Manx – A third Gaelic Language

Everyone has heard of Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Not many people have heard of a third Gaelic language, Manx. Some of those who have, think it’s extinct. But, those on the Isle of Man would disagree with you. So, what is this language known as Gaeilge Mhanann in Irish (the Gaelic language of the Isle of Man)??!

Let’s start off with an overview.

Manx is a Goidelic Celtic Language (my second favourite language group), closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Manx or Gaelg as it is known in Manx, descends from the old form of Irish that was brought to the Isle of Man by Irish colonisers in around 700 AD. There is evidence of the Irish colonisers via the various Ogham stones that are located around the island. Not only that, but also the shared mythology and identity Irish and the Manx people seem to have. For example, Oisin i dTír na nÓg, a famous Irish legend is also a Manx legend. Indeed, the Isle of Man gets its name from an Irish Celtic sea deity, Manannán MacLir.

The language spoken at the time of colonization in Ireland and the Isle of Man was Old Irish. A language which during the Dark Ages following the fall of the Roman Empire, was one of the most widely written and well attested in the world, certainly in Western Europe. Old Irish later developed into Middle Irish and as time went on, Manx began to differentiate itself from Irish as did Scottish Gaelic.

In the past there was a much larger Gaelic speaking world stretching from the South of Ireland to the North of Scotland and the language, Old and later Middle Irish would have been spoken across this large area. As time passed and with foreign influences, such as the Vikings and the English, the Gaelic languages began to diverge and rather than being one language, they slowly began to form a dialect continuum. In the last hundred years, many traces of this dialect continuum have been wiped out as the southern Scots Gaelic dialects died out as did their counterparts in East Ulster in Ireland. East Ulster Gaelic would have been an intermediary between the three languages but unfortunately it died out in 1985 when the last speaker of Rathlin Island Irish died. This is a topic I will cover in another blog post, stay tuned!

Whereas Scottish Gaelic (SG) and Irish (IR) continued to write using Classical Gaelic orthography, Manx, due to the weakening of ties with Scotland and Ireland, diverged from the other two Gaelic languages and began to be written using English Orthography which explains how the language looks so different on paper. In reality, Manx is to an extent, mutually intelligible with Irish, as the great Manchán Magan on the Irish language TG4 programme No Béarla  found out in the video below where he had a conversation with a Manx speaker in Irish/Manx.

IT’S ALIVEEEEE!

Manx was listed as “Extinct as a First Language” on Wikipedia and Ethnologue formerly said that Manx has no L1 speakers left. What has happened here?

Manx slowly began to lose ground to English in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was not used in education or in administration. By the 19th century, Manx was no longer the main language on the Isle of Man. The language had lost its prestige and was no longer being passed on to the next generation. Sadly, Ned Maddrell (there are recordings of him on YouTube) the last native speaker. died in 1974. That could have been the end of the Manx language, but fortunately it wasn’t.

A man everyone in Ireland has heard of, was responsible for the survival of the Manx Language, Eamon De Valera. It’s fascinating how the story goes actually. De Valera, a proud and prominent Irishman, three times President of Ireland and three times Taoiseach (the Irish word for Prime Minister) was a major advocate of Irish language revival and was instrumental in Ireland leaving United Kingdom and becoming a republic. But in a BBC article (link at the end), we see how ‘Dev’ managed to reach out to our distant Manx cousins and help save the language.

“It was summer 1947 and Irish Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera was visiting the Isle of Man as part of a tour around the Irish Sea. During his sojourn on the island, De Valera, a fervent advocate of Irish Gaelic, met and spoke with Ned Maddrell, a native Manx speaker. De Valera spoke Irish; Maddrell Manx but the languages were close enough for communication. What De Valera learnt alarmed him: the Manx language was dying out and the Manx museum had no technical means to record the last speakers. On returning to Ireland, De Valera demanded that the Irish Folklore Commission immediately send a mobile recording unit to the island.”

So, there you have it, ‘Dev’ helped preserve Manx for future generations. Other Manx people have taken his lead. Brian Stowell (who unfortunately passed away recently) was a scholar who, arguably has been even more important in saving and preserving Manx is the man who talks to Manchán at the end of the aforementioned YouTube video. Good things are happening, there is a Manx medium primary school on the Isle of Man the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh so now children are learning the language. There are Manx programmes on the radio station Manx Radio and students can take Manx as a subject in secondary school.

So, what does this language look like? How different can it be? Well here we go

The standard version of the Lord’s Prayer in Manx Ayr ain t’ayns niau, Casherick dy row dt’ennym. Dy jig dty reeriaght. Dt’aigney dy row jeant er y thalloo, myr t’ayns niau. Cur dooin nyn arran jiu as gagh laa, as leih dooin nyn loghtyn, myr ta shin leih dauesyn ta jannoo loghtyn nyn ‘oi. As ny leeid shin ayns miolagh, agh livrey shin veih olk: Son lhiats y reeriaght, as y phooar, as y ghloyr, son dy bragh as dy bragh. Amen.

The Prayer in modern Irish Ár n-Athair, atá ar neamh: go naofar d’ainm Go dtaga do ríocht. Go ndéantar do thoil ar an talamh  mar dhéantar ar neamh. Ár n-arán laethúil tabhair dúinn inniu, agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha, mar mhaithimid dár bhféichiúna féin  Agus ná lig sinn i gcathú, ach saor sinn ó olc Óir is leatsa an Ríocht agus an Chumhacht agus an Ghlóir, trí shaol na saol. Amen

Spelt quite differently alright but if you sound it out when you know how it works phonetically, it does not sound that different to Irish. It is closer to Ulster Irish and Scots Gaelic, you would know this immediately from the pronunciation of Manx. Think for example the spelling of ‘row’ in Manx, this can be used as a guide for the pronunciation of ‘raibh’ in Ulster Irish. Manx also has the negative particle Cha(n), which is also in Scots Gaelic. In Irish it is Ní, which you place before a verb, apart from Ulster Irish where instead of being Ní, it’s………Cha. See the pattern here?

Some other words in Manx which you might be able to understand if you speak some Irish :

Gaelg                          Baarle

Moghrey mie            Good morning
Fastyr mie                 Good evening
Oie vie                       Good night
Kys t’ou?                    How are you? (Ir. Conas atá tú)
Feer vie                     Very well
Gura mie ayd           Thank you (Ir. Go raibh maith agat)

Manx is currently undergoing a revival and is now spoken by 2% (1800) of the Isle of Man’s 88,000 [2015]. It needs as many speakers as possible and it is a beautiful language. Learning it would make Scots Gaelic and/or Irish very easy to learn indeed. Or if you already know Irish or Scots Gaelic, Manx should be no difficulty to learn whatsoever. From my learning of Irish in primary and secondary school, I found Manx easy and very fun to learn. It gives you a window into the culture of the Isle of Man you would not get simply with English. It also offers the opportunity of a rapid language acquisition should you know another Gaelic language and could perhaps be your third language. Each language learnt makes the next one easier! Manx’s future hangs in the balance, it is undergoing a revival yes, but it is still critically endangered. Could you make a difference?

It’s getting bright outside so this is where I sign off. Have a nice day.

Slane lhiat!

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• There is an app for learning Manx on the iStore that I cannot recommend enough. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-manx/id579288608?mt=8
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/isleofman/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8483000/8483578.stm
• http://www.omniglot.com/writing/manx.htm
• https://www.learnmanx.com/
• https://ai.glossika.com/language/learn-manx