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Manx language
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Manx (native name or , or ), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken on the Isle of Man. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, but in recent years it has been the subject of language revival efforts, and it is now the medium of education at the , a primary school for four- to eleven-year-olds in St. John's, Isle of Man.
is a Goidelic language, which means it is derived from Old and Middle Irish and is closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
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Encyclopedia
Manx (native name or , or ), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken on the Isle of Man. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, but in recent years it has been the subject of language revival efforts, and it is now the medium of education at the , a primary school for four- to eleven-year-olds in St. John's, Isle of Man.
Classification and dialects
Manx is a Goidelic language, which means it is derived from Old and Middle Irish and is closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It shares a number of sound changes with dialects of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, but also shows a number of unique sound changes. In addition, Manx itself can be divided into two dialects, Northern Manx and Southern Manx.
Manx shares with Scottish Gaelic the loss of contrastive palatalisation of labial consonants; thus while in Irish the velarised consonants contrast phonemically with palatalised , in Scottish Gaelic and Manx, the phonemic contrast has been lost; these languages have only simple . A consequence of this phonemic merger is that Middle Irish unstressed word-final (spelled -(a)ibh, -(a)imh in Irish and Gaelic) has merged with (-(e)amh) in Manx and Gaelic; both have become , spelled -oo or -u(e) in Manx. Examples include ("to stand"; Irish ), ("religion"; Irish ), ("fainting"; Early Modern Irish , lit. in clouds), and ("on you (plural)"; Irish ). In words such as oraibh, however, Scottish Gaelic agrees with Irish in keeping ibh.
Like northern dialects of Irish (cf. Irish phonology) and most dialects of Scottish Gaelic, Manx has changed the historical consonant clusters to . For example, Middle Irish ("mockery") and ("women") have become and respectively in Manx. The affrication of to is also common to Manx, northern Irish, and Scottish Gaelic.
Also like northern dialects of Irish, as well as like southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic (e.g. Arran, Kintyre), the unstressed word-final syllable of Middle Irish (spelled -(a)idh and -(a)igh) as developed to in Manx, where it is spelled -ee, as in ("buy"; cf. Irish ) and ("apparatus"; cf. Gaelic ).
Another property Manx shares with Ulster Irish and some dialects of Scottish Gaelic is that rather than appears in unstressed syllables before (in Manx spelling, agh), for example ("straight") (Irish ), ("to remember") (Gaelic .
Similarly to Munster Irish, historical (spelled bh and mh) has been lost in the middle or at the end of a word in Manx with compensatory lengthening or have become vocalised as u resulting in diphthongisation with the preceding vowel. For example, Manx ("winter") and ("mountains") correspond to Irish and (southern pronunciations and ). Another similarity to Munster Irish is the development of the Old Irish diphthongs before velarised consonants (spelled ao in Irish and Scottish Gaelic) to , as in ("carpenter") and ("narrow") (spelled and in Irish and pronounced virtually the same in Munster).
Like southern and western varieties of Irish and northern varieties of 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. For example, ("children") , ("brown") , ("butter") correspond to Irish/Scottish Gaelic , , and 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 , , (Central Southern Irish (Waterford/Tipperary etc.) , but short vowels in northern Irish, Arran, and Kintyre, .
Another similarity with southern Irish is the treatment of Middle Irish word-final unstressed , spelled -(e)adh in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. In nouns (including verbal nouns), this became in Manx, as it did in southern Irish, in some cases in Western Irish, and a few dialects of Scottish Gaelic, e.g. ("war") , ("to praise") ; cf. Irish and , pronounced and in western and southern Irish. In finite verb forms before full nouns (as opposed to pronouns) became in Manx, as in southern Irish, e.g. ("would praise"), cf. Irish , pronounced in southern Irish.
Linguistic analysis of the last few dozen native speakers reveals a number of dialectal differences between the northern and the south-western parts of the island. Northern Manx is reflected by speakers from towns and villages from Maughold in the northeast of the island to Peel on the west coast. Southern Manx is used by speakers from the Sheading of Rushen.
In Southern Manx, older á and ó have become . In Northern Manx the same happens, but á sometimes remains as well. For example, ("day", cf. Irish ) is in the south but or in the north. Old ó is always in both dialects, e.g. ("young", cf. Irish ) is in both dialects.
In Northern Manx, older (e)a before nn in the same syllable is diphthongised, while in Southern Manx it is lengthened but remains a monophthong. For example, ("head", cf. Irish ) is in the north but in the south.
In both dialects of Manx, older ua and ao have become a sound spelled eay in Manx. In Northern Manx, this sound is , while in Southern Manx it is , , or . For example, ("wind", cf. Irish ) is in the north and in the south, while ("coal", cf. Irish is in the north and , , or in the south.
In both the north and the south, there is a tendency to insert a short sound before a word-final in monosyllabic words, as in for ("whole") and for ("woman"). This phenomenon is known as preocclusion. In Southern Manx, however, there is also preocclusion of before and of before , as in for ("walking") and for . These forms are generally pronounced without preocclusion in the north. Preocclusion of before , on the other hand, is more common in the north, as in ("heavy"), which is in the north but or in the south.
Southern Manx tends to lose word-initial before , while Northern Manx usually preserves it, e.g. ("glen") is in the north and in the south, and ("knee") is in the north and in the south.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant phonemes of Manx are as follows:
The voiceless plosives are pronounced with aspiration. The dental, postalveolar and palato-velar plosives are affricated to in many contexts.
Manx has an optional process of lenition of plosives between vowels, whereby voiced plosives and voiceless fricatives become voiced fricatives and voiceless plosives become either voiced plosives or voiced fricatives. This process introduces the allophones to the series of voiced fricatives in Manx. The voiced fricative may be further lenited to , and may disappear altogether. Examples include:
Voiceless plosive to voiced plosive
? : "flag, rag"
? : "sin"
Voiceless plosive to voiced fricative
? : "cup"
? : "boat"
? : "tooth"
Voiced plosive to voiced fricative
? : "horse"
? : "face"
? : "prayer"
? ? : "stick"
? : "born"
Voiceless fricative to voiced fricative
? or : "married"
? : "stand"
? : "easy"
? ? : "beginning"
? : "live"
? ? : "past"
Another optional process of Manx phonology is preocclusion, the insertion of a very short plosive consonant before a sonorant consonant. In Manx, this applies to stressed monosyllabic words (i.e. words one syllable long). The inserted consonant is homorganic with the following sonorant, which means it has the same place of articulation. Long vowels are often shortened before preoccluded sounds. Examples include:
? : ? "heavy"
? : ? "head"
? : ? "birds"
? : ? "ship"
? : ? "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 itself a non-rhotic accent. Examples of the pronunciation of include:
Vowels
The vowel phonemes of Manx are as follows:
Manx has a relatively large number of diphthongs, all of them falling:
Manx diphthongs| | | | | | First element is close | | | |
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| First element is mid | | | |
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| First element is open | | | |
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There is evidence that open-mid and were originally separate phonemes from close-mid and , but by the twentieth century the pairs merged. When stressed, is realised as .
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:
- "sprite"
- "busy"
- "royal"
- "advantage"
Morphology
Manx nouns fall into one of two genders, masculine or feminine. Nouns are inflected for number (the plural being formed in a variety of ways, most commonly by addition of the suffix -yn ), but usually there is no inflection for case, except in a minority of nouns that have a distinct genitive singular form, which is formed in various ways (most common is the addition of the suffix -ey to feminine nouns). Historical genitive singulars are often encountered in compounds even when they are no longer productive forms; for example "cowhouse" uses the old genitive of "cattle".
Manx verbs generally form their finite forms by means of periphrasis: inflected forms of the auxiliary verbs "to be" or "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. Examples:
Manx finite verb forms | Tense | Periphrastic form
(literal translation) | Inflected form | Gloss |
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| Present | | (I am throwing) — | I throw |
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| Imperfect | | (I was throwing) — | I was throwing |
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| Perfect | | (I am after throwing) — | I have thrown |
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| Pluperfect | | (I was after throwing) — | I had thrown |
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| Future | | (I will do throwing) | I will throw |
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| Conditional | | (I would do throwing) | I would throw |
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| Preterite | | (I did throwing) | I threw |
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| Imperative | | (Do throwing!) | Throw! |
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The future and conditional tenses (and in some irregular verbs, the preterite) make a distinction between "independent" and "dependent" forms. Independent forms are used when the verb is not preceded by any particle; dependent forms are used when a particle (e.g. "not") does precede the verb. For example, "you will lose" is with the independent form ("will lose"), while "you will not lose" is with the dependent form (which has undergone eclipsis to after ). Similarly "they went" is with the independent form ("went"), while "they did not go" is with the dependent form . This contrast is inherited from Old Irish, which shows such pairs as ("(s)he carries") vs. ("(s)he does not carry"), and is found in Scottish Gaelic as well, e.g. ("will take") vs. ("will not take"). In Modern Irish, the distinction is found only in irregular verbs (e.g. ("saw") vs. ("did not see").
Like the other Insular Celtic languages, Manx has so-called inflected prepositions, contractions of a preposition with a pronominal direct object. For example, the preposition "at" has the following forms:
Inflections of ec "at" | | Singular | Plural |
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| First person | | |
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| Second person | | |
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| Third person | Masculine | | ("at them") |
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| Feminine | |
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Numbers
| Manx | IPA | English | Irish
cognate | Scottish Gaelic
cognate |
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| | one | | | | | two | | | | | three | | | | | four | | | | | five | | | | | six | | | | | seven | | | | | eight | | | | | nine | | | | | ten | | | | | eleven | | | | | twelve | | |
Initial consonant mutations
Like all modern Celtic languages, Manx shows initial consonant mutations, which are processes by which the initial consonant of a word is altered according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. Manx has two mutations: lenition and nasalisation, found on nouns and verbs in a variety of environments; adjectives can undergo lenition but not nasalisation. In the late spoken language of the 20th century the system was breaking down, with speakers frequently failing to use mutation in environments where it was called for, and occasionally using it in environments where it was not called for.
Lenition and nasalisation in Manx| Unmutated consonant | Lenition | Nasalisation | | | Not attested in the late spoken language (Broderick 1984–86, 3:66) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | In the corpus of the late spoken language, there is only one example of the nasalisation of : the sentence ("I have found the lamb"), where ng is pronounced . However, it is possible that the verbal noun in this case is not , which usually means "get", but rather , which is the more usual word for "find" (Broderick 1984–86 2:190, 3:66). | | | (no change) | | | |
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(no change) | | | (no change) |
Syntax
Like most Insular Celtic languages, Manx uses Verb Subject Object word order: the inflected verb of a sentence precedes the subject, which itself precedes the direct object. However, as noted above, 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 ("be") or ("do"). Particles like the negative ("not") precede the inflected verb. Examples:
When the auxiliary verb is a form of ("do"), the direct object precedes the verbal noun and is connected to it with the particle :
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 , and with the copula. The substantive verb is used when the predicate is an adjective, adverb, or prepositional phrase. Examples:
Where the predicate is a noun, it must be converted to a prepositional phrase headed by the preposition ("in") + possessive pronoun (agreeing with the subject) in order for the substantive verb to be grammatical:
Otherwise, the copula is used when the predicate is a noun. The copula itself takes the form or in the present tense, but it is often omitted in affirmative statements:
In questions and negative sentences, the present tense of the copula is :
Vocabulary
Manx vocabulary is predominantly of Goidelic origin, derived from Old Irish and closely related to words in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. However, Manx itself, as well as the languages from which it is derived, borrowed words from other languages as well, 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.
| Manx | IPA | English | Etymology |
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| | liver | | | | sky | | | | fire | | | | snake | | | | river | | | | father | | | | mouth | | | | worm | | | | woman | | | | tree | | | | flower | | | | year | | | | cloud | battle < Fr. | | | belly | | | | foot | | | | tongue | | | | stone | | | | ear | | | | guts | | | | skin | | | | bone | | | | heart | | | | person | | | | back | | | | leaf | | | | horn | | | | moon | | | | fish | | | | name | | | | sea | | | | grass | | | | tail | | | | feather | | | | tooth | | | | meat | | | | man | | | | rain | | | | hair | | | | root | | | | blood | | | | wind | | | | sand | | | | knee | | | | sun | | | | smoke | | | | dust | | | | fog | | | | sea | | | | breast | | | | forest | | | | head | | | | day | | | | hand | | | | ashes | | | | lake | | | | leg | | | | stick | | | | louse | | | | fruit | | | | dog | | | | mother | | | | neck | | | | night | | | | egg | | | | child | | | | road | | | | seed | | | | star | -óg; cf. Ir. , Sc.G. | | | bark | | | | wing | | | | mountain | | | | snow | | | | salt | | | | eye | | | | nose | | | | rope | | | | earth | | | | bird | | | | water | | | | fingernail | |
See Celtic Swadesh lists for the complete list in all the Celtic languages.
Orthography
The spelling of Manx, unlike that of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, does not represent the Classical Gaelic orthography, and is based on the Welsh and English orthographies. For example, is used for , as in Welsh (e.g. "horse"), and and are used for and respectively, as in English (e.g. "three", "hound").
If any distinctively Manx written literature existed before the Reformation, it was unidentifiable or lost by the time that widespread literacy was being seriously advocated, so when attempts were made (mainly by the Anglican church authorities) to introduce a standardised orthography for the language, a new system based partly on Welsh, and mainly on the English of the 1700s was developed. It is commonly supposed that it was simply invented by John Phillips, the Welsh-born Bishop of Sodor and Man (1605–33) who translated the Book of Common Prayer into Manx. However, it does appear to have some similarities with orthographical systems found occasionally in Scotland, also based on English orthographical practices. For example, the Book of the Dean of Lismore and the Fernaig manuscript are written in Scottish Gaelic using a similar system of spelling. However, it must be noted that the Book of the Dean of Lismore is based on the orthography of Scots, and not Southern English.
History
Manx began to diverge from Early Modern Irish in around the 13th century and from Scottish Gaelic in the 15th. The language sharply declined during the 19th century and was supplanted by English. In 1848, J. G. Cumming wrote that "there are ... few persons (perhaps none of the young) who speak no English", and 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 had fallen to a status of low prestige, parents tended not to teach the language to their children, thinking that Manx would be useless to them compared with English.
Following the decline in the use of Manx during the 19th century, (The Manx Language Society) was founded in 1899. By the middle of the 20th century only a few elderly native speakers remained (the last of them, Ned Maddrell, died on 27 December, 1974), but by then a scholarly revival had begun to spread to the populace and many had learned Manx as a second language. The revival of Manx has been 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. There is also the work conducted by language enthusiast and fluent speaker Brian Stowell, who is considered personally responsible for the current revival of the Manx language.
The first native speakers of Manx (bilingual with English) in many years have now appeared: children brought up by Manx-speaking parents. Primary immersion education in Manx is provided by the Manx government: since 2003, the former St. John's School building has been used by the sole Manx primary school, the (Manx language-medium primary school). Degrees in Manx are available from the Isle of Man College and the Centre for Manx Studies, while the University of Edinburgh offers an Honours course on the Culture, History, and Language of the Isle of Man.
Manx-language drama groups also exist, and Manx is taught as a second language at all of the island's primary and secondary schools and also at the Isle of Man College and Centre for Manx Studies. Manx is used as the sole medium for teaching at five of the Island's preschools by a company named , which also operates the . The first film to be made in Manx - the 22-minute long Ny Kiree 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 for Foillan Films of Laxey, and is about the background to an early 18th century folk song.
In the 2001 census, 1,689 out of 76,315, or 2.2% of the population, claimed to have knowledge of Manx, although the degree of knowledge in these cases presumably varied. Manx names are once again becoming common on the Isle of Man, especially Moirrey and Voirrey (Mary, properly pronounced similar to the Scottish Moira, but often mispronounced as Moiree/Voiree when used as a given name by non-Manx speakers), Illiam (William), Orry (from the Manx King), Breeshey (also Breesha) (Bridget) and Aalish (also Ealish) (Alice), Juan (Jack), Ean (John), Joney, Fenella (Fionnuala), Pherick (Patrick) and Freya (from the Norse Goddess) remain popular.
Although Manx is commonly used for written slogans by local businesses, and appears on departmental letterheads and promotional materials within the Isle of Man Government, it is not used as a spoken language within the business community, or spoken within the Government.
Manx is used in the annual Tynwald ceremony, with new laws being read out by ('the Reader') in both Manx and English.
Manx is recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It is also one of the regional languages recognised in the framework of the British-Irish Council.
Little secular Manx literature has been preserved. Arguably, no trace of written Manx survives from before the 1600s, but the Book of Common Prayer and the Bible were translated into Manx in the 17th and 18th centuries. A tradition of carvals, religious songs or carols, developed.
Examples
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.
| Orthography | Phonetic transcription | Gloss |
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| | They used to think if a horse was looking tired and weary in the morning then it had been with the fairies all night and they would bring the priest to put his blessing on it. | | | There was a woman here last week and she wanted me to teach her to say the Lord's Prayer. She said that she used to say it when she was a little girl, but she has forgotten it all, and she wanted to learn it again to say it at a class or something. And I said I would do my best to help her and she came here to hear it, and do you want to hear me say it? |
See also
External links
- at Omniglot
- by the Manx Language Project
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