WHEN Wilf Simm moved to live in the Isle of Man, following his marriage more than half a century ago, he took over with him an old dialect expression which has remained a puzzle to him ever since.

The word is jonnuck and 79-year-old Wilf picked this up mainly from his mother (maiden name Charnock) who was born in Rainford. He recalls his mother often remarking that "It's not jonnuck!" - when something wasn't fair or right.

ORIGINS

"I use the word myself, many times in fact", says Wilf whose Manx connections reach back to 1949.

He wonders whether the expression comes from his mother's home village or from the Blackbrook area where his father was born.

Perhaps, he says, one of our Whalley's World readers can cast some light on its origins and thus solve a mystery that has stayed with Wilf for at least seven decades.