"the real McKay" 1875

[Eric Nielsen]

When I lived in Scotland years ago, some of the locals informed me that
McCoy (rhymes with boy) was an American corruption--both in spelling and
pronunciation--of the Scottish McKay (rhymes with rely).

Eric



On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 8:41 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "the real McKay" 1875
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is it possible that {McCoy} too was pronounced as [m at .kaI]?  The lyrics of
> the "ca1870?" song might tell us.
>
> FWIW, western star Tim McCoy pronounced it / OI/.
>
> JL
>
>
>

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