When Bill Quine was 3 years old, his great uncle took him to Rue Point to speak to the mermaids.
Sat on the sand dunes, Bill was amazed to watch as dark shapes swam up and waited by his uncle as he spoke to them for some minutes, before they swam away again.
Although later reflection suggested otherwise, Bill was left convinced that he had seen mermaids.

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
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Talking to mermaids at Rue Point

An account of the Manx calendar custom of putting up 'cuirn cross' over your doorway to keep the luck in the household.
Bill Quine here reflects on his own memories of the practice in Andreas and then Michael in the 1940s and 50s, when it was put up annually, but not at Oie Voaldyn (30 April) as is more commonly practiced...

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
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The cuirn cross

A 1940s game from the playground of Ballaugh School, where children would create their own motorbikes out of cardboard and sticks, ready to rush around the playground, making sparks from their nailed boots as they went.

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
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T.T. schoolground games in the 1940s

The Quine family moved into one of the gatehouses on the Manx Northern Railway in the late 1940s.
Bill Quine here recalls the unusual set-up at Orrisdale, where they lived, which was necessitated by the curvature of the track at that point.

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
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The Manx Northern Railway gate signals

Perhaps the most hated of all tasks on the Manx Northern Railway in the 1940s and 50s was unloading the coal boat when it landed at Ramsey every few weeks.
Bill Quine recalls his father's feelings about the task which was on him as a maintenance worker on the line at Orrisdale, and how black and grumpy he was return after his long days working on the boat pulled up at the end of the harbour, where a railway track used to run at that time.

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
www.culturevannin.im
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Unloading coal at Ramsey harbour for the Manx Northern Railway

As an employee of the Manx Northern Railway in the 1940s and 50s, it was Bill Quine father's role to paint the bridges of Glen Wyllin and Glen Mooar in Michael when it was needed. The way they did sounds terrifying to modern ears...!

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
www.culturevannin.im
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Painting the Glen Wyllin railway bridge

A standing stone lies in a field that backs onto the former line of the Manx Northern Railway between Ballaugh and Orrisdale.
Bill Quine recalls the local knowledge of his childhood here in the 1940s and 50s that this was known as a fairy, where the 'ferrishyn jiarg' might be found.

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
www.culturevannin.im
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www.twitter.com/CultureVannin
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The fairy field of the Ferrishyn Jiarg

In the 1940s and 50s, Bill Quine's father was a maintenance worker on the Manx Northern Railway. As a part of their work, they were required to cut back the vegetation from the line - which put them in a difficult situation when it was a tramman tree that was in the way...

This is an extract from the oral history interview with Bill Quine recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024. The full interview is available online here: https://culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/bill-quine-824294/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
www.culturevannin.im
www.facebook.com/culturevannin/
www.twitter.com/CultureVannin
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Cutting a tramman tree & a terrible accident

From motorbikes and trains, to fairies and mermaids, Bill Quine’s early years in Andreas, Ballaugh and Michael offer a fascinating insight into a unique Manx childhood.

Although his father’s RAF posting meant that Bill was born in Scotland in 1943, he returned to the Isle of Man at the age of two, when his father took up farm work at Knock-e-Dooinney, Andreas. Living at Gat-e-Whing, Bill vividly recalls his great-uncle, who taught him ‘everything about the fairies.’
Indeed, Bill’s earliest memory is of sitting on the brooghs at Rue Point when his uncle went down ‘to talk to the mermaids.’ Three-year-old Bill was amazed when dark shapes swam up to his uncle and seemed to listen to him, before swimming away again…

At the age of four, Bill’s father took a job as a maintenance worker on the Manx Northern Railway, based in turn at both of the two Orrisdale gatehouses. His father’s work along the line is described in detail, including hanging off the sides of Glen Wyllin and Glen Mooar bridges to paint them, and the hated job of unloading coal at Ramsey harbour.
Meanwhile, Bill’s mother had the job of opening and closing the gates for the railway, as well as maintaining the signals for the trains. Fascinating, humorous and tragic stories emerge from this side of his parent’s life.

The TT features strongly in Bill’s early years, with the smell of Castrol R still lingering over his memories from Rhencullen and Bishopscourt. The evocative depictions of early-morning practices and hearing the sounds of the first bikes into Kirk Michael are a treat, though they are weighed against the terrible story of witnessing the death of a rider only yards away from where he sat.

The happy memories of Ballaugh school, and the wonderful Miss Mary Cannell, are retold fondly. Instilled in him at this time was Bill’s life-long connection to Manx culture, particularly through the poetry of Cushag.

The conversation concludes with a number of stories linked to Manx folklore or the mysterious. These include a fairy field with a standing stone, the bloody results of cutting a tramman tree, the Bishopscourt gardener greeted by an angel at his death, and the remarkable account of being visited by his own father a day or so after he had died.

This short interview offers a wealth of insight into the Isle of Man and Manx life 70 years ago.

This oral history interview with Bill Quine was recorded by James Franklin on 14 March 2024.
The interview is a part of the collection of nearly 200 oral history recordings freely available on the Culture Vannin website: www.culturevannin.im/watchlisten/oralhistory/

Culture Vannin exists to promote and support all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.
www.culturevannin.im
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Oral history interview with Bill Quine (14 March 2024)

Imagine you're in a field with someone whose language you don't speak. A rabbit scurries by. The other person says "Gavagai!" You probably assumed they meant "rabbit" but they could have meant something else, like "scurrying" or even "lo! an undetached rabbit-part!" 

In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about how we manage to understand each other when we're learning new words, inspired by the famous "Gavagai" thought experiment from the philosopher of language VWO Quine. We talk about how children have a whole object assumption when learning language, and how linguists go about learning languages that are new to them through either translating standardized cross-linguistic wordlists known as Swadesh lists or staying monolingual and acting out concepts. We also talk about when our baseline assumptions are challenged, such as in categorizing kangaroos and wallabies by their hopping rather than their shape, and when useful folk categories, like "trees" and "fish" don't line up with evolutionary taxonomies.

Click here to listen to this episode in your podcast player of choice: episodes.fm/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMTg5ODA2MjI5MA==

Read the transcript here: lingthusiasm.com/post/758924587635441664/transcript-episode-95-lo-an-undetached

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Imagine you're in a field with someone whose language you don't speak. A rabbit scurries by. The other person says "Gavagai!" You probably assumed they meant "rabbit" but they could have meant something else, like "scurrying" or even "lo! an undetached rabbit-part!" Inspired by the famous Gavagai thought experiment, these items feature a running rabbit and the caption "lo, an undetached rabbit-part!" in a woodblock engraving crossed with vaporwave style in magenta, indigo, teal, cream, and black/white on shirts, scarves, and more!

"More people have been to Russia than I have" is a sentence that at first seems fine, but then gets weirder and weirder the more you read it. Inspired by these Escher sentences, we've made self-referential shirts saying "More people have read the text on this shirt than I have" (also available on tote bags, mugs, and hats), so you can wear them in old-time typewriter font and see who does a double take.

Finally, we've made a design that simply says "Ask me about linguistics" in a style that looks like a classic "Hello, my name is..." sticker, and you can put it on stickers and buttons and shirts and assorted other portable items for when you want to skip the small talk and go right to a topic you're excited about.

You can find all these designs and more at redbubble.com/people/lingthusiasm/shop 

In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about the word "do"! We talk about the various functions of "do" as illustrated by lyrics from ABBA and other pop songs, what makes the word "do" so unique in English compared to other languages, and the drama of how "do" caught on and then almost got driven out again

Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 80+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds. Find us as patreon.com/lingthusiasm
 
For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/758923731979698176/95-lo-an-undetached-collection-of-meaning-parts

95: Lo! An undetached collection of meaning-parts!

Original music composed for a promotional video highlighting Art Blocks' upcoming final curated release, Quine by Larva Labs

https://www.instagram.com/artblocks_io/reel/DPUF3wvjKwq/
https://www.artblocks.io/exhibitions/quine-by-larva-labs

A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. "A fascinating listen that will change the way you see everyday communications." –New York Times. "Joyously nerdy" –Buzzfeed.  

Weird and deep half-hour conversations about language on the third Thursday of the month.

Listened to all the episodes here and wish there were more? Want to talk with other people who are enthusiastic about linguistics? Get bonus episodes and access to our Discord community at www.patreon.com/lingthusiasm 
Shownotes and transcripts: www.lingthusiasm.com

Promoting and supporting all aspects of culture in the Isle of Man.

Culture Vannin awards grants and initiates schemes whilst supporting the work of development officers for music and language. The work of Culture Vannin has been fundamental to the revival of interest and support for Manx language and culture over the last twenty years.

Culture Vannin is the trading name for the Manx Heritage Foundation, registered charity 333 in the Isle of Man.

New tracks tagged #Quine