Well I'm no singer (I've been known to empty whole rooms, however), but I do live in the heart of Westcountry shantyland down yer in Cornwall (we have Fisherman's Friends, with a few of whom I've hobnobbed occasionally at our St Kew pub sessions, the Boscastle Buoys and, here in Bude, Friggin' Riggin', a great bunch of lads and lasses who often sing at our Memory Café), and I've never heard it said (or seen it spelled) any other way than "shanty" as in "shhh..."

We watched an episode of Rick Stein's Cornwall series last night (series 3, episode 2 on BBC iPlayer) which featured a fantastic all-female group of shanty singers from west Cornwall called Femmes de la Mer. They aim to highlight the heroic doings of women of the sea to balance the dominance of men in shanties. They sounded just great.