"Real McKay"

[Wilson Gray]

How is "M(a)cKay" pronounced here? Does it rhyme with "say" or with
"sigh"? My experience is that the pronunciation varies.

-Wilson

On 6/22/06, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "Real McKay"
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>
> So now we have "real Mackay" from 1856 in Scotland, and "real McCoy" from
> 1891 in Manitoba.  The logical transitional spelling would be "real McKay"
> in Manitoba between 1856 and 1891, and indeed there is an example of this
> in Newspaperarchive from the very same Manitoba newspaper:
>
> 1875 _Manitoba Daily Free Press_ 8 Dec. 3 (Newspaperarchive)  The annual
> meeting of the St. Andrew's Society was held in the schoolhouse, Portage
> in Prairie, on the 30th ult. ... [long list of Scottish toasts and songs
> mentioned] ... Songs followed, and a recitation, The real McKay, by Mr.
> Melville.
>
> I acknowledge that the above suggested progression of spellings may be too
> neat, with the truth perhaps being more random.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
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