| Manx | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Skeealyn voish Ellan Arran | Tales from The Isle of Arran | |
| ERREISH dou faagail[1] Mannin hie mee er ash gys Arran reesht[2] as hug mee shilley er Jimmy Kelso, yn chenn dooinney voish Shiskyn as ram skeealyn echey. | After I had left the Isle of Man I went back to Arran again and I went to see Jimmy Kelso, the old man from Shiskin who has many stories. | |
|
[1] erreish dou faaigail] ‘after I left’ — in Classical Manx ‘ve’ or ‘v’er’ follows ‘erreish dou’, here, the expected phrase would be ‘erreish dou v’er vaagail’.
[2] hie mee er ash gys Arran reesht] ‘I went back to Arran again’ — in tradtional Manx;
[hie mee reesht gys Arran].
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| Dinsh eh dooys[3] skeeal mychione dooinney va jannoo ushtey-vea ayns pash-losseree heose ayns ny sleityn gyn yss da ny fir-oik — as veagh shen erskyn keead bleeaney [sic] er dy henney nish — as yinnagh eh yn stoo shoh y ghrogh-hraghtey[4] gys Ardrushen[5] (Ardrossan ) ny Balleyhollan[6] (Saltcoats) ny boayl erbee elley myr shen er y cheer vooar as argid y hirrey ersyn[7]. | He told me a story about a man who was making whisky in a vegetable pot up in the mountains unknown to the officials — and that would be above a hundred years ago now — and he would smuggle this stuff to Ardrossan or Saltcoats or anywhere else like that on the mainland, and look for money for it. | |
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[3] dooys] ‘to me (emphatic)’,
[dou] ‘to me’ would be expected here._ftn4
[4] y ghrogh hraghtey] ‘to smuggle’, from
[drogh traghtey] ‘smuggling’. See also
[smugleraght].
[5] Ardrushen] — ‘Ardrossan’ ({Ard Rosain} in Scottish Gaelic), back-formed on the assumption that Manx
[Rushen] is the Manx cognate of Scottish Gaelic
[Rosain].
[6] Balleyhollan] ‘Saltcoats’. Scottish Gaelic
[Baile an t-Salainn] expected Manx translation would be
[Balley yn Tollan], or, without the article,
[Balley Sollan].
[7] ersyn] ‘on it’ — this seems to be an error for
[er-e-hon] or
[son echey] — ‘for it’.
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| Ansherbee, oie dy row[8] v’eh ersooyl[9] as yn ushtey-vea marish ayns mullagyn ry chreck[10] ayns Ardrushen[11], as veeit eh rish dooinney ayns shen as lurg dram ny ghaa leeid yn fer shoh yn Arranagh gys thie fer-howsee yn lhiggar[12] dy hollaghey e laue[13] lesh un vullag dy vogh eh rey rish ny mullagyn elley gyn [g]eeck[14] keesh erbee orroosyn[15], agh dooyrt yn fer-howsee dy gionnagh[16] eh nane ocsyn er yn oyr dy re yn Vlein Noa v’ayn, as shen ren eh as lhig eh da yn raad. Ansherbee, dooyrt eh neesht dy ragh yn cutter gys Traie y Chashtal (Brodick) mysh mean-oie yn oie shen dy beagh eh arryltagh goll er ash[17]. Ren eh goll lesh[18] y chutter myr shen as lurg da goaill cheer hie eh roish dy valley. | Anyway, one night he was away, together with the whisky in casks for sale in Ardrossan, and he met a man there and after a dram or two this fellow led the Arranman to the exiceman’s house to bribe him with one cask so that he would get rid of the other casks without paying any tax on them, but the measuring-man said that he would buy one of them because it was the New Year, and he did that and he let him go on his way. Anyway, he said too that the cutter would go to Tràigh a’ Chaisteil (Brodick) about midnight that night if he were willing to go back. He went with the cutter therefore, and after it had landed he went home. | |
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[8] oie dy row] ‘on a certain night’ — usually used to begin a story, and thereafter, when the time frame has been established,
[un oie] ‘one night’ would be expected.
[9] ersooyl ... ayns Ardrossan] ‘away ... in Ardrossan’ —
[ersooyl ayns], followed by a location, seems illogical as
[ersooyl] means ‘away’, or ‘not here’, or ‘gone’ in Traditional Manx, and so
[ersooyl ayns] is not usually used for English ‘away in’, or ‘over in’ as it is here.
[10] ry-chreck] ‘on sale’ / ‘for sale’ — a late 20th Century neolglism formed after Scottish Gaelic
[ri reic] (Irish;
[ar díol]), in the style of
[ry akin] ‘to be seen, ‘visible’,
[ry chlashtyn] ‘to be heard’, ‘audible’,
[ry gheddyn] ‘to be found’, ‘available’, etc. An alternative translation of ‘on sale’ / ‘for sale’,
[ry chionaghey] ‘to be bought’, ‘available for purchase’ is also used in late 20th Century Manx. Evidently the intended meaning of
[as yn ushtey-vea marish ayns mullagyn ry chreck] is something like ‘with the whiskey for sale in casks ’, although
[ry] adjectival constructions are expected to follow the noun they describe which in this case is evidently the whisky, not the casks.
[11] Ardrushen] ‘Ardrossan’ (
[Ard Rosain] in Scottish Gaelic), back-formed on the assumption that
[Rushen] is the Manx cognate of
[Rosain].
[12] thie fer-howsee yn lhiggar] ‘the measuring man house of the liquor’.
The article appears in the wrong position as the units of meaning here are evidently ‘the house’ and ‘the exiseman’, not ‘the measuring man house’ and ‘the liquor’. There is no apparent reason for lenition of
[towsee] ‘of measuring’ in
[fer-howsee] ‘measuring fellow’ (although general lenition of the second element of combination nouns regardless of the gender or class the the noun in the first element is a feature of the English-Manx Kelly Dictionary edited by Clarke) —
[fer-howsee] is here taken to be a neoglism for ‘exciseman’ (elsewhere
[fer-ny-keeshyn] /
[fer ny geesh] /
[dooinney maail] / (Kelly E-M gives
[fer-oik dy hroggal ny keeshyn roïe-rait]).
‘Towsee’ is evidently a genitive construction created by the writer from ‘towsey’ — ‘measuring’. In traditional Manx the nominative ‘towse’ is used, eg; ‘siyn-towse’. The expected phrase here would be
[thie yn fer-towse liggar] ‘the house of the excise man’.
[13] dy hollaghey e laue] Evidently the meaning here is ‘to bribe him’, literally ‘to dirty his hand’ —
[sollaghey laue] is a late 20 Century neoglism for ‘bribing’, for which
[cur leagh roloaue] ‘giving a reward in advance’, and
[bribeal] are found in Traditional Manx. The neoglism does not seem to be based on either Scottish Gaelic
[brìbeadh] /
[pùiceach] or Irish
[breab a thabhairt].
[14] gyn eeck] ‘unpaid’, although evidently the intended meaning is ‘without paying’, for which we would expect
[gyn geeck] or
[fegooish geeck].
[15] orroosyn] ‘on them’. unstressed
[orroo] ‘on them’ would be expected here.
[16] gionnagh] the dependent conditional of
[kionnagh] ‘buying’. See also
[ghionnagh].
[17] goll er ash] ‘going back’ —
[er ash] does not usually accompany the verb
[goll] in Manx —
[goll reesht] would be expected here.
[18] goll lesh] ‘going toward’. Evidently
[goll marish] ‘going together with’, was intended here.
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| Er y raad gys y thie echey sy dorraghys as eshyn snapperal er red ennagh[19] va ny lhie er y raad kionegoyrt rish[20], huitt eh dy doaltuittym. | On the way to the house in the darkness and tripping on something that was lying on the way before him, he suddenly fell. | |
|
[19] as eshyn snapperal er red ennagh.] evidently not an error for;
[as eshyn ta snapperal er red ennagh] ‘and he who trips on something’, but likely intended foe
[as eh snapperal er red ennagh] ‘and him tripping on something’. —
[20] kionegoyrt rish]
[kiongoyrt rish] ‘in front of’ / ‘before’, traditionally has has the sense of ‘in the presence of’. Either
[roish] ‘before him’, or
[er e veealloo] ‘in front of him’ would be expected here.
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| Tra ren eh foaddanaghey[21], she convaart[22] jeh dooinney honnick eh sy toilshey ghullyr[23] as va’n scoarnagh echey er ny ghiarey magh ass, as hug eh enn er myr dooinney va goaill aaght ec y valley ayns boayl rish yiarragh ad Glion Sherrig ta faggys da Traie y Chashtal. | When he lit a match, it was the dead body of a man he saw in the dim light and his throat had been cut out of him, and he recognised him as a man who was lodging at the town in a place that they would call Glen Sherrig that is near to Brodick. | |
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[21] foaddanaghey] Perhaps ‘striking a match’ —
[foaddan] is found in late 20th Century Manx for ‘a match’.
[22] convaart]
[convayrt] — ‘carcass’. See
[corp-marroo] ‘dead body’ / ‘corpse’, which would be expected here.
[23] sy toilshey ghullyr] — ‘in the dim light’ —
[sy toilshey dullyr] would be expected here.
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| Hyndaa eh mygeayrt son cairt y gheddyn[24] dy goghe eh[25] yn corp er ash gys y valley. | He turned around for to get a cart so that he would get the body back to the town. | |
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[24] son cairt y gheddyn] ‘for getting a cart’ evidently the intended meaning is ‘to get a cart’, for which we would expect
[dy gheddyn cart].
[25] dy ghoghe eh] ‘that would take’, for ‘taking’ in the sense of ‘bringing’ the traditional language uses
[cur lesh], so
[yinnagh chur lesh] /
[verragh lesh] would be expected here.
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| Hooar eh cairt as haghyr eh er caarjyn, as ooilley cooidjagh dymmyrk ad yn convaart ersooyl as ren ad shen y cheau sy gharey sniessey rosh ad as [ren ad] scapail, dagh fer gys e hie hene.[26] | He found a cart and he came across friends, and all together they bore the carcass away and they threw that in the nearest garden they reached and escaped, each one to his own house. | |
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[26] dagh fer gys e hie hene] ‘each one to his own house’ — evidently the intended meaning here is that each one went ‘to his own respective house’, and not that they all went to the he whisky maker’s own house’.
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| Dinsh eh skeeal elley neesht:— Doonaght dy row va sheshaght dy vraane goll shooyll gys Keeill Voirrey ayns jiass ny h’ellan[27] son yn shirveish[28] as er y raad smooinee ad dy beagh eh mie stappal[29] son bine beg ec thie-oast[30] ayns balley beg cheerey enmyssit Lagg — shen yn traa roish my daink leighyn ny joughyn[31] dy ve ayn — as ren nane oc giu bine beg rouyr. | He tols another story too:— One Sunday there was a group of women walkig to St Mary’s in the south of the Island, for the service, and on the way they thought it would be good to stop on the way for a little drop (dram) at an inn in a village called Lagg — that’s the time befor the laws of the drinks came into existence — and one of them drank a little drop too much. | |
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[27] ny h-ellan] — ‘of the Island’,
[jeh’n ellan] in traditional Manx. The erroneous construction seems either based on the misunderstanding that
[ellan] is a masculine noun, or is an attempt at ‘of the islands’,
[de na h-eileanan] in Scottish Gaelic, for which we would expect
[jeh ny hellanyn]. (Genitive constructions are not expected when
[jiass] is the headword, instead
[jeh] ‘of’ is used.
[28] son yn shirveish] —
[son y çhirveish]
[29] stappal] ‘stopping’, ‘hindering’ — in the traditional language this is not usually a reflexive verb, and is used in the sense of ‘to block’. For refelexive ‘they stopped walking’ we would expect
[scuirr veih shooyl], or
[scuirr dy hooyl] ‘they stopped walking’.
[30] bine beg ec thie oast] ‘an inn’s little drop’, evidently the intended meaning here was ‘a little drop at an inn’, for which we would expect
[bin beg ayns thie-oast] ‘a little drop in a pub’.
[31] leighyn ny joughyn] ‘the laws of the drinks’ — a stange choice of translation where we would expect ‘drink laws’
[leighyn jough], or ‘laws concerning drink’
[leighyn bentyn da jough]
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| Ny s’anmey tra v’ad ooilley nyn soie ’sy cheeill geaishtagh rish yn taggyrt sharmaneaghey[32], va’n ven shen ny cadley feiy yn charmane[33], as myr va’n saggart cummal magh[34] veih’n chronnag, hrog ee e laueyn myr dy beagh ee er chee dooishtey as dooyrt ish as ard-choraa ecks, “Clo de[35] tha’n t-seann bhugar ag ra a nis?” (C’red ta’n chenn vugger gra nish?). | Later when they were all seated in the church listening to the priest giving a sermon, that woman was sleeping throughout the sermon, and as the priest was perservering from the pulpit, she raised her hands as if she were about to wake up and she said with a loud voice, “Clo de tha’n t-seann bhugar ag ra a nis?” (What is the old bugger saying now?). | |
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[32] sharmaneaghey] ‘preaching’ — a neoglism for
[preacheil] ‘preaching’.
[33] feiy] ‘throughout’ — (see also
[fey] and
[feih]). In Traditional Manx
[feiy] is only used in
[feiy’n laa] ‘all day’, and
[feiy ny cruinney] ‘throughout the world’. The expected word here for ‘throughout’ would be either
[fud], or
[trooidmagh].
[34] cummal magh] ‘persevering’ — although perhaps the intention here was to create a calque of the English ‘holding forth’, for which
[preacheil], or
[fockley magh] would be expected.
[35] Clo de tha’n t-seann bhugar ag ra a nis] seems to be a typo for the Scottish Gaelic
[Ciod a tha an t-seann bhugair ag radh a nis] ‘What is the old bugger saying now?’
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| Clashtyn shen[36] ghow shanstyryn ny keeilley[37] greim urree dy tappee as cheau ad magh ass y dorrys ee. | Hearing that, the elders of the church took a hold of her and they quickly through her out of the door. | |
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[36] Clashtyn shen] ‘Hearing that’ — the expected phrase here would be
[Er chlashtyn shen] ‘Upon hearing that’ / ‘Having heard that’.
[37]
[ny keeilley] — evidently, the intended meaning here is ‘of the church’, for which the expected phrase is
[ny killagh].
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| SHORUS Y CRURIE | SHORUS Y CRURIE | |