TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => Join the search => Topic started by: Ric Gillespie on September 16, 2011, 09:21:43 AM
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This is a pronunciation question for our British forum members.
How would you pronounce the name Gallagher? (spell phonetically please)
Believe it or not, this is an important issue in tracing some of the island's history.
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Gallaher or maybe Gallageer (a kind of silent 'h'). We have a TV comedy program called shameless where the lead character if called Frank Gallagher. Checking with my colleague in the next door office who is a fan he also supports the silent 'h' theory. The double 'e' in my spelling could just be a regional anomaly as people from the south west of England tend to slur the end of words.
2 votes for Gallageer.
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Interesting. Input from other parts of England? (I'm channeling Prof. Henry Higgins)
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I'm no Brit. I just thought we should ask the Irish speakers instead.
I thought I once asked an Irish friend (not so sure of this though; I can confirm) and he mentioned like 'gh' is a consonant proper to the language, a consonant we are not used to hear in English and so we approximate. I'm now in Pakistan and the Urdu language (and I suppose Hindi too) has this consonant they call "ghain". But again, it is not pronounced like 'gain' nor 'hain' but somewhere in between.
You must have native Hebrew speakers around you, and the closest I can think of is the guttural consonant 'kaf', transliterated normally as 'kh', or the less rough consonant 'heth'.
Above, I mentioned that when we don't have the exact equivalent in our own language, we tend to approximate.
Just take this one: In English, the second son of Noah in the Bible is 'Ham'. In Italian, it is 'Cam' (as in camera).
In the original Hebrew, the first letter is the single consonant 'heth' whose sound is between k and h. English translators thought it was closer to H and made it Ham. Italians who have no H in their alphabet (there is in fact but is silent) approximated it to K.
If my second explanation more confusing, just stick to my first suggestion: Ask a native Irish speaker to pronounce it.
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I'm no Brit. I just thought we should ask the Irish speakers instead.
I thought I once asked an Irish friend (not so sure of this though; I can confirm) and he mentioned like 'gh' is a consonant proper to the language, a consonant we are not used to hear in English and so we approximate. I'm now in Pakistan and the Urdu language (and I suppose Hindi too) has this consonant they call "ghain". But again, it is not pronounced like 'gain' nor 'hain' but somewhere in between.
You must have native Hebrew speakers around you, and the closest I can think of is the guttural consonant 'kaf', transliterated normally as 'kh', or the less rough consonant 'heth'.
Above, I mentioned that when we don't have the exact equivalent in our own language, we tend to approximate.
Just take this one: In English, the second son of Noah in the Bible is 'Ham'. In Italian, it is 'Cam' (as in camera).
In the original Hebrew, the first letter is the single consonant 'heth' whose sound is between k and h. English translators thought it was closer to H and made it Ham. Italians who have no H in their alphabet (there is in fact but is silent) approximated it to K.
If my second explanation more confusing, just stick to my first suggestion: Ask a native Irish speaker to pronounce it.
Interesting view but I’m not sure that is what Ric is asking. I may be wrong but I get the feeling he wants’ to know how the English would have pronounced the word Gallagher to the settlers and how they would then have applied it to the island?
I’m going to stick my neck out here and suggest that my rendition of the phonetic spelling of Gallagher may be tainted by time and socio economic factors.
In the 30’s the officer cadre of the empire were mostly recruited from young aspiring males from a public school and university back ground.
OK I tick those boxes but even though I was sent to public school to deal with a learning difficulty I had prior to the age of 11 been to primary school with my local peers. Here I picked up the southwest trait for slurring the end of words and dropping my ‘h’ much to the disguised of my upwardly social mobile mother.
At 11 I attended a public school, which specialised in learning difficulties and was encouraged to speak like a gentleman.
At 18 I left home to go to university in an inner city in the north west of England where I was considered posh. People at home now consider my accent to be northern whilst colleagues may still be surprised to here me slur a word such as ‘furrr’
What I will do is speak to my godson who is living with a very well brought up young girl who ticks all of the ‘officer’ boxes.
The question to ask her is what is the surname of the brothers who used to head the band Oasis (Noel and Liam Gallagher)
I’ve already asked a number of people tonight and its about 50/50 my rendition to a straight Gallagher. To get this right we need to be asking the right type of English person.
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Quick update, spoken to my godson and his girlfriend (thanks Robert and Robyn).
Both in answer to the question "what is the surname of the brothers from the band Oasis" said "Gallager".
I think there is a problem with this question as the Brothers Gallagher refer to themselves as that.
Still i'm game to ask more random people if that helps!
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http://www.gallagherclan.org/
maybe this site will help with what u need
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http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/Gallagher
hope this helps
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http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/Gallagher
hope this helps
Shame about the American accent tough!
Does bare out so far my 'research'. Would be interesting to know if Gerald Gallagher had any Irish lilt in his voice even though he was born and raised in england. His entry in Wikipedia probably points in the direction of a more clipped english accent, the kind you would associate with Pathe news.
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How would you say it Richie? I see your in Liverpool/Merseyside with its tradition of Irish immigrants!
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well my great granddad an grandma r from county mayo Ireland, but my self i pronounce it gall a ger but spell it with the silent h :D
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well my great granddad an grandma r from county mayo Ireland, but my self i pronounce it gall a ger but spell it with the silent h :D
Thanks, kind of a head ache this as i'm getting about 50/50 so far.
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Gerald B. Gall'agher is how it was spell t, in the early 1900's if i remember correctly
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Gerald B. Gall'agher is how it was spell t, in the early 1900's if i remember correctly
That could be Gall aher then? with a silent G or a gh that is somehow aheer?
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yer deffo cud be, it's just however the accent pronounces it
for instance scousers say we an scottish say wee if u get my meaning :)
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Thank you gentlemen. Let me explain why I asked.
The question arose out of my suspicion that some folklore had crept into our understanding of the island's history. In the literature about Gardner Island/Nikumaroro, there are references to "Karaka" and the notion has grown up within TIGHAR that this was the local Gilbertese rendering of Gallagher and that, after his death, the island's village was named Karaka in his honor. The problem is, "Karaka" is not a transliteration of how Gallagher pronounced his name.
We know how Gerald Gallagher pronounced his own name. When I interviewed his friend and fellow Colonial Service officer Eric Bevington in 1991, I pronounced Gallagher the way we say the name in this country - Gallager (with a hard second G). Eric quickly corrected me. It's Gallaher (silent G). He also explained that Gerald was "as English as I am" and that his nickname "Irish" was a good-natured pejorative. Gerald's ancestors, however, were indeed Irish and the family's pronunciation of the name as "Gallaher" was probably an echo of the original Gaelic "Ó Gallchobhair." Anglicization resulted in "Gallagher "which, as you have confirmed, English speakers often pronounce "Gallager." My own family name, "Ghilleaspuig" in Scots Gaelic, suffered a similar fate. It was anglicized to Gillespy and finally to Gillespie. Such was the price of uniting the kingdoms.
There is no "G" in the Gilbertese language. English words with a hard "G" are transliterated with a "K" replacing the "G." Hence, "Gilberts" becomes "Kiribati" (with the "ti" pronounced like "s" - so "Gilberts" becomes "Kiribas.") No Gilbertese who knew Gerald Gallagher personally would render his name as "Karaka." The only non-
European person we've ever talked to who was on Gardner Island when Gallagher was there, told us that he was known as "Kela," which is, at least, a reasonable transliteration of "Gallaher." (Incidentally, Gallagher always referred to the island as Gardner.) So where did "Karaka" come from?
The village was never named or re-named "Karaka." On the map created from the 1938/39 New Zealand Survey, the Gilberetese work camp is labeled "Keresoma." Other than that, as far as we can tell, the village had no name distinct from the name of the island.
The first reference to Gallagher as "Karaka" appears in District Officer Paul Laxton's article "Nikumaroro" (Journal of the Polynesian Society, Sept. 1951) in which Laxton describes a maneaba (meeting house) that was built and named Uen Maungan I Karaka (Flower to the Memory of Gallagher or The Flowering of Gallagher's Achievement). A 1954 map of the island drawn by District Officer Freegard designates the plot of land we call the Seven Site as "Karaka."
It would appear that the transliteration of Gallagher's name as "Karaka" was the invention of a later English District Officer (probably Laxton) who never knew "Irish" personally.
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Thanks Ric and Richie.
How does the Laxton article fit in with the 1954 map by District Officer J. N. Freegard that labels the parcel of land for the 7 site as Karaka? Suppose if Laxton coined the name Karaka in 1951 it could have come into common usage by the officers.
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How does the Laxton article fit in with the 1954 map by District Officer J. N. Freegard that labels the parcel of land for the 7 site as Karaka?
The first map that shows the area we call the Seven Site is a hand-drawn, undated, unsigned, land-allocation map. Plots of land around the island are numbered and a key provides the names of the individuals to whom the plots are allocated. Plot number 5, for example, is allocated to "Abera." On that map the Seven Site is shown as plot 25 and the key says that it belongs to "Komitina" - the transliteration of the English word "Commissioner." All British administrators were known to the workers by the general term Commissioner. The map designates the southeast tip of the island as "Amerika," so it must post-date the allocation of that land to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1943. The village area is labeled "Ritiati" - the transliteration of "Richards," the High Commissioner in office when the colony was approved in 1937 - but the next district "Noriti" - "Norwich" - is not shown. "Noriti" was demarcated by the time Laxton was there in 1949 so the map must date from some time between 1943 and 1949.
The point is, before 1949 the plot of land that Freegard called "Karaka" in 1954 was "Komitina."
Suppose if Laxton coined the name Karaka in 1951 it could have come into common usage by the officers.
Laxton's article was published on 1951 but he was on the island for three months - January, February, & March - 1949. Paul Laxton was the District Officer and lands Commissioner for the Phoenix Islands District and he was there to kick ass. The colony had stagnated during the war and he was there to implement what he referred to as "a hard, realistic, Gideon-like policy" whereby "the weaker members should pack up and go." The remaining colonists would have to buckle down, get to work, clear more land, plant more coconuts, expand the village, etc. Part of the new development was the building of a "permanent maneaba" (meeting house). This was the structure that was named Uen Maungan I Karaka (Flower to the Memory of Gallagher or The Flowering of Gallagher's Achievement). Laxton writes, "Thus they commemorate the English gentleman whose devotion and leadership made their new home possible." Uh huh. What could be more politically expedient for Laxton than to encourage the islanders' beatification of a British administrator? I strongly suspect that "Karaka" was Laxton's invention and that, as you suggest, the name was passed along to later District Officer's. We'll get Laxton's article up on the website soon.