Mairi's Wedding-how to pronounce Mairi

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: LindsayInWales
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 09:05 PM

A friend of mine wrote the following on the occasion of the first wedding of Princess Anne - I think I remember most of it:

Canter gaily on we go
Fertilize the Abbey floor
It's the greatest TV show
Princess Annie's wedding

See them standing side by side
Philip laughing, Lizzie crying
........(line forgotten)
To hold her pony tail

Canter gaily....etc

They all went round to Lizzie's place,
Drinking champagne by the case
Poor old Mark can't stand the pace
It's carrots in the bathroom

Canter gaily.....etc

He grabbed hold of the one he wed
And dragged her to the bridal bed
But finally shagged the horse instead
Good old Captain Phillips....

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Apr 08 - 12:32 AM

Okay. Thanks. People at the games will be interested in hearing this about the old language.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From:
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 09:42 AM

Well, to answer about the long a sound. The name Mairi is properly spelled Màiri. The accented a indicates that the sound is held twice as long as without. That's why the sound is Mah-ree. As HughM explained, this is the actual name of the person. When addressing them, we use the Vocative. This is equivalent to the English "O Mary", we say "A Mhàiri". This is known as aspiration or currently as lenition. The "h" is there to indicate a change in the sound. Instead of the M sound, with the h there, we get a V sound. IE: A Mhàiri would sound as if you said Ah Vair-ee.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 01:49 AM

Great Stuff Jim - I like it! :-) :-)

And Nigel Denver! Woo-hoo! The first guest performer at the first-ever night at Gainsborough Folk Club, way back - must have been in '68-ish! Great times and a great performer, lived in Lincoln for a good while, but not sure what happened to him. Aaaaahhhh, memories!

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 08:48 PM

I like it, Jim, I like it!

Is that the same Dunoon we were trying to locate on GoogleEarth in a recent thread?
=======================
Megan, I believe you mentioned being Pictish. Have you seen the Pictish scultures at Meigle in Scotland? I was there several years ago and enjoyed my visit. I have other happy memories of Meigle - our rental car broke down and people were so kind and friendly.

I got to talking with a university student who had an armful of cookbooks with titles such as 'Thai Cookery.' She told me her vacation was starting and she was going to practice cooking on her old dad. The look on her old dad's face spoke volumes.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: Jim McLean
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 10:26 AM

I wrote this about the Marriage of Princess Margaret to Tony Armstrong-Jones ... a long time ago.

Maggie's Waddin' Tune: Lewis Bridal Song (Mairi's Wedding)
(Jim McLean)

Sing a song o' tax and woe, empty pooches in a row
Chancellor's collectin' dough a' for Maggie's waddin'
Silk and satin, gold lamé, Tony wears a lum hat tae
Ma suit's in the pawn sae whit'll ah dae at the Royal Waddin'

Maggie flounces doon the aisle, her mither staunds wi' forcit smile
Needs a dose o' castor oil at her dochter's waddin'
Tony's doon on bendit knee, gied up his photographie
Nae mair birdies will he see efter Maggie's waddin'

Foreign guests fae near and far, packed inside Westminster Ha'
Parasites fae France an' a' at the Royal Waddin'
Whaur d'ye think they'll honeymoon? Rome, Paree or on the moon
Wi'oot a doot it's no Dunoon efter sic a waddin'

Noo they're mairried aff they blow tae spend a thoosan' poond or so
That's the way oor money goes for Mrs Jones's waddin'
Back again and help ma bob, Tony hasnae got a job
Wha will buy the christenin' robe - you an' me ah'll bet ye

Royal mince is awfy dear, Tony needs a rise next year
Increase tax on fags an' beer efter Tony's waddin'
Maggie's ta'en up fancy cookin' - Bird's Nest soup fae a Chinese book an'
Suzie Wong won't hae a look in - velly nicey wedding

Sing a song o' tax and woe, empty pooches in a row
Chancellor's collectin' dough a' for Maggie's waddin'

(as sung by Nigel Denver)

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 09:14 AM

That clinches it.

Thanks, Megan. I'm glad it's mah-ree, because the ah sound is a good one for singing.

I'll look into the 'Flowers of Edinburgh,' too.

Hugh, that is interesting about the vocative case. (It doesn't arise in the English words to the song, where Mairi is always is the third person.) I'd never heard of the vocative case before.

Welsh has similar changes, which they call 'nasal mutation.' I've never had a formal class, and I don't understand how it works. I do know that m's can change to either b or v, I forget which.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 08:46 AM

Mah-ree as done by the Corries.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 08:00 AM

In Gaelic the name is Mairi (not sure whether there should be an accent in there somewhere), but when adressing someone whose name is Mairi you should say "a Mhairi" (uh Vah-ree). This is known as the "vocative case".
Similarly in the song "Fear a Bha\ta" the boatman is addressed as "Fhir a bha\ta" in the chorus.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 06:49 AM

One of my wife's friends is called Mhairi and she pronounces her name varee (a short a and long e). They are both Glaswegians.

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,Betsy at Work
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:49 AM

Cheers Giok , it is difficult to write these sounds - but my niece's name Mhairi's is pronounced with the long "a" exactly as you mentioned, and that is how I say and sing it. What more can a Sassenach-like myself-do ?

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: Megan L
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:26 AM

I dont know if you were being humerous with your wanting an answer from a scot comment on that thread. But as i told you there it is pronounced Mah ree. Meg who has only left scotland a handful of times in her life and whos ancestry and height shows it goes back tae the picts :)

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:24 AM

Mhairi, or any other spelling can be acceptably rendered to sound just like marry. If you can make it sound like there is the h behind the m all the better. I also hear it pronounced with a long 'a' sound, like Maahri.

G

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,Betsy at Work
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 04:19 AM

I have a niece - her Dad is Scottish.
Her name is spelt Mhairi ,(with a "h")which sounds like Mah-ree.
( "Mah" as in "far" )

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From:
Date: 18 Apr 08 - 12:18 AM

I don't know which other thread you guys refer to, but as to the pronunciation of the name, because it originated in Gaelic, the Mah-ree is the proper pronunciation. For the Gaelic version... Mairi Bhan

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:56 PM

On my recording of the song, I pronounce it 'Mah-ree'.

I don't know what all the nastiness was about on the other thread;
it's a great bouncy wee song, with a nice melody, and you can go into the instrumental 'Flowers of Edinburgh' out of it.

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem did a nice job of it, as did many other top Irish and Scottish musicians.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:29 PM

Thank you, Jim. That makes two votes for mah-ree, so that's helpful. I thought perhaps it would have a long i sound, but no.

The DT says it was originally written in Gaelic. It would be interesting to hear it sung in Gaelic, then in English, to see if the song differs any depending on the language. Stresses and subtle changes in timing and so forth...

I found the tune on a site from Germany. The melody seemed to be played by a brass band! It was charming, actually.

Subject: Mairi's Wedding
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 10:58 PM

GUEST Leeneia - after all that hot air on the other thread, I hope you got the answer you were looking for. When I was at primary school in the 50's, we used to sing along with a BBC radio prog & pronounced her 'mahyree', but then I'm English & it was an English prog & the beeb weren't so PC about regional ponunciations in those days, beeb language rules were a law unto themselves!

Subject: RE: how to pronounce Mairi
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 03:16 PM

I learnt it as a dance and a tune. In an English primary school (we had country dancing lessons, and most of the dances seemed to be Scottish), about half a century ago....

Kitty

Subject: RE: how to pronounce Mairi
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:55 AM

I appreciate the efforts, but I would like to hear from someone Scottish who heard the name growing up. It would be best if there had been a girl named Mairi in the same class at the village school, a girl with eyes bright as stars and cheeks like rowans.

Subject: RE: how to pronounce Mairi
From: Megan L
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:51 AM

In the context of that song it is usually Mah ree

Subject: RE: how to pronounce Mairi
From: Leadfingers
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:46 AM

Maary's - The Ah sound is what I would use - and sheeling would be fine too . But I am NOT a Gaelic speaker !

Subject: RE: how to pronounce Mairi
From: MMario
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:43 AM

I don't know if it's correct or not, but I have always heard it as "shee-ling"

and "Mairi" variously as "May-ree";"my-ree" or "Mahr-ree". I prefer the last.

Subject: how to pronounce Mairi
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 11:39 AM

In June, we are going to play at the harp tent at the Highland games, and I have been looking for happy Scottish songs to play. (They're not as easy to find as you might think.) Last night I was reading one of Reginald Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe novels. In this one, the great fat man, Dalziel, is lying in a coma in Intensive Care. His true love has set a music player of some sort by his bed and to play him some big band music. Then she switched to Scottish traditional, Dalziel being half Scottish.

As Dalziel floats between life and death, he vaguely apprehends a song called 'Mairi's Wedding.' "Aha!", I told myself, "A song for the Games!" I've found the tune, and it's a good one. This is going to work.

Except for one thing - I need to know how to pronounce 'Mairi.'

Also 'sheiling.' Is it shee-ling?