[Ads-l] G. MacKay and Co.

[Dave Wilton]

Datum: I knew a Scottish woman with that name, and she used the /eye/ pronunciation.


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of James A. Landau
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2016 1:39 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] G. MacKay and Co.

Somebody (I lost the reference) said that "MacKay" is pronounced /M@ KEYE/

Some time ago we had a discussion of how /oi/ can get transformed into /eye/, as in Camptown Races "Gwyne to run all night gwyne to run all day".  Perhaps we have the reverse phenomenon here, with /keye/ getting transformed into /koi/.

Incidentally, people from some areas in Eastern Europe when reading Hebrew transform certain vowels into /oi/.

- James A. Landau

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