[Ads-l] G. MacKay and Co.

[Jonathan Lighter]

My guess is that "McCoy" was the more common surname in the US, and
that it was usu. also  pronounced "muhkye" (more or less) by its Scots
and Irish bearers.  That would be pretty normal for first-generation
immigrants (I think).

"The real "Mc /koi/" would thus be a "spelling pronunciation." .


JL



On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 7:05 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> 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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