Thel málelh means ‘my late father’. Some speakers would say tel málelh.
Archive | the Doll- phrases and words
mál
Mál means ‘father’. You can also spell this word má:l (the colon indicates a slightly longer vowel, but the difference is not significant with this word).
yóyes
Yóyes means ‘working’. It is the ‘-ing‘ (‘progressive’) form of yó:ys – ‘to work’.
Wólich
Wolích is a place name. Several places now bear this name, but in her stories Elizabeth appears to be referring to a whistle stop along the railway tracks on Seabird Island.
swéltel
Swéltel is the general term for a ‘net’. You can use this for any kind of net (there are also other words for specific kinds of nets).