Christopher Lewin Discusses the Celtic Language, Manx, and How It
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Languages of the world Christopher Lewin discusses the Celtic language, Manx, and how it has been revived in the modern Isle of Man Manx Where is it spoken? Where did it come from? literature such as the eighteenth Manx, or Manx Gaelic, is spoken It is believed the language was century Bible translation. These in the Isle of Man, a small semi- brought to the island from pioneers of the language revival independent micronation in Ireland around AD 500, and in turn have taught Manx to the Irish Sea mid-way between was spoken by the majority of many others and there have England, Scotland, Wales and the population until the mid- even been children raised in the Ireland, which is not part of the nineteenth century. From then language, so it once again can be UK or the EU and has its own it gave way to English, first in a said to have native speakers. laws, government and traditions. heavily Manx-influenced guise, and latterly in the form of the Who speaks it? What kind of language is it? fairly standard and generic Although very few people It is a Goidelic Celtic language English spoken natively by most speak Manx as a first language, closely related to Irish and Manx people today. there is a growing network of Scottish Gaelic, and partially However, the last generation enthusiastic fluent speakers who mutually intelligible with them. of traditional native speakers use Manx on a regular basis as It is more distantly related to survived well into the twentieth the medium of communication the Brythonic Celtic languages century (the last, Ned Maddrell, in friendships, social and cultural (Welsh, Cornish and Breton) died in 1974) and a number events, the workplace, the media, and more distantly still to the of people who developed an and other areas. According to other Indo-European languages interest in the language learned the 2011 census, there are 1,662 (such as English, French, Russian, Manx as a second language from people able to speak Manx in the Hindi). them, supplementing their study island out of a total population of by reading the few works of 84,497 (2%). 42 Babel The Language Magazine | August 2014 Languages of the world People of all ages are to the status being changed to Manx in five minutes involved in the Manx language ‘critically endangered’. Kys t’ou [kɪs tau]̪ How are you? movement, and represent many different backgrounds and What is it like? Ta mee braew [ta̪ mi brau] I am fine motivations for learning Manx. Manx was cut off for many Goll as gaccan [gɔɫ as gagan] Going and grumbling Some feel it is an important part centuries from the wider Gaelic (a common reply to Kys t’ou?) of their Manx national identity, cultural sphere, including the Gura mie ayd [gurə mai ɛd]̪ Thank you but many people who have classical Gaelic literary tradition Palçhey puddase as skeddan dy liooar [ˈpalʲtʃə moved to the island from Britain and writing system. For this pəˈd̪ɛːs as ˈskadan̪ đə lʲuːr] Plenty of potatoes and and Ireland and further afield reason when it first came to be herring enough (part of a New Year blessing) have adopted the language, and written down by Anglican clergy Bioys da dooinney as baase da eeast [ˈbjoːəs d̪ɛː ‘come-overs’ (as Manx people in the seventeenth century, dun̪ ʲə as bɛːs d̪ɛː jiːs] Life to man and death to fish light-heartedly call them) have they used an English-based (i.e. may the fishermen return safely from the sea been some of the most ardent system and it is a version of this with a good catch) supporters of Manx over the system which is still in use today. Ta graih aym ort [ta̪ grai ɛm ɔrt]̪ I love you years. For example, ee, oo, ie, ay are pronounced as in English. Not How has Manx survived? everyone likes this system, and graih aym ort ‘there is love at One of the most important it can be a barrier to Irish and me on you = I have love on you’. developments in the language Scottish Gaelic speakers trying Notice also that Manx has single in recent times has been the to read Manx, but it seems too words for preposition + pronoun development of a Manx-medium well established to change now. (e.g. ort ‘on you’), so you have primary school, Yn Vunscoill Manx also has some distinctive to learn tables of conjugated Ghaelgagh (‘the Gaelic Primary orthographic conventions, such prepositional pronouns. School’), which began with four as aa for the vowel sound in In terms of sounds, Manx pupils in 2001 as a unit in an English ‘care’. pronunciation is not very existing school, and now has One notable feature of Manx difficult for English speakers, about sixty children and its grammar is initial consonant although there are a few tricky own premises and head teacher. mutations (sound changes sounds such as the velar fricative Children are immersed in which change meaning). For gh [x] (‘ch’ in Scottish loch or Manx nothing but Manx for the first example, moddey (pronounced German Bach), and palatal Ls few years and learn all subjects, ‘mawtha’) means ‘dog’, e moddey and Ns (which are pronounced apart from English, through the (‘uh mawtha’) means ‘her dog’, with a kind of in-built ‘y’ sound). medium of Manx. By the age of and e voddey (‘uh vawtha’) means Manx vowels and diphthongs are 11, the pupils leave the school ‘his dog’. In Manx, the basic word quite complex. ¶ with a high degree of fluency order is verb-subject-object, in Manx and several graduates unlike English, where the verb Christopher Lewin recently graduated are already making important comes in the middle. This is with a degree in Celtic Studies from the contributions to the Manx quite unusual as only 12% of University of Edinburgh. He was born and brought up in Douglas, the capital of language community. languages worldwide have this the Isle of Man. word order. Is Manx safe, endangered, Manx, like other Celtic moribund or extinct? languages, as well as many other In 2009, there was an outcry languages world-wide such as Find out more in the island when UNESCO’s Russian, does not have a verb Atlas of World Languages in ‘to have’, using a prepositional Online Danger classified Manx as construction instead: to say ‘I For information about Manx today and learning materials, visit www.learnmanx.com ‘extinct’. A flurry of letters to the have a dog’, Manx says ta moddey organization from politicians, aym, literally ‘there is a dog at Books Isle of Man residents, Manx me’. This kind of expression is ‘Manx’ by George Broderick. In The Celtic speakers, and the children of the also found in Manx English still Languages edited by Martin J. Ball and Nicole Manx school (who asked ‘If our spoken by some older people. Müller (Routledge, 2010). language is extinct then what Similar expressions can be An Outline of Manx Language and Literature by language are we writing in?’) led used for certain feelings and Robert L. Thomson and Adrian Pilgrim emotions, so ‘I love you’ is ta (Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh, 1988). Babel The Language Magazine | August 2014 43.