A few more words of the Anglo-Manx dialect.
MANNINAGH = belonging to the Isle of Man
“He’s a Manninagh dooie and she’s a Ben-vanninagh-dooie.” (He’s a native/true Manxman and she’s a native/true Manxwoman)
SNOG = a nod
“Always givin’ a snog when we met.”
STASHA = moustache
“He’s gorra mouse-stasha on him like a sweepin’ brush!”
COOTH/COUTH = coldness/cold (one of the most common words still in use today)
“The cooth was going through me.” “It’s cooth today boy.”
ROSY-DANDHER = rhododendron
“Them is fine rosy-dandhers.”
MAA = mother; elderly woman
“When Daa boght (poor father) died, Maa veen (dear mother) was fit to break her heart.” “Maa Kinvig was allowed to be as clever as any Doctor o’ Degrees.”
CRAPLAG = wrinkle, crease
“Her face is all over craplags.” “Your coat’s in craplags, you should’ve hung it up.”
SLEETCH = slime; figuratively a deceitful, slippery person, a sneak (this word is still said today)
“He’s a big sleetch.” “He come sleetchin’ in at the door.” “Gerr out, ye sleetch custhad!” (cursed sneak) “I can’t bear the sleetchy ways some people has.”
JESH = right; neat; active, handy
“She’s upstairs makin’ herself jesh.” “She’s very jesh in her clothes.” “He’s a jesh man about the house an’ can turn his han’ to anything.”
BUMBEE = humble-bee
“He can sing like a bumbee in a barrel,” i.e. he can make a noise but no tune.
JOOIGH = greedy, ravenous
“She’s middlin’ jooigh.” “He’s a jooigh man.”
HOBBLE = predicament; to be in difficulties
“Wha’s the hobbles you’re in now?” “He’s that hobbled poor man, he’ll navar be able to pay the rent.”
GRAIH= love, often used in terms of endearment (’ghraih’ is the mutated form)
“Graih my chree,” (love of my heart). “Graih villish,” (sweet love). “My ghraih veen,” (my dear love). “I remember oul’ Sal and her donkey too…she’d be sthroogin (stroking) the donkey’s nose and sayin, ‘Aw, my ghraih bannit’” (my blessed love).
(source: Vocabulary of the Anglo-Manx Dialect by AW Moore, S Morrison & E Goodwin (1924))
