Lessoon Nane: Gaelg mygeayrt-y-mooin
In the Isle of Man we are surrounded by the Manx language. Many government departments use Manx on their buildings, vehicles and letterheads. Some of the coins in your pocket may have the words Ellan Vannin on them and postage stamps occasionally include Manx.
Private firms often have Manx names on their vehicles and premises. Manx Telecom's directory contains hundreds of Manx words that are still in everyday use. A large number of house and street names are in Manx; your own name and address may be wholly or partly Manx.
Most towns and villages now have signs in Manx which welcome visitors and some even have direction signs both in Manx and English.
Some examples of the pronunciation of the letter Y:
Mylchreest (mull-KHREEST) (Manx surname: Servant of Christ)
Killey (KILL-ya) (Manx surname)
Cowley (COWL-a) (Manx surname generally pronounced COWL-ee now)
Creg ny Baa (cregg-na-BAA) (placename: Rock of the Cow)
Cronk ny Mona (cronk-na-MO-na) (placename: The Hill of the Peat)
Ben my Chree (benn-ma-KHREE) - The Woman of My Heart
Moddey doo (MAW-tha -DOO) - Black Dog
Some examples of Manx you can see on signs:
Doolish (DOO-lish) - Douglas
Mwyllin Doo Aah (MULL-yin-DOO-a) - Union Mills
Purt Chiarn (purt-CHARN) - Port Erin
Purt le Moirrey (purt-la-MURR-a) - Port St Mary
Purt ny Hinshey (purt-na-HINZH-a) - Peel
Rhumsaa (rum-SAA) - Ramsey
Ta Doolish cur failt erriu (ta-DOO-lish-kurr-FYLT- err-oo) - Douglas welcomes you
(literally, Douglas puts a welcome on you).
NOTES:
a) Mylchreest - Mac Guilley Chreest
Son of Christ's servant - Mac - son of, Creest - Christ, but Chreest 1.
b) Killey - foreigner
Cowley - Son of Olaf
c) Creg ny Baa creg - rock, ny - of the,2 booa - cow, baa -(belonging to) a cow
Cronk ny Mona cronk - hill, ny - of the,2 moainey - (belonging to) peat
Ben my Chree ben - woman, my - of my, cree - heart, but chree 3.
Moddey doo moddey - dog, doo - black adjectives normally follow the noun
d) In old placenames some adjectives may come before the noun
Doolish - doo - black, lish (Ir. glais) - river
Mwyllin Doo Aah, Mwyllin - mill, doo - black, aah - ford
Purt Chiarn, Purt - port, Chiarn - lord
Purt le Moirrey, Purt - port, le - (keeill ), Moirrey - Mary
Purt ny Hinshey, Purt - port, ny - of the, (h) inshey 4. - isle
Rhumsaa - (Scandinavian) probably - wild garlic river
e) Ta Doolish cur failt erriu
ta - is, Doolish - Douglas, cur - putting, failt - (a) welcome, erriu - on you (plural)
Cur Baarle orroo shoh:
1) Ta ben cur failt erriu.
2) Doo aah
3) Cronk doo
4) Ta moddey cur failt erriu.
5) Purt ny Baa
6) Cree doo
Cur Gaelg orroo shoh:
7) Cowley welcomes you
8) Black rock
9) My heart
10) Welcome
11) (A) cow's heart
12) Peel welcomes you
1 genitive singular of personal names [c - ch]
2 ny - 'of the' before singular feminine genitive
3 noun after my [c - ch]
4 h prefixed to vowel of feminine singular genitive noun