h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How do you pronounce the 'aig' at the end of the Scottish names Dervaig and Mallaig?

I have always pronounced Mallaig with the i silent but apparently it should be pronounced Malek.

http://www.answers.com/topic/scottish-gaelic-language

About half way down the page under pronunciation.

Donald

I'd always pronounced Mallaig as it sounds, mal-aig (hard 'g'), but then again, I'm a lowlander. The railway announcers say it that way as well though.

I pronounce it "egg", 'cos there's a phonetic pronunciation of Arisaig in an Iain Banks book. And he's Scottish.

RF

Yeah, RF, but he's a lowlander too. And what's more, he's east coast, he wouldn't even hear railway announcers saying it.

Bang goes my theory, then! From now on I'll just have to point at the map and say "that place ending aye eye gee."

RF

Someone at work kept referring to something called Eye-kay-ee-aye, we kept going huh? apparently she meant Ikea.

Now there's another interesting one...in the UK (Yookay ) we say Eye-KEYer. In other parts of the world (the US (yoowess ) I think) they say Ickier.

RF

Only in the West of the US, moreover. East coasters pronounce it like we do.

B

Standard pronunciation of I before a single consonant followed by a vowel in English is "igh", ever since the Great Vowel Shift.

Hence "Ike", "Icing", "Irate" etc.

Idiot!

B

Eye-rack. Eye-ran.

RF

Standard doesn't mean universal.

I've heard locals pronounce it as Mallig, so that's the way i say it! I think Arisaig is actually pronounced the way it's spelt- there really is no ryme nor reason to these things- you can't just see a gaelic word and know how it's pronounced i don't think. Certainly you can make an educated guess at it by understanding some basic rules, but on the whole i just think you have to listen to the locals

in "à la recherche de temps perdu", M makes fun of bloch who pronounces "lift" with a long i...

but i thought mallaig was pronounced "throat warbler mangrove"??

The Scots are just dodgy.

They keep calling me Carol and encouraging me to wear their funny skirts

They just make up the pronuciation and even words as they go along, have you ever read any Burns, crikey. Apparently he wrote like he spoke, if so I'll wager he'd just drunk a bottle of cheap whisky and then had the bottle smashed in his gob.

English dialects throughout the British Isles were once much more varied than they now are. When printing was introduced, the London dialect became the standard, but the old ways survived in the furthest reaches, including Scotland and Wexford. Here's an example of some old Wexford English:

Fade teil thee zo lournagh, co Joane, zo knaggee?
Th' weithest all curcagh, wafur, an cornee.
Lidge w'ouse an a milagh, tis gaay an louthee:
Huck nigher; y'art scuddeen; fartoo zo hachee?

I sound like that after nine pints.

B

Here's a translation:

What ails you so melancholy, quoth John, so cross?
You seem all snappish, uneasy, and fretful.
Lie with us on the clover, 'tis fair and sheltered:
Come nearer; you're rubbing your back; why so ill tempered?

I make about that much sense too...

B