Talk:B'hoy and g'hal

Sykesy or Syksey
(Cross posted from User talk:BrianSmithson): I know this is a minor point - literally a placement of a letter- but if you check Herbert Asbury's Gangs of New York the spelling of the b'hoy is definitely Syksey. This is also consistent with the Wikipedia entry on the List of Historical Gangs of New York article [].

I have reverted it back, and at this point I'd say the burden of proof is on you to show your spelling is correct. TheNate
 * I based my spelling on several sources. The name is spelled Sykesy in Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Blackface Minstrelsy, Strong on Music: Resonances, 1836–1849, Workers in the Metropolis: Class, Ethnicity, and Youth in Antebellum New York City, and The Cambridge History of American Theatre. The name is spelled Syksey in Tall Tale America: A Legendary History of Our Humorous Heroes and Workers in the Metropolis: Class, Ethnicity, and Youth in Antebellum New York City. Probably both versions should be included. — BrianSmithson 06:08, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Contradiction?
If: "Mose is a pugilistic Irish volunteer fireman" he was also an American-born Protestant Know-nothing according to Mose the Fireboy. Could he have been both?86.42.193.62 (talk) 08:54, 12 November 2011 (UTC)
 * "Irish" in a context like this usually means "Irish-American". The "hyphenated-American" convention didn't arise until well within my own lifetime. Americans would say "I'm Irish and Italian" in reference to their familial background, and if they meant an actual immigrant they'd say "Granny was from Ireland", or the like.  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  03:25, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Neither this article nor Bowery B'hoy give any indication of actual pronunciation. It's not clear if this apostrophe is meant to be a glottal stop or what. Irish would not use one there. "Like an Irish accent" doesn't tell us anything; there are numerous Irish accents that are very different from each other (e.g. "boy" in some of them comes out approximate to how an Midwestern American would say the words "buy" or "bye", while in others "boy" would not be particularly distinct from an American enunciation. In some, there's a breathiness to the sound, which may be what is intended here (actors learning a Galway accent are often told to imagine that the enunciation focus isn't in the middle or the front part of the mouth but in front  it).  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  03:25, 16 July 2017 (UTC)