaelic usage. In modern usage, much fewer words of Gaelic origin are used, symptomatic of the decline of Manx Gaelic in its later years.
- - mugwort
- - a flat loaf of bread
- - to warm the backs of the legs by the fire
- - a steep bank, a grassy cliff/headland
- - the Pollack fish
- - the actual Manx word for chimney
- - floodplain
- - a horsefly
- - hill
- - mouth-bone of the Ballan Wrasse, worn as a charm
- - cultural gathering
- - an area of willow carr (swamp/bog)
- - ragwort, the National Flower of the Isle of Man
- - a small hollow, damp area or pool
- - Isle of Man
- - hogweed
- - wasteland (sometimes mis-spelt 'garey' which means 'garden')
- - a wooded valley (in Manx this is glioan or glion)
- pronounced "govag", literally a dogfish, but used to mean someone from Peel
- - Hallowe'en, possibly cognate with Hogmanay - in origin not a Gaelic word.
- - from the Manx for "forget"; people will speak of being "a bit jarrood"
- - a stinging nettle
- - a drink
- - shit and derivative Keckin
- - a small church or chapel
- - Lazy
- - Manx for Isle of Man - compare Ellan Vannin - Mannin is the genitive of Mannan, the name of the son of the god of the sea (Líor), Mananán Mac Lír.
- - a festival or party to celebrate harvest
- - literally "slow", but used to mean "ill"
- - peat-land
- - a dogskin fishing float - "as fat as a Mollag" or "as full of wind as a Mollag"
- - the first person met on New Year's Day, first-foot.
- - a willow tree, where the placename Ballasalla derives, from the Manx Sailley - tr. willow.
- - tr. story, news.
- - Manx translation of health sometimes used as "Cheers"
- - A small sealing peg from a dog-skin fishing float (Mollag). Used colloquially to refer to something/someone small.
- - Straw rope
- - an abandoned farm
- - an elder tree.
- - Literally "time enough".
Norse Origin
- Fell - hill, of Norse origin.
- Kirk - Church, used in parish names, of Norse origin
- Tynwald - the Manx parliament, from Old-Norse 'Thingvollr' and originally written similarly to Icelandic with a þ which is pronounced [?]. The "thing" means an assembly or court of justice and the "vollr" is a field or plain.
Superstitions and word replacement
Because of the unpredictable nature of weather in the Irish sea, fishing could be a dangerous business - sailors were consequently very superstitious and it was considered taboo to use certain words or behaviours (using the word "conney" for rabbit, or whistling, for example) whilst on board ship. Some names were substituted for others - "rat" became "long-tailed fella".
This has evolved into a modern superstition where the word "rat" ( in Manx) is considered unlucky, even when not used aboard ship. This may have originally been used in a jokey fashion, but seems to have been adopted in modern times by those who wish to make themselves sound "more Manx" by adopting this mannerism and indeed is often quoted as typical Manx behaviour even though the old Manx had few qualms about using the word. In reality this is a rather warped version of the original sea-taboo.
Alternate words for rat in neo-Anglo-Manx dialect :
- Longtail
- Iron fella
- Joey
- Jiggler
- Queerfella
- Ringie
- Scratcher
- r-a-t - a more recent expression, owing to increased immigration, note that 'an' instead of 'a' is used as the indefinite article
Anglo-Manx phrases
A few phrases have survived to become common parlance, amongst these (all of Gaelic origin):
- - Manx for "time enough", either an incitement to take things easier, or as an insult for a lazy person.
- - An inconsistent person who changes sides easily - from Manx Gaelic for "with me - with you"
- - "John the Flayer's Pony" - on foot, cf "Shanks' pony" in English dialect.
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