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Location of the Isle of Man within the British Isles.
Manx English, or Anglo-Manx,
is the dialect of English which
is decreasingly 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.
- Blockan -
coalfish
- Bollan
Bane - mugwort
- Bonnag - a flat loaf
of bread
- Bravvag - to warm
the backs of the legs by the fire
- Broogh - a steep
bank, a grassy cliff/headland
- Callig - the Pollack
fish
- Chymlee - the
chimney
- Claddagh -
floodplain
- Croggan - a
horsefly
- Cronk - hill
- Crosh
Bollan - mouth-bone of the Ballan Wrasse, worn as a charm
- Cruinnaght -
cultural gathering
- Curragh - an area of
willow carr (swamp/bog)
- Cushag - ragwort, the National Flower of the Isle of Man
- Dub - a small
hollow, damp area or pool
- Ellan
Vannin - Isle of Man
- Ferrain -
hogweed
- Garee - wasteland
(sometimes mis-spelt 'garey' which means 'garden')
- Glen - a wooded
valley (in Manx this is glioan or
glion)
- Gobbag pronounced
"govag", literally a dogfish, but used to mean someone from Peel
- Hop-tu-Naa - Hallowe'en, possibly cognate with Hogmanay - in origin not a
Gaelic word.
- Jarrood - from the
Manx for "forget"; people will speak of being "a bit jarrood"
- Jinney/Ginney/Jinny/Ginny
- a stinging nettle
- Jough - a drink
- Keck - shit and derivative
Keckin
- Keeill - a small church or
chapel
- Litcheragh -
Lazy
- Mannin - 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.
- Mhelliah - a
festival or party to celebrate harvest
- Moal - literally
"slow", but used to mean "ill"
- Moaney -
peat-land
- Mollag - a dogskin
fishing float - "as fat as a Mollag" or "as full of wind as a
Mollag"
- Qualtagh - the first
person met on New Year's Day, first-foot.
- Sally/Sallie - a
willow tree, where the placename Ballasalla derives, from the Manx
Sailley - tr. willow.
- Skeeal - tr.
story, news.
- Slaynt - Manx
translation of 'health sometimes used as "Cheers"
- Spithag - A small
sealing peg from a dog-skin fishing float (Mollag). Used
colloquially to refer to something/someone small.
- Suggane - Straw
rope
- Tholtan - an
abandoned farm
- Tramman - an elder
tree.
- Traa-dy-liooar -
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 [θ]. 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"
(roddan 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):
- Traa-dy-Liooar -
(Trah the looar) Manx
for "time enough", either an incitement to take things easier, or
as an insult for a lazy person.
- Lhiam-Lhiat - (lyam-lyat) An inconsistent
person who changes sides easily - from Manx Gaelic for "with me -
with you"
- Bock Yuan
Fannee - "John the Flayer's Pony" - on foot,
cf "Shanks' pony" in English dialect.
References
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