Manx language.html



Manx Yn Ghaelg, Yn Ghailck
Pronunciation:	ɡilk, ɡilɡ
Spoken in:	Isle of Man
Total speakers:	Extinct as a first language in 1974; subsequently revived and now with 59 native speakers1 and 1689 second language speakers (2.2% total population) (2001)citation needed
Language family:	Indo-European  Celtic   Insular    Goidelic     Manx
Official status
Official language in:	Isle of Man
Regulated by:	Coonseil ny Gaelgey (Manx Gaelic Council)
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	gv
ISO 639-2:	glv
ISO 639-3:	glv
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Manx (Gaelg or Gailck, pronounced [ɡilk] or [ɡilɡ]²), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken in the Isle of Man. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, but in recent years it has been the object of language revival efforts, and it is now the medium of education at the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, a primary school for four- to eleven-year-olds in St. John's, Isle of Man.³

Classification and dialects

Manx is a Goidelic language, which means it is derived from Old Irish 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.⁴

Manx shares with Scottish Gaelic the loss of contrastive palatalisation of labial consonants; thus while in Irish the velarised consonants /pˠ bˠ fˠ w mˠ/ contrast phonemically with palatalised /pʲ bʲ fʲ vʲ mʲ/, in Gaelic and Manx, the phonemic contrast has been lost; these languages have only simple /p b f v m/.⁵ A consequence of this phonemic merger is that Middle Irish unstressed word-final [əvʲ] (spelled -(a)ibh, -(a)imh in Irish and Gaelic) has merged with [əw] (-(e)amh) in Manx and Gaelic; both have become [u], spelled -oo or -u(e) in Manx. Examples include shassoo ("to stand"; Irish seasamh), credjue ("religion"; Irish creideamh), nealloo ("fainting"; Early Modern Irish (i) néalaibh), and erriu ("on you (plural)"; Irish oraibh).⁶

Like northern dialects of Irish (cf. Irish phonology#Word-initial consonant clusters) and most dialects of Scottish Gaelic, Manx has changed the historical consonant clusters /kn ɡn mn tn/ to /kr ɡr mr tr/. For example, Middle Irish cnáid ("mockery") and mná ("women") have become craid and mraane respectively in Manx.⁷ The affrication of [tʲ dʲ] to [tʃ dʒ] is also common to Manx, northern Irish, and Scottish Gaelic.⁸

Also like northern dialects of Irish, as well as like southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic (e.g. Arran, Kintyre), the unstressed word-final syllable [əj] of Middle Irish (spelled -(a)idh and -(a)igh) as developed to [iː] in Manx, where it is spelled -ee, as in kionnee ("buy"; cf. Irish ceannaigh) and cullee ("apparatus"; cf. Gaelic culaidh).⁹

Another property Manx shares with Ulster Irish and some dialects of Scottish Gaelic is that /a/ rather than /ə/ appears in unstressed syllables before /x/ (in Manx spelling, agh), for example jeeragh ("straight") [ˈdʒiːrax] (Irish díreach), cooinaghtyn ("to remember") [ˈkuːnaxt̪ən] (Gaelic cuimhneachd.¹⁰

Similarly to Munster Irish, historical [vʲ] (spelled bh and mh) has been lost in the middle or at the end of a word in Manx with compensatory lengthening or diphthongisation of the preceding vowel. For example, Manx geurey ("winter") [ˈɡʲeurə], [ˈɡʲuːrə] and sleityn ("mountains") [ˈsleːdʒən] correspond to Irish geimhreadh and sléibhte (southern pronunciations [ˈɟiːɾˠə] and [ˈʃlʲeːtʲə]).¹¹ Another similarity to Munster Irish is the development of Old Irish [oi ai] before velarised consonants (spelled ao in Irish and Scottish Gaelic) to [eː], as in seyr ("carpenter") [seːr] and keyll ("narrow") [keːl] (spelled saor and caol in Irish and pronounced virtually the same in Munster).¹²

Like southern 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, cloan ("children") [klɔːn], dhone ("brown") [d̪ɔːn], eem ("butter") [iː^bm] correspond to Irish/Scottish Gaelic clann, donn, and im respectively, which have long vowels in southern Irish and in the Scottish Gaelic dialects of the Outer Hebrides and Skye, but short vowels in northern Irish, Arran, and Kintyre.¹³

Another similarity with southern Irish is the treatment of Middle Irish word-final unstressed [əð], spelled -(e)adh in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. In nouns (including verbal nouns), this became [ə] in Manx, as it did in southern Irish and a few dialects of Scottish Gaelic, e.g. caggey ("war") [ˈkaːɣə], moylley ("to praise") [ˈmɔlə]; cf. Irish cogadh and moladh, pronounced [ˈkɔɡə] and [ˈmˠɔl̪ˠə] in southern Irish.¹⁴ In finite verb forms before full nouns (as opposed to pronouns) [əð] became [əx] in Manx, as in southern Irish, e.g. voyllagh [ˈvɔləx] ("would praise"), cf. Irish mholfadh, pronounced [ˈvˠɔl̪ˠhəx] in southern Irish.¹⁵

Dialect map of Manx (boundaries are approximate)

Linguistic analysis of the last few dozen native speakers reveals a number of dialectal differences between the northwestern and the southeastern 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 fallen together as [eː]. In Northern Manx the same happens, but á sometimes remains [aː] as well. For example, laa ("day", cf. Irish lá) is [leː] in the south but [leː] or [laː] in the north. Old ó is always [eː] in both dialects, e.g. aeg ("young", cf. Irish óg) is [eːɡ] in both dialects.¹⁶

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, kione ("head", cf. Irish ceann) is [kʲaun] in the north but [kʲoːn] in the south.¹⁷

In both dialects of Manx, older ua and ao have fallen together as a sound spelled eay in Manx. In Northern Manx, this sound is [iː], while in Southern Manx it is [ɯː], [uː], or [yː]. For example, geay ("wind", cf. Irish gaoth) is [ɡiː] in the north and [ɡɯː] in the south, while geayl ("coal", cf. Irish gual is [ɡiːl] in the north and [ɡyːl], [ɡɯːl], or [ɡuːl] in the south.¹⁸

In both the north and the south, there is a tendency to insert a short [d] sound before a word-final [n] in monosyllabic words, as in [sle^dn] for slane ("whole") and [be^dn] for ben ("woman"). This phenomenon is known as preocclusion. In Southern Manx, however, there is also preocclusion of [d] before [l] and of [ɡ] before [ŋ], as in [ʃuː^dl] for shooyll ("walking") and [lɔ^ɡŋ] for lhong. These forms are generally pronounced without preocclusion in the north. Preocclusion of [b] before [m], on the other hand, is more common in the north, as in trome ("heavy"), which is [t̪ro^bm] in the north but [t̪roːm] or [t̪roː^bm] in the south.¹⁹

Southern Manx tends to lose word-initial [ɡ] before [lʲ], while Northern Manx usually preserves it, e.g. glion ("glen") is [ɡlʲɔ^dn] in the north and [lʲɔ^dn] in the south, and glioon ("knee") is [ɡlʲuːn] in the north and [lʲuː^dn] in the south.²⁰

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant phonemes of Manx are as follows:²¹

The voiceless plosives /p k/ are pronounced with aspiration. The dental, postalveolar and palato-velar plosives /t̪ d̪ tʲ dʲ kʲ/ are affricated to [t̪^θ d̪^ð tʃ dʒ kʲ^ç 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 [ð z ʒ] to the series of voiced fricatives in Manx. The voiced fricative [ʒ] may be further lenited to [j], and [ɣ] may disappear altogether. Examples include:²²

Voiceless plosive to voiced plosive

• /t̪/ → [d̪]: brattag [ˈbrad̪aɡ] "flag, rag"
• /k/ → [ɡ]: peccah [ˈpɛɡə] "sin"

Voiceless plosive to voiced fricative

• /p/ → [v]: cappan [ˈkavan] "cup"
• /t̪/ → [ð]: baatey [ˈbɛːða] "boat"
• /k/ → [ɣ]: feeackle [ˈfiːɣəl] "tooth"

Voiced plosive to voiced fricative

• /b/ → [v]: cabbyl [ˈkaːvəl] "horse"
• /d̪/ → [ð]: eddin [ˈɛðənʲ] "face"
• /dʲ/ → [ʒ]: padjer [ˈpaːʒər] "prayer"
• /dʲ/ → [ʒ] → [j]: maidjey [ˈmaːʒə], [ˈmaːjə] "stick"
• /ɡ/ → [ɣ]: ruggit [ˈroɣət] "born"

Voiceless fricative to voiced fricative

• /s/ → [ð] or [z]: poosit [ˈpuːðitʲ] or [ˈpuːzitʲ] "married"
• /s/ → [ð]: shassoo [ˈʃaːðu] "stand"
• /ʃ/ → [ʒ]: aashagh [ˈɛːʒax] "easy"
• /ʃ/ → [ʒ] → [j]: toshiaght [ˈt̪ɔʒax], [ˈt̪ɔjax] "beginning"
• /x/ → [ɣ]: beaghey [ˈbɛːɣə] "live"
• /x/ → [ɣ] → ∅: shaghey [ʃaː] "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:²³

• /m/ → ^bm]: trome /t̪roːm/ → [t̪ro^bm] "heavy"
• /n/ → ^dn]: kione /kʲoːn/ → [kʲo^dn] "head"
• /nʲ/ → ^dʲnʲ]: ein /eːnʲ/ → [eː^dʲnʲ], [e^dʲnʲ] "birds"
• /ŋ/ → ^ɡŋ]: lhong /loŋ/ → [lo^ɡŋ] "ship"
• /l/ → ^dl]: shooyll /ʃuːl/ → [ʃuː^dl] "walking"

The trill /r/ is realised as a one- or two-contact flap [ɾ] at the beginning of syllable, and as a stronger trill [r] when preceded by another consonant in the same syllable. At the end of a syllable, /r/ can be pronounced either as a strong trill [r] or, more frequently, as a weak fricative [ɹ̝], which may vocalise to a nonsyllabic [ə̯] or disappear altogether.²⁴ This vocalisation may be due to the influence of Manx English, which is itself a non-rhotic accent.²⁵ Examples of the pronunciation of /r/ include:

• ribbey "snare" [ˈɾibə]
• arran "bread" [ˈaɾan]
• mooar "big" [muːr], [muːɹ̝], [muːə̯], [muː]

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Manx are as follows:²⁶

Manx has a relatively large number of diphthongs, all of them falling:

There is evidence that open-mid /ɛː/ and /ɔː/ were originally separate phonemes from close-mid /eː/ and /oː/, but by the twentieth century the pairs had fallen together. When stressed, /ə/ is realised as [ø].²⁷

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.²⁸ Examples include:

• buggane /bəˈɡeːn/ "sprite"
• tarroogh /t̪aˈruːx/ "busy"
• reeoil /riːˈoːl/ "royal"
• vondeish /vonˈd̪eːʃ/ "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 [ən]), 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 [ə] to feminine nouns). Historical genitive singulars are often encountered in compounds even when they are no longer productive forms; for example thie-ollee "cowhouse" uses the old genitive of ollagh "cattle".²⁹

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.³⁰ Examples:

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. cha "not") does precede the verb. For example, "you will lose" is caillee oo with the independent form caillee ("will lose"), while "you will not lose" is cha gaill oo with the dependent form caill (which has undergone eclipsis to gaill after cha). Similarly "they went" is hie ad with the independent form hie ("went"), while "they did not go" is cha jagh ad with the dependent form jagh.³² This contrast is inherited from Old Irish, which shows such pairs as beirid ("(s)he carries") vs. ní beir ("(s)he does not carry"), and is found in Scottish Gaelic as well, e.g. gabhaidh ("will take") vs. cha ghabh ("will not take"). In Modern Irish, the distinction is found only in irregular verbs (e.g. chonaic ("saw") vs. ní fhaca ("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 ec "at" has the following forms:

Numbers

Initial consonant mutations

Many places, such as Douglas, sport bilingual welcome signs. Note here the consonant mutation of Doolish (Douglas) to Ghoolish.

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.³⁴ 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.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Not attested in the late spoken language (Broderick 1984–86, 3:66)
2. ^ In the corpus of the late spoken language, there is only one example of the nasalisation of /ɡ/: the sentence Ta mee er ngeddyn yn eayn ("I have found the lamb"), where ng is pronounced /n/. However, it is possible that the verbal noun in this case is not geddyn, which usually means "get", but rather feddyn, which is the more usual word for "find" (Broderick 1984–86 2:190, 3:66).

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.³⁵ 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 bee ("be") or jannoo ("do"). Particles like the negative cha ("not") precede the inflected verb. Examples:

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:

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.⁴⁰ Examples:

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:

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:

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

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).⁴⁴

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.

Orthography

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