Manx language

History

Manx is a Goidelic language, closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. On the whole it is partially mutually intelligible with these, and native speakers of one find it easy to gain passive, and even spoken, competency in the other two.

It has been suggested that a little-documented Brythonic language (i.e. related to modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton) may have been spoken on the Isle of Man before the arrival of Christian missionaries from Ireland in the early Middle Ages. However, there is little surviving evidence about the language spoken on the island at that time.

Manx (like Irish and Scottish Gaelic) is descended from Primitive Irish. The island either lends its name to or takes its name from Manannán, the Brythonic and Gaelic sea god who is said in myth to have once ruled the island. Primitive Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD. These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish transitioned into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from the 6th century, used the Latin script and is attested mainly in marginalia to Latin manuscripts, but there are no extant examples from the Isle of Man.

Latin was used for ecclesiastical records from the establishment of Christianity in the Isle of Man in the 5th century AD. Many words concerning religion, writing and record keeping entered Manx at this time.

The Isle of Man was conquered by Norse Vikings in the 9th century. Though there is some evidence in the form of runic inscriptions that Norse was used by some of these settlers, the Vikings who settled around the Irish Sea and West Coast of Scotland soon became Gaelic-speaking Norse–Gaels. During the 9th century AD, the Gaelic of the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, like those of Scotland and the North of Ireland, may have been significantly influenced by Norse speakers. While Norse had very little impact on the Manx language overall, a small number of modern place names on the Isle of Man are Norse in origin, e.g. Laxey (Laksaa) and Ramsey (Rhumsaa). Other Norse legacies in Manx include loanwords and personal names.

By the 10th century, it is supposed that Middle Irish had emerged and was spoken throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.

The island came under Scottish rule in 1266, and alternated between Scottish and English rule until finally becoming the feudal possession of the Stanley family in 1405. It is likely that until that point, except for scholarly knowledge of Latin and courtly use of Anglo-Norman, Manx was the only language spoken on the island. Since the establishment of the Stanleys on the Isle of Man, first Anglo-Norman and later the English language have been the chief external factors in the development of Manx, until the 20th century, when Manx speakers became able to access Irish and Scottish Gaelic media.

17th to 19th centuries

Manx had diverged considerably from the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland between 1400 and 1900. The 17th century Plantation of Ulster, the decline of Irish in Leinster and the extinction of Galloway Gaelic led to the geographic isolation of Manx from other dialects of Gaelic. The development of a separate orthography also led Manx to diverge from Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

In the 17th century, some university students left the Isle of Man to attend school in England. At the same time, teaching in English was required in schools founded by governor Isaac Barrow. Barrow also promoted the use of English in churches; he considered that it was a superior language for reading the Bible; however, because most ministers were monolingual Manx speakers, his views had little practical impact.

Thomas Wilson began his tenure as Bishop of Mann in 1698 and was succeeded by Mark Hildesley. Both men held positive views of Manx; Wilson was the first person to publish a book in Manx, a translation of The Principles and Duties of Christianity (Coyrle Sodjey), and Hildesley successfully promoted the use of Manx as the language of instruction in schools. The New Testament was first published in Manx in 1767. In the late 18th century, nearly every school was teaching in English. This decline continued into the 19th century, as English gradually became the primary language spoken on the Isle of Man.

In 1848, J. G. Cumming wrote, "there are ... few persons (perhaps none of the young) who speak no English." Henry Jenner estimated in 1874 that about 30% of the population habitually spoke Manx (12,340 out of a population of 41,084). According to official census figures, 9.1% of the population claimed to speak Manx in 1901; in 1921 the percentage was only 1.1%. Since the language was used by so few people, it had low linguistic "prestige", and parents tended not to teach Manx to their children, thinking it would be useless to them compared with English.

According to Brian Stowell, "In the 1860s there were thousands of Manx people who couldn't speak English, but barely a century later it was considered to be so backwards to speak the language that there were stories of Manx speakers getting stones thrown at them in the towns."

Revival

Following the decline in the use of Manx during the 19th century, Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Language Society) was founded in 1899. By the mid-20th century, only a few elderly native speakers remained (the last of them, Ned Maddrell, died 27 December 1974), but by then a scholarly revival had begun and a few people had started teaching it in schools. The Manx Language Unit was formed in 1992, consisting of three members and headed by Manx Language Officer Brian Stowell, a language activist and fluent speaker, "which was put in charge of all aspects of Manx language teaching and accreditation in schools." This led to an increased interest in studying the Manx language and encouraged a renewed sense of ethnic identity. The revival of Manx was aided by the recording work done in the 20th century by researchers. Most notably, the Irish Folklore Commission was sent in with recording equipment in 1948 by Éamon de Valera. Also important in preserving the Manx language was work conducted by the late Brian Stowell, who is considered personally responsible for the current revival of the Manx language. The Manx Language Strategy was released in 2017, outlining a five-year plan for the language's continued revitalisation. Culture Vannin employs a Manx Language Development Officer (Manx: Yn Greinneyder) to encourage and facilitate the use of the language.

In 2009, UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger declared Manx an extinct language, despite the presence of hundreds of speakers on the Isle of Man. Historian and linguist Jennifer Kewley Draskau reacted to this declaration, stating "Unesco ought to know better than to declare Manx a dead language. There are hundreds of speakers of Manx and while people are able to have productive conversations in the language then it is very much alive and well." Since then, UNESCO's classification of the language has changed to "critically endangered".

In the 2011 census, 1,823 out of 80,398 Isle of Man residents, or 2.27% of the population, claimed to have knowledge of Manx, an increase of 134 people from the 2001 census. These individuals were spread roughly uniformly over the island: in Douglas 566 people professed an ability to speak, read or write Manx; 179 in Peel, 146 in Onchan, and 149 in Ramsey.

Traditional Manx given names have experienced a marked resurgence on the island, especially Moirrey and Voirrey (Mary), Illiam (William), Orry (from the Manx king Godred Crovan of Norse origin), Breeshey/Breesha (Bridget), Aalish/Ealish (Alice), Juan (Jack), Ean (John), Joney (Joan), Fenella (Fionnuala), Pherick (Patrick) and Freya (from the Norse goddess) remain popular.

Estimated number of speakers by year

Status

Manx is not officially recognised by any national or regional government, although its contribution to Manx culture and tradition is acknowledged by some governmental and non-governmental bodies.

The Standing Orders of the House of Keys provide that: "The proceedings of the House shall be in English; but if a Member at any point pronounces a customary term or sentence in Manx Gaelic or any other language, the Speaker may call upon the Member for a translation." An example was at the sitting on 12 February 2019, when an MHK used the expression boghtnid, stated to mean "nonsense".

Manx is used in the annual Tynwald ceremony and Manx words are used in official Tynwald publications.

For the purpose of strengthening its contribution to local culture and community, Manx is recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and in the framework of the British-Irish Council.

The Isle of Man comprised the one site for the Manx language in the Atlas Linguarum Europae, a project that compared dialects and languages across all countries in Europe.

Manx is taught as a second language at all of the island's primary and secondary schools. The lessons are optional and instruction is provided by the Department of Education's Manx Language Team which teach up to A Level standard.

The Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, a primary school at St John's, has 67 children, as of September 2016, who receive nearly all of their education through the medium of the language. Children who have attended the school have the opportunity to receive some of their secondary education through the language at Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel.

The playgroup organisation Mooinjer Veggey, which operates the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, runs a series of preschool groups that introduce the language.

Bilingual road, street, village and town boundary signs are common throughout the Isle of Man. All other road signs are in English only.

Business signage in Manx is gradually being introduced but is not mandated by law; however, the 1985 Tynwald Report on the use of Manx states that signage should be bilingual except where a Manx phrase is the norm.

Classification

Manx is one of the three daughter languages of Old Irish (via Middle Irish), the other two being Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It shares a number of developments in phonology, vocabulary and grammar with its sisters (in some cases only with certain dialects) and shows a number of unique changes. There are two attested historical dialects of Manx, Northern Manx and Southern Manx.

Similarities to and differences from Irish and Scottish Gaelic

Manx and Scottish Gaelic share the partial loss of phonemic palatalisation of labial consonants; while in Irish velarised consonants contrast phonemically with palatalised . A consequence of this phonemic merger is that Middle Irish unstressed word-final (-⟨(a)ibh, (a)imh⟩ in Irish and Gaelic) has merged with (-⟨(e)abh, (e)amh⟩ in Irish and Gaelic), in Manx; both have become (-⟨oo, u(e)⟩), e.g. shassoo "to stand" (Irish seasamh), credjue "religion" (Irish creideamh), nealloo "fainting" (Early Modern Irish i néalaibh, lit. in clouds), and erriu "on you (pl.)" (Irish oraibh).

Medial and final *⟨bh, mh⟩ have generally become and in Manx, thus shiu 'you pl.' (Irish and Scottish Gaelic sibh; Lewis Gaelic siù), sharroo "bitter" (Scottish searbh , Irish searbh (Northern/Western) , (Southern) ), awin "river" (Scottish abhainn , Irish abhainn (Northern) ) (Western) (Southern) , laaue "hand" (Scottish làmh , Irish lámh (Northern) , (Western) , (Southern) ), sourey "summer" (Scottish samhradh , Irish samhradh (Northern) , (Western/Southern) ). Rare retentions of the older pronunciation of ⟨bh⟩ include Divlyn, Divlin "Dublin", Middle Irish Duibhlind .

Moreover, similarly to Munster Irish, historical ⟨bh⟩ () and ⟨mh⟩ (nasalised ) tend to be lost word medially or finally in Manx, either with compensatory lengthening or vocalisation as resulting in diphthongisation with the preceding vowel, e.g. geurey "winter" (Irish geimhreadh (Southern) ) and sleityn "mountains" (Irish sléibhte (Southern) ). Another similarity to Munster Irish is the development of the Old Irish diphthongs before velarised consonants (⟨ao⟩ in Irish and Scottish Gaelic) to , as in seyr "carpenter" and keyl "narrow" (Irish and Scottish saor and caol).

Like Connacht and Ulster Irish (cf. Irish phonology) and most dialects of Scottish Gaelic, Manx has changed the historical consonant clusters to , e.g. Middle Irish cnáid "mockery" and mná "women" have become craid and mraane respectively in Manx. The affrication of slender "⟨d, t⟩" sounds is also common to Manx, Northern Irish, and Scottish Gaelic.

Unstressed Middle Irish word-final syllable (-⟨(a)idh, (a)igh⟩) has developed to (-⟨ee⟩) in Manx, as in kionnee "buy" (cf. Irish ceannaigh) and cullee "apparatus" (cf. Gaelic culaidh), like Northern/Western Irish and Southern dialects Scottish Gaelic (e.g. Arran, Kintyre).

Another property Manx shares with Ulster Irish and some dialects of Scottish Gaelic is that rather than appears in unstressed syllables before (⟨agh⟩ in Manx), e.g. jeeragh "straight" (Irish díreach), cooinaghtyn "to remember" (Scottish Gaelic cuimhneachd).

Like Southern and Western Irish and Northern Scottish Gaelic, but unlike the geographically closer varieties of Ulster Irish and Arran and Kintyre Gaelic, Manx shows vowel lengthening or diphthongisation before the Old Irish fortis and lenis sonorants, e.g. cloan "children" , dhone "brown" and eeym "butter" correspond to Irish/Scottish Gaelic clann, donn, and im respectively, which have long vowels or diphthongs in Western and Southern Irish and in the Scottish Gaelic dialects of the Outer Hebrides and Skye, thus Western Irish , Southern Irish/Northern Scottish , , ), but short vowels and 'long' consonants in Ulster Irish, Arran, and Kintyre, , and .

Another similarity with Southern Irish is the treatment of Middle Irish word-final unstressed (-⟨(e)adh⟩ in Irish and Scottish Gaelic). In nouns (including verbal nouns), this became in Manx, as it did in Southern Irish, e.g. caggey "war" , moylley "to praise" (cf. Irish cogadh and moladh (Southern Irish) and ). In finite verb forms before full nouns (as opposed to pronouns) became in Manx, as in Southern Irish, e.g. voyllagh "would praise" (cf. Irish mholfadh (Southern Irish) ).

Dialects

Linguistic analysis of the last few dozen native speakers reveals a number of dialectal differences between the North and the South of the island. Northern Manx (Manx: Gaelg Hwoaie) was spoken from Maughold in the northeast to Peel on the west coast. Southern Manx was spoken in the sheading of Rushen. It is possible that written Manx represents a 'midlands' dialect of Douglas and surrounding areas.

In Southern Manx, older ⟨á⟩, and in some cases ⟨ó⟩, became . In Northern Manx the same happened, but ⟨á⟩ sometimes remained as well, e.g. laa "day" (cf. Irish lá) was in the South but or in the North. Old ⟨ó⟩ is always in both dialects, e.g. aeg "young" (cf. Irish óg) is in both dialects. ⟨á, ó⟩ and lengthened ⟨a⟩ before ⟨rt, rd, rg⟩ became , as in paayrt '"part" , ard "high" , jiarg "red" , argid "money, silver" and aarey "gold gen." .

In Northern Manx, older ⟨(e)a⟩ before ⟨nn⟩ in the same syllable is diphthongized, while in Southern Manx it is lengthened but remains a monophthong, e.g. kione "head" (cf. Irish ceann) is in the North but in the South.

Words with ⟨ua⟩, and in some cases ⟨ao⟩, in Irish and Scottish are spelled with ⟨eay⟩ in Manx. In Northern Manx, this sound was , while in Southern Manx it was , , or , e.g. geay "wind" (cf. Irish gaoth) is in the north and in the South, while geayl "coal" (cf. Irish gual) is in the North and , , or in the South.

In both the North and the South, there is a tendency to insert a short before a word-final in monosyllabic words, as in for slane "whole" and for ben "woman". This is known as pre-occlusion. In Southern Manx, however, there is also pre-occlusion of before and of before , as in for shooyl "walking" and for lhong "ship". These forms are generally pronounced without pre-occlusion in the North. Pre-occlusion of before , on the other hand, is more common in the North, as in trome "heavy", which is in the North but in the South. This feature is also found in Cornish.

Southern Manx tended to lose word-initial before , which was usually preserved in the North, e.g. glion "glen" and glioon "knee" are and in the South but and in the North.

In modern times, the small size of the island and the improvement in communications precludes any regional dialect variations.

Media

Two weekly programmes in Manx are available on medium wave on Manx Radio: Traa dy liooar on Monday and Jamys Jeheiney on Friday. The news in Manx is available online from Manx Radio, who have three other weekly programmes that use the language: Clare ny Gael; Shiaght Laa and Moghrey Jedoonee. Several news readers on Manx Radio also use a good deal of incidental Manx.

The Isle of Man Examiner has a monthly bilingual column in Manx.

The first film to be made in Manx, 22-minute-long Ny Kirree fo Niaghtey "The Sheep Under the Snow", premiered in 1983 and was entered for the 5th Celtic Film and Television Festival in Cardiff in 1984. It was directed by Shorys Y Creayrie (George Broderick) for Foillan Films of Laxey, and is about the background to an early 18th-century folk song. In 2013, a short film, Solace in Wicca, was produced with financial assistance from Culture Vannin, CinemaNX and Isle of Man Film. A series of short cartoons about the life of Cú Chulainn which was produced by BBC Northern Ireland is available as are a series of cartoons on Manx mythology. Most significant is a 13-part DVD series Manx translation of the award-winning series Friends and Heroes.

Literature

Manx never had a large number of speakers, so it would not have been practical to mass-produce written literature. However, a body of oral literature did exist. The "Fianna" tales and others like them are known, including the Manx ballad Fin as Oshin, commemorating Finn MacCumhail and Oisín. With the coming of Protestantism, Manx spoken tales slowly disappeared, while a tradition of carvals, Christian ballads, developed with religious sanction. Even so, Bishop Mark Hildesley, after his gardener overheard him discussing the Ossian poems of James Macpherson and admitted to known of Fionn and Oisin, the Bishop collected from the local oral tradition multiple lays in Manx from the Fenian Cycle of Celtic Mythology, which were accordingly preserved for the future.

There is no record of literature written distinctively in Manx before the Reformation. By that time, any presumed literary link with Ireland and Scotland, such as through Irish-trained priests, had been lost. The first published literature in Manx was The Principles and Duties of Christianity (Coyrie Sodjey), translated by Bishop of Sodor and Man Thomas Wilson.

The Book of Common Prayer was translated by John Phillips, the Welsh-born Anglican Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1605 to 1633. The early Manx script has some similarities with orthographical systems found occasionally in Scotland and in Ireland for the transliteration of Gaelic, such as the Book of the Dean of Lismore, as well as some extensive texts based on English and Scottish English orthographical practices of the time. Little secular Manx literature has been preserved.

The New Testament was first published in 1767. When the Anglican church authorities started to produce written literature in the Manx language in the 18th century, the system developed by John Philips was further "anglicised"; the one feature retained from Welsh orthography was the use of ⟨y⟩ to represent (e.g. cabbyl "horse" and cooney "help") as well as (e.g. fys "knowledge"), though it is also used to represent , (e.g. y Yuan "John" (vocative), yeeast "fish").

Other works produced in the 18th and 19th centuries include catechisms, hymn books and religious tracts. A translation of Paradise Lost was made by Rev. Thomas Christian of Marown in 1796.

A considerable amount of secular literature has been produced in the 20th and 21st centuries as part of the language revival. In 2006, the first full-length novel in Manx, Dunveryssyn yn Tooder-Folley ("The Vampire Murders") was published by Brian Stowell, after being serialised in the press. There is an increasing amount of literature available in the language, and recent publications include Manx versions of The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince was translated into Manx by Rob Teare in 2019.

Manx and Christianity

The Manx Bible

In the time of Bishop Wilson, it had been a constant source of complaint among the Manx clergy that they were the only church in Christendom that had no version of the Bible in the vulgar tongue. Wilson set to work to remedy the defect, and, with the assistance of some of his clergy, managed to get some of the Bible translated, and the Gospel of St. Matthew printed. Bishop Hildesley, his successor, with the help of the whole body of Manx clergy, completed the work, and in 1775 the whole Bible was printed.

The Bible was first produced in Manx by a group of Anglican clergymen on the island. The Gospel of Matthew was printed in 1748. The Gospel and Conaant Noa nyn Jiarn as Saualtagh Yeesey Creest were produced in 1763 and 1767, respectively, by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK). In 1772 the Old Testament was printed, together with the Wisdom and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) from the Apocrypha.

Yn Vible Casherick "The Holy Bible" of the Old and New Testaments was published as one book by the SPCK in 1775, effectively fixing the modern orthography of Manx, which has changed little since. Jenner claims that some bowdlerisation had occurred in the translation, e.g. the occupation of Rahab the prostitute is rendered as ben-oast "a hostess, female inn-keeper." The bicentenary was celebrated in 1975 and included a set of stamps from the Isle of Man Post Office.

There was a translation of the Psalmyn Ghavid ("Psalms of David") in metre in Manx by the Rev John Clague, vicar of Rushen, which was printed with the Book of Common Prayer of 1768. Bishop Hildesley required that these Metrical Psalms were to be sung in churches. These were reprinted by Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh in 1905.

The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) published the Conaant Noa "New Testament" in 1810 and reprinted it in 1824. Yn Vible Casherick "The Holy Bible" of the Old Testament and New Testament (without the two books of the Apocrypha) was first printed as a whole in 1819. BFBS last printed anything on paper in Manx in 1936 when it reprinted Noo Ean "the Gospel of St John"; this was reprinted by Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh in 1968. The Manx Bible was republished by Shearwater Press in July 1979 as Bible Chasherick yn Lught Thie (Manx Family Bible), which was a reproduction of the BFBS 1819 Bible.

Since 2014 the BFBS 1936 Manx Gospel of John has been available online on YouVersion and Bibles.org.

Church

Manx has not been used in Mass since the late 19th century, though Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh holds an annual Christmas service on the island.

In a move towards the Catholic Church in the Isle of Man having a Bishop of its own, in September 2023 St Mary of the Isle Church in Douglas was granted Co-Cathedral status by Pope Francis. During the Mass of dedication by Malcolm McMahon, the Archbishop of Liverpool, the Lord's Prayer was recited in Manx and the Manx National Anthem was also performed.

Phonology

Stress

Stress generally falls on the first syllable of a word in Manx, but in many cases, stress is attracted to a long vowel in the second syllable. Examples include:

• buggane "sprite"
• tarroogh "busy"
• reeoil "royal"
• vondeish "advantage"

Consonants

The consonant phoneme inventory of Manx:

The voiceless plosives are aspirated. The dental, postalveolar and palato-velar plosives affricate to in many contexts.

Manx has an optional process of lenition of plosives between vowels, where voiced plosives and voiceless fricatives become voiced fricatives and voiceless plosives become either voiced plosives or voiced fricatives. This process introduces the allophones . The voiced fricative may be further lenited to , and may disappear altogether. Examples include:

Voiceless plosive to voiced plosive:

• > : brattag "flag, rag"
• > : peccah "sin"

Voiceless plosive to voiced fricative:

• > : cappan "cup"
• > : baatey "boat"
• > : feeackle "tooth"

Voiced plosive to voiced fricative:

• > : cabbyl "horse"
• > : eddin "face"
• > : padjer "prayer"
• > > : maidjey "stick"
• > : ruggit "born"

Voiceless fricative to voiced fricative:

• > or : poosit "married"
• > : shassoo "stand"
• > : aashagh "easy"
• > > : toshiaght "beginning"
• > : beaghey "live"
• > > ∅: shaghey "past"

Another optional process is pre-occlusion, the insertion of a very short plosive before a sonorant consonant. In Manx, this applies to stressed monosyllabic words. The inserted consonant is homorganic with the following sonorant, which means it has the same place of articulation. Long vowels are often shortened before pre-occluded sounds. Examples include:

• > : trome > "heavy"
• > : kione > "head"
• > : ein > "birds"
• > : lhong > "ship"
• > : shooyll > "walking"

The trill is realised as a one- or two-contact flap at the beginning of syllable, and as a stronger trill when preceded by another consonant in the same syllable. At the end of a syllable, can be pronounced either as a strong trill or, more frequently, as a weak fricative , which may vocalise to a nonsyllabic or disappear altogether. This vocalisation may be due to the influence of Manx English, which is non-rhotic. Examples of the pronunciation of include:

• ribbey "snare"
• arran "bread"
• mooar "big"

Vowels

The vowel phoneme inventory of Manx:

The status of and as separate phonemes is debatable, but is suggested by the allophony of certain words such as ta "is", mraane "women", and so on. An alternative analysis is that Manx has the following system, where the vowels and have allophones ranging from through to . As with Irish and Scottish Gaelic, there is a large amount of vowel allophony, such as that of . This depends mainly on the 'broad' and 'slender' status of the neighbouring consonants:

When stressed, is realised as .

Manx has a large inventory of diphthongs and triphthongs, some of which tended to merge or monophthongise in Late Manx.

Orthography

Manx orthography is based on Elizabethan English, and to a lesser extent Middle Welsh, developed by people who had an education in English (and Welsh until the 16th century). The result is an inconsistent and only partly phonemic spelling system, similar to English orthography and completely incomprehensible to readers of Irish and Scottish Gaelic. This is because both Irish and Scottish Gaelic use spelling systems derived from Classical Gaelic, the common literary language of Man, Ireland, and Scotland until the Bardic schools closed down in the 17th century, which makes them very etymological. Both Irish and Scottish Gaelic use only 18 letters to represent around 50 phonemes. While Manx uses 24 letters (the ISO basic Latin alphabet, excluding ⟨x⟩ and ⟨z⟩), covering a similar range of phonemes, all three make use of many digraphs and trigraphs. In 1932, Celticist T. F. O'Rahilly expressed the opinion that Manx orthography is inadequate, as it is neither traditional nor phonetic. Therefore, if a form of Classical Gaelic orthography adapted to Manx had survived or if one based on the reforms of Theobald Stapleton were to be developed and introduced, the very close relationship between Manx, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic would be obvious to readers at first sight and Manx would be much easier for other Gaels to read and understand.

However, evidence of Gaelic type ever having been used on the island has not been found.

Spelling to sound correspondences

Diacritics

Manx uses only one diacritic, a cedilla, which is (optionally) used to differentiate between the two phonemes spelled ⟨ch⟩:

• Çhiarn () "lord", is pronounced with , as in the English "church"
• Chamoo () "nor" or "neither", is pronounced with , as in Scottish English "loch" () or Irish English "lough" (), a sound commonly represented by ⟨gh⟩ at the ends of words in Manx (and Irish English).

Grammar

Morphology

Initial consonant mutations

Like all modern Celtic languages, Manx shows initial consonant mutations, processes whereby the initial consonant of a word is altered according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. Manx has two mutations: lenition and eclipsis, found on nouns and verbs in a variety of environments; adjectives can undergo lenition but not eclipsis. In the late spoken language of the 20th century the system was breaking down, with speakers often failing to use mutation in environments where it was called for, and occasionally using it in environments where it was not called for.

In the corpus of the late spoken language, there is also one example of the eclipsis (nasalization) of : the sentence Ta mee er ngeddyn yn eayn ("I have found the lamb"), where ⟨ng⟩ is pronounced . However, this is probably a mis-transcription; the verbal noun in this case is not geddyn "get, fetch", but rather feddyn "find".

Nouns

Manx nouns display gender, number and sometimes case, for instance, for feminine cass "foot".

Pronouns

In addition to regular forms, personal pronouns also have emphatic versions.

Verbs

Manx verbs generally form their finite forms by means of periphrasis: inflected forms of the auxiliary verbs ve "to be" or jannoo "to do" are combined with the verbal noun of the main verb. Only the future, conditional, preterite, and imperative can be formed directly by inflecting the main verb, but even in these tenses, the periphrastic formation is more common in Late Spoken Manx.

The fully inflected forms of the regular verb tilgey "to throw" are as follows. In addition to the forms below, a past participle may be formed using -it: tilgit "thrown".

1.^ First person singular, making the use of a following subject pronoun redundant

2.^ First person plural, making the use of a following subject pronoun redundant

3.^ Used with all other persons, meaning an accompanying subject must be stated, e.g. tilgee eh "he will throw", tilgee ad "they will throw"

4.^ Singular subject.

5.^ Plural subject.

There are a few peculiarities when a verb begins with a vowel, i.e. the addition of d' in the preterite and n' in the future and conditional dependent. Below is the conjugation of aase "to grow".

There is a small number of irregular verbs, the most irregular of all being ve "be".

Prepositions

Like the other Insular Celtic languages, Manx has inflected prepositions, contractions of a preposition with a pronominal direct object, as the following common prepositions show. Note the sometimes identical form of the uninflected preposition and its third person singular masculine inflected form.

Numbers

Numbers are traditionally vigesimal in Manx, e.g. feed "twenty", daeed "forty" ("two twenties"), tree feed "sixty" ("three twenties").

*In the northern dialects of Irish /dʲ tʲ/ may be affricated to or .

Syntax

Like most Insular Celtic languages, Manx is a VSO language. However, most finite verbs are formed periphrastically, using an auxiliary verb in conjunction with the verbal noun. In this case, only the auxiliary verb precedes the subject, while the verbal noun comes after the subject. The auxiliary verb may be a modal verb rather than a form of bee ("be") or jannoo ("do"). Particles like the negative cha ("not") precede the inflected verb. Examples:

main verb

Hug

put-PRET

yn

the

subject

saggyrt

priest

e

his

direct object

laue

hand

urree.

on her

"The priest put his hand on her."

aux. verb

Va

were

ny

the

subject

eayin

lambs

main verb

gee

eat-V.N.

yn

the

direct object

conney.

gorse

"The lambs used to eat the gorse."

Cha

not

modal verb

jarg

can

subject

shiu

you-PL

main verb

fakin

see-V.N.

direct object

red erbee.

anything

"You can't see anything."

When the auxiliary verb is a form of jannoo ("do"), the direct object precedes the verbal noun and is connected to it with the particle y:

aux. verb

Ren

did

subject

ad

they

direct object

my choraa

my voice

y

PTCL

main verb

chlashtyn.

hear-V.N.

"They heard my voice."

As in Irish (cf. Irish syntax#The forms meaning "to be"), there are two ways of expressing "to be" in Manx: with the substantive verb bee, and with the copula. The substantive verb is used when the predicate is an adjective, adverb, or prepositional phrase. Examples:

t'

is

eh

it

agglagh

awful/frightening

"It is awful/frightening."

t'

is

eh

he

dy mie

well

"He is well"

t'

is

eh

he

ayns

in

y

the

thie-oast

house-ale

"He is in the ale-house (pub)."

Where the predicate is a noun, it must be converted to a prepositional phrase headed by the preposition in ("in") + possessive pronoun (agreeing with the subject) in order for the substantive verb to be grammatical:

t'

is

eh

he

ny

in-his

wooinney

man

mie

good

"He is a good man" (lit. "He is in his good man")

Otherwise, the copula is used when the predicate is a noun. The copula itself takes the form is or she in the present tense, but it is often omitted in affirmative statements:

She

COP

Manninagh

Manxman

mish

me

"I am a Manxman."

Shoh

this

'n

the

dooinney

man

"This is the man."

In questions and negative sentences, the present tense of the copula is nee:

Cha

not

nee

COP

mish

me

eh

him

"I am not him."

Nee

COP

shoh

this

'n

the

lioar?

book

"Is this the book?"

Vocabulary

Manx vocabulary is predominantly of Goidelic origin, derived from Old Irish and has cognates in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. However, Manx itself, as well as the languages from which it is derived, borrowed words from other languages, especially Latin, Old Norse, French (particularly Anglo-Norman), and English (both Middle English and Modern English).

The following table shows a selection of nouns from the Swadesh list and indicates their pronunciations and etymologies.

See Celtic Swadesh lists for the complete list in all the Celtic languages.

Phrases

Loanwords

Loanwords are primarily Norse and English, with a smaller number coming from French. Some examples of Norse loanwords are garey "garden" (from garðr "enclosure") and sker "sea rock" (from sker). Examples of French loanwords are danjeyr "danger" (from danger) and vondeish "advantage" (from avantage).

English loanwords were common in late (pre-revival) Manx, e.g. boy "boy", badjer "badger", rather than the more usual native Gaelic guilley and brock. In more recent years, there has been a reaction against such borrowing, resulting in coinages for technical vocabulary. Despite this, calques exist in Manx, not necessarily obvious to its speakers. To fill gaps in recorded Manx vocabulary, revivalists have referred to modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic for words and inspiration.

Some religious terms come ultimately from Latin, Greek and Hebrew, e.g. casherick "holy" (from Latin consecrātus), agglish "church" (from Greek ἐκκλησία/ekklesia "assembly") and abb "abbot" (from Hebrew אבא/abba "father"). These did not necessarily come directly into Manx, but via Old Irish. In more recent times, ulpan has been borrowed from modern Hebrew. Many Irish and English loanwords also have a classical origin, e.g. çhellveeish "television" (Irish teilifís) and çhellvane "telephone". Foreign language words (usually via English) are used occasionally especially for ethnic food, e.g. chorizo and spaghetti.

Going in the other direction, Manx Gaelic has influenced Manx English (Anglo-Manx). Common words and phrases in Anglo-Manx originating in the language include tholtan "ruined farmhouse", quaaltagh "first-foot", keeill "(old) church", cammag, traa-dy-liooar "time enough", and Tynwald (tinvaal), which is ultimately of Norse origin, but comes from Manx. It is suggested that the House of Keys takes its name from Kiare as Feed (four and twenty), which is the number of its sitting members.

Vocabulary comparison examples

Example text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Manx:

The following examples are taken from Broderick 1984–86, 1:178–79 and 1:350–53. The first example is from a speaker of Northern Manx, the second from Ned Maddrell, a speaker of Southern Manx.

Lord's Prayer comparison

The Lord's Prayer has been translated into all of the Gaelic languages (and Old Irish). Although not direct, it is a good demonstration of the differences between their orthographies.