A Bit of Manx on a Snowy Evening

 

Manx is fascinating if you know Irish or Gaelic. One can spend a pleasant and/or maybe very irritating quarter hour deciphering it, especially the spelling that is based on early modern English. The syntax can be odd too.

 A song.

Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo
C'raad chaddil oo riyr syn oie?
Chaddil mish riyr er baare y dress,
As ugh my cadley cha treih!

Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo
C'raad chaddil oo riyr syn oie?
Chaddil mish riyr er baare y crouw,
As ugh my cadiey cha treih!

Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo
C'raad chaddil oo riyr syn oie?
Chaddil mish riyr er baare y thooane,
As ugh my cadley cha treih!

Ushag veg ruy ny moanee doo
C'raad chaddil oo riyr syn oie?
Chaddil mish riyr eddyr daa guillag,
Myr yinnagh yn oikant eddyr daa lhuishag, 
As o my cadley cha kiune!

 

Little red bird of the black turf ground,
Where did you sleep last night ?
I slept last night on the top of the briar,
And oh ! what a wretched sleep!

Little red bird of the black turf ground,
Where did you sleep last night ?
I slept last night on the top of the bush,
And oh! what a wretched sleep!

Little red bird of the black turf ground,
Where did you sleep last night ?
I slept last night on the ridge of the roof,
And oh! what a wretched sleep!

Little red bird of the black turf ground,
Where did you sleep last night ?
I slept last night between two leaves
As a babe between two blankets quite at ease,
And oh ! what a peaceful sleep!

This above is a lullaby to the same tune as that of "Here we go round the Mulberry Bush.”. The first and third lines in the first three verses are repeated three times, except in the last verse, when the first line only is repeated. The " Ushag Veg Ruy" is another name for the Ushag Reaisht.

“It is said that once upon a time the haunts of the Lhondoo (lon dubh) were confined to the mountains, and those of the ushag reaisht to the lowlands. One day, however, the two birds met on the border of their respectlve territories, and, after some conversation, it was arranged to change places for a while, the ushag reaisht remaining in the mountains, till the lhondoo should return.

The lhondoo finding the new quarters much more congenial than the old, conveniently forgot his promise to go back. Consequently the poor ushag reaisht was left to bewail his folly in making the exchange, and has ever since been giving expression to his woes in the following plaintive and querulous pipe:-" Lhondoo, vel oo cheet?" (Black-bird are you coming, are you coming?)

The lhondoo, now plump and flourishing, replies “Chan eil dy bragh, chan eil dy bragh! (No never!) The poor ushag reaisht shivering says,, T'eh feer feayr, t’eh feer feayr!" (It's very cold, it's very cold!)

 These words 't’eh feer feayr " represent the plover's shrill and piteous whistle.”

 

Here are a few proverbs taken from On the Classification of Proverbs and Sayings of the Isle of Man, G.W. Wood, Folklore (England), No. 5, 1894

 

T’ou cha daaney as assag .    You are as bold as a weasel.  (thú)

Share soie son veg nas roie son veg.   Better to sit for little pay than run for little pay.

Leah appee, leah lhoua .  Soon ripe, soon rotten. (luath,abig, lofa)

My ta keim  ‘sy laair, bee keim sa lhiy.    If the mare can run/amble, the colt can too. (laogh)

Cha nee eshyn ta red beg echey ta boght, agh eshyn ta geearee mooarane.  It’s not he who (only) has a little who is poor, but he who desires a lot.

Tra ta un dooiney boght cooney lesh dooioney boght elley, ta Jee hene garaghtee    When on poor man helps another poor man, God himself laughs.

Commee obbyr, commee bee.  Sharing work, sharing food.

Raad mooar Ree Gorree.   The Highway of King Orry, i.e. the Milky Way.

Ta cree dooie ni share na kione croutagh.   A kind heart is better than a crafy mind (head).

 

Below is a quatrain from the well-known song Ec ny Fiddlereyn, printed in Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philiologie I (1897) collected by De Hinderberg and Strachan from Tom Kermode (1825-1901), Bradda, in 1893. It is very like an Irish or Scottish Gaelic song and one of the few lyrical songs still current in the mid/late 19th century when a few people started writing them down.

Why is Manx so different? The answer awaits you in a previous post of mine on Manx and Cornish. Briefly, it was cut off from Irish/Scottish Gaelic many many centuries ago and the learned tradition died. The lords and overall cultural milieu were English and it is likely that English folk songs and religious literature provided the model for literature in Manx. Few people could read or write the language until recently.

Last native speaker died in 1974 etc. etc.

Ec ny fiddl;eryn ayns yn Ollick       (Nollaig)

V’eh chied voayl veeit mee rish graih my chree.  (first time I met (i.e. Scottish Gaelic “ris”)

Dy graihagh, graihag hie shin cheese cooidjagh   ( “Dy” is Irish “go”)

As hug shin toshiaght da’n tooree.  (tSuirí)