Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: 'Mann' or 'Man'. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![[3] shorten the original root Maen into Man tho Kelt in pronouncing Man uses the original sound that probably first struck Ciesar's ear—Maun or Mou. AVhilst in Scotland, I address«d a gillie in a farm yard thus :— Kindly tell me, my man hovr high that mountain Uumyat is. Aye| maun, it's nae higher than it looks, was the reply. Ho\y the second n came to be added to the name of Man I will now explain. It is well known that our ancient records and statutes were written in wliat was called Law Latin, a mongrel language that Ccesar would not have understood. Ecclesiastics, such as monks and their clerks, usually were appointed to this office, which consistedin Latinising theNorman-French, British or English, in which the records or statutes might have been originally writteti, for the sake of uniformity and the use of law officers and others, who,were so educated as to be able to read th«ie documents, whereas had they been called upon to explain them in the vei-nacular, they wouldhave;either failed altogether or else per- chance misinterpreted them. On the whole per- haps it was better at that time, for law and justice, that the lawyers should have the laws and records written in a sort of common language, so that at least those who expounded the laws should understand each other. When Csesar first was told the name of this island in mid-sea, between the west coast of Britain and Ireland, he simply Latinised it by the addition of the letter a, converting it into a declinable noun —Mona. In all probability the Keltic word Maen—a rock, was pronounced long, as Mon. The Gael of to-day pronounces Man broad, as we say Maun. We do not know how Cajsar pro- noHnced Mona, although we sea how he spelt it. From CiBsar's time until the present we hare documentary evidence of this Island being men- tioned by historians and others. I will give a few instances in chronological oi'der:—In the Glossary of the King-Bishop Cormac CuUionain, King of Munster and Bishop of Cashel, who was killed at the battle of Bealach Mughna (at present Balla Muney) A.D. 908, the Island is styled Manand, connecting it with Mau-annan- mac-lir—only one n in the first syllable. In the inscription around that most interesting llunic cross, a rubbing of which I exhibit, taken last Saturday, when I had the kind assistance of the Rev John Quine, M.A., the name of the Island occurs as Maun, thus :—Malbrigd, son of Athacan (the) Smith, erected the cross for his soul . . Gaut made this (cross) and all in Maun. It will be in the recollection of many present here to-day that at a meeting, at Kirk Michael, of this Society, 13th July, 1883, our learned Runic and Ogam scholar, Mr William Kneale, of Douglas, was asked to transliterate the inscription on this unique cross, and did so most successfully. Professor Munch had pre- viously done , so from a cast which bir Henry Dryden, Bart., had had taken many years ago, and he was the first to point out, accoi ding to Prof. Worsaae, that tho name of this Island occurs in a Runic inscription at Kirk Michael,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22280431_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
