Manx English (Manks English), or Anglo-Manx (Anglo-Manks; Manx: Baarle Ghaelgagh), is the historic dialect of English spoken on the Isle of Man, though today in decline. It has many borrowings from Manx, a Goidelic language, and it differs widely from any other variety of English, including dialects from other areas in which Celtic languages are or were spoken, such as Welsh English and Hiberno-English.
Early Anglo-Manx contained words of Gaelic and Old Norse origin, but also came to be influenced by the speech of Liverpool and LancashireinNorth West England. The Manx historian and linguist Arthur William Moore noted that the dialect varied slightly from parish to parish but that the same turns of phrase and the same stock of words pervaded the whole island. Moore's A Vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx Dialect (Oxford University Press, 1924) and W. Walter Gill's Manx Dialect Words and Phrases (J.W. Arrowsmith, 1934) document the high-water mark of this dialect.
The poet T. E. Brown was one of the first authors to use the Manx dialect in his work.
Immigration and cultural influences from elsewhere, particularly from Great Britain, have caused the disappearance of the dialect, with the exception of a few words and phrases.
Manx English has been unusually well-researched. In the 19th century, Kirk Christ and Kirk Patrick were covered by surveyors working for Alexander John Ellis's work On Early English Pronunciation. In the 20th century, sites on the Isle of Man were covered by both the Survey of English Dialects and the Linguistic Survey of Scotland. The two sites for the former were Andreas and Ronague; the recordings of the local dialects are now accessible for free online via the British Library.[1]
Some of the following terms surviving from the original Anglo-Manx dialect are still in occasional use today.[citation needed] The task of identifying dialectal usage is complicated by the large cross-over between Manx Gaelic, idiomatic usage and technical/administrative terms such as "advocate" and "deemster".
Lhergy – a hill-slope, or high wasteland. Goin' down the lhergy means "going downhill in life" (from Gaelic LhiargeeorLhiargagh meaning "slope")[3]
Little People – Fairies, supernatural beings. (from Gaelic usage; direct translation of Deiney BeggeyorMooinjer Veggey, "fairies" or "little people")[3]
Mann – the Isle of Man; e.g. Gaut made it, and all in Mann[3]
Manx and Manks – Pertaining to, or originating from the Isle of Man.[3]
Skeet – News, gossip, and also to take a look (take a skeet) at something. Direct usage of Manx word "skeet" or "steet".
Scutch – A quantity of something; e.g. There were a scutch of people there (from Manx scuitçh, see also Gaelic cooid, "selection", "amount", "number").[3]
Twenty-Four – The House of Keys, based on the number of members. Recorded by A.W. Moore as "Kiare-as-feed", the Manx Gaelic equivalent of the number[3]
Yessir – Recorded by A.W. Moore in 1924 as a "disrespectful form of addressing a boy or man", 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.[3]
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.
Garee – Wasteland (sometimes mis-spelt garey which instead means garden).[5]
Glen – A wooded valley (in Manx this is glioanorglion).
Gobbag – Pronounced govag, literally a dogfish, but used to mean someone from Peel.[5]
Hollin and Hibbin - holly and ivy.
Hop-tu-Naa – Hallowe'en. Cited by Moore as Hop-the-nei, which he suggests originates from Hop ! ta'n oie but possibly cognate with the Scottish Hogmanay, which is in origin not a Gaelic word.
Jarrood – From the Manx for forget; people will speak of being a bit jarrood.[5]
Jibbag – A term to have sex, recorded in 2021 being used as slang.[citation needed]
Mannin – Manx for Isle of Man. Compare with Ellan Vannin; Mannin is the genitive of Mannan, the name of the son of the god of the sea (Líor), Manannán mac Lír.[5]
Mhelliah – A festival or party to celebrate harvest.[3] Widely in use in 2021.[citation needed]
Moal – Literally slow, but used in the sense of ill.[3]
Mollag – A dog/sheep skin fishing float; e.g., as fat as a Mollagoras full of wind as a Mollag.[3] In contemporary usage refers to a small potting buoy.
Qualtagh – The first person met on New Year's Day, first-foot.[3]
Sally/Sallie – A willow tree, whence the placename Ballasalla derives, from the Manx Shellagh, tr. willow.
Graip/Grep – recorded by Moore as "a manure fork", a hybrid agricultural tool that has parallels with the Norsegreip and the Scots graip[3]
Kirk – Church, used in parish names, of Norse origin[3]
Sheading - An administrative district of the Isle of Man[3]
Tynwald – the Manx parliament, from Old NorseThingvollr 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.[3]
V'eh mee-lowit dy enmys mwaagh er boayrd, as conning, marish roddan as kayt. Va'n mwaagh 'fer yn chleaysh vooar', as yn conning 'pomet', as yn roddan 'sacote', as yn kayt 'scraverey'.
It was forbidden to name a hare on board, or a rabbit, or a rat or a cat. The hare was 'the big-eared fellow', and the rabbit 'pomet', and the rat 'sacote', and the cat 'scratcher'.
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 "sacote" or "long-tailed fellow", amongst other names.
This has evolved into a modern superstition in which the word "rat" (roddan in Manx) is considered unlucky, even when not used aboard ship. Although this particular sea-taboo was one amongst many and was not held to apply on land, it has become a popular modern belief that the word is somehow unlucky, and the sea-taboo has been adopted by some as a typical Manx practice, even though the old Manx people had no qualms in using the word, or its Manx equivalent, roddan. In modern times, even non-local and unsuperstitious people will refrain from using the word "rat", perhaps in an effort to fit in with those who take it seriously, or in an attempt to sound folksy. In reality this is a rather warped version of the original sea-taboo.
Alternative words for rat in neo-Anglo-Manx dialect include longtail, iron fella, Joey, jiggler, queerfella, ringie, and r-a-t (a more recent expression).
