Manx language

An ogham inscription on a stone in the Manx Museum written in Primitive Irish and which reads DOVAIDONA MAQI DROATA, "Of Dovaido, son of Droata"[6]

William Christian, better known as Illiam Dhone (Brown-haired William)

Lag ny Keeilley (Hollow of the Church) on Cronk ny Arrey Laa (Hill of the Day Watch). The Manx language has had a substantial influence on the island's toponymy and nomenclature.

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.

A little-documented Brythonic language (like modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton) was the first known language of the Isle of Man.

The basis of the modern Manx language is Primitive Irish (like modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic). The island lends its name to 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 primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts, but there are no extant examples from the Isle of Man.

The transition from Manx Brythonic to Old Irish (or Manx Gaelic) may have been gradual and appears to have occurred after speakers of Primitive Irish settled on the Isle of Man, in large numbers, from about the 5th century AD. Their influence is evident in a change of language in Ogham inscriptions on Man.

It is possible that Old Irish did not survive the conquest and domination of the island by Norse-speaking Vikings, so that the modern Manx language may represent a later, revived form (derived from Middle Irish). During the 8th century AD, the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, like those in coastal areas of Scotland and Ireland, were significantly influenced by Norse speakers. While Norse had very little impact on the Manx language overall,[7][8] most modern place names on Man are either Norse in origin Laxey (Laksaa) and Ramsey (Rhumsaa). Other Norse legacies in Manx include loanwords and personal names.

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

During the later Middle Ages, the Isle of Man fell increasingly under the influence of England, and from then on the English language has been the chief external factor in the development of Manx. Beginning in 1405, Manx experienced even more English influence under the rule of Sir John Stanley. As contact between Manx speakers and Gaelic speakers from Scotland and Ireland declined, the language diverged further from its related neighbours.[7][8]

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 the majority of ministers were monolingual Manx speakers, his views had little practical impact.[7][8]

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 (Coyrie 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.[7][8]

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%.[9] Since the language was used by so few people, it had low linguistic "prestige", and parents tended to not teach Manx to their children, thinking it would be useless to them compared with English.[8]

Following the decline in the use of Manx during the nineteenth century, Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Language Society) was founded in 1899. By the middle of the twentieth 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 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."[7] This led to an increased interest in studying the Manx language and encouraged a renewed sense of ethnic identity. The revival of Manx has been aided by the recording work done in the twentieth 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.[10] The Manx Language Strategy was released in 2017, outlining a five-year plan for the language's continued revitalisation.[11][12] 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.[13] Since then, UNESCO's classification of the language has changed to "critically endangered".[10]

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,[14] an increase of 134 people from the 2001 census.[15] These 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.[14]

Traditional Manx given names are once again becoming common on the island, especially Moirrey and Voirrey (Mary, properly pronounced similarly 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 Godred Crovan of Norse origin), Breeshey (also Breesha) (Bridget), Aalish (also Ealish) (Alice), Juan (Jack), Ean (Ian), Joney (John), Fenella (Fionnuala), Pherick (Patrick) and Freya (from the Norse goddess) remain popular.

Because Manx has never had a large number of speakers, it has never been practical to produce large amounts of 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 MacCool and Ossian.[20] With the coming of Protestantism, Manx spoken tales slowly disappeared, while a tradition of carvals - religious songs or carols - developed with religious sanction.

As far as is known, there was no distinctively Manx written literature 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.[7]

The Book of Common Prayer was translated by John Phillips, the Welsh-born Bishop of Sodor and Man (1605–33). 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 schwa (e.g. cabbyl [kaːβəl] "horse" and cooney [kuːnə] "help" as well as /ɪ/ (e.g. fys [fɪz] "knowledge"), though it is also used to represent [j], as in English (e.g. y Yuan [ə juːan] "John" (vocative), yeeast [jiːəst] "fish").

Other works produced in the 18th and 19th centuries include catechisms, hymn books and religious tracts. A translation of Paradise Lost was made 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 Gruffalo's Child.[21]

In 2019 Rob Teare translated Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince into Manx.[22]

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. For example:

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."[23] An example was at the sitting on 12 February 2019, when an MHK used the expression boghtnid,[24] stated to mean "nonsense".[25][26]

Manx is used in the annual Tynwald ceremony and Manx words are used in official Tynwald publications.[27]

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.

Sign at the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh at St John's

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.[28]

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.

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.[29]

There are an increasing number of resources available for those wanting to learn the language. The Manx Language Development Officer for Culture Vannin manages the Learnmanx.com website which has a wide variety of resources. These include mobile apps a new podcast in Manx, the 1000 words-in-Manx challenge and the Video-a-day in Manx series. The most recent development on the adult language front is the creation of a new on-line course, Say Something in Manx which has been created in conjunction with the Say Something in Welsh It is hoped that this will be the main way on-line learners will access the language from now on. 2016 also saw the launch of a new dictionary for learners published by Culture Vannin.[30]

Signage

Use of Manx on the national museum, underneath the English

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.

Manx is one of the three descendants of Old Irish (via Middle Irish and early Modern Gaelic), and is closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It shares a number of developments in phonology, vocabulary and grammar with Irish and Scottish Gaelic (in some cases only with dialects of these) and shows a number of unique changes. There are two attested historical dialects of Manx, Northern Manx and Southern Manx.[36] A third dialect may have existed in-between, around Douglas.

Manx shares with Scottish Gaelic the partial 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 Scottish Gaelic and Manx, the phonemic contrast has been lost to some extent.[37] A consequence of this phonemic merger is that Middle Irish unstressed word-final [əβʲ] (spelled -(a)ibh, -(a)imh in Irish and Gaelic) has merged with [əβ] (-(e)abh, -(e)amh) in Manx; both have become [u], spelled -oo or -u(e). Examples include shassoo ("to stand"; Irish seasamh), credjue ("religion"; Irish creideamh), nealloo ("fainting"; Early Modern Irish (i) néalaibh, lit. in clouds), and erriu ("on you (plural)"; Irish oraibh).[38]

Medial and final *bh and *mh have become /u/ and /w/ in general in Manx, thus shiu 'you PL', Scottish and Irish Gaelic sibh (siph in Northern Irish, sib in South Connacht Irish; Lewis Gàidhlig has the variant siù, besides the more general sibh), -bh in final consonant clusters, e.g. Manx sharroo 'bitter', Scottish searbh /ʃærav/, Northern and Western Irish searbh /ʃæru/, Southern Irish searbh /ʃærəβ/, between vowels, e.g. Manx awin 'river' , Scottish abhainn /aviɲ/, Irish abhainn /aunʲ/, word-finally in monosyllables, e.g. Manx laaue 'hand', Scottish làmh /la:v/, Northern Irish /læ:w/, Western Irish lámh /lɑ:w/, Southern Irish /lɑ:β/, at the end of stressed syllables (see further below), as in sourey 'summer', Scotland and Ireland samhradh, Scottish /saurəɣ/, Northern Irish /sauru/, Western and Southern Irish /saurə/. In all this Manx is most like Northern Irish. Rare retentions of the older pronunciation of "bh" include Divlyn, Divlin 'Dublin', Middle Irish Duibhlinn /d̪uβʲlʲinʲ:/, also written Duibhlinn in Modern Irish and Scots Gaelic.

Moreover, similarly to Munster Irish, historical bh [βʲ] and mh (nasalised [βʲ]) tend to be lost in the middle or at the end of a word in Manx, either with compensatory lengthening or vocalisation as u resulting in diphthongisation with the preceding vowel. For example, Manx geurey ("winter") [ˈɡʲeurə], [ˈɡʲuːrə] and sleityn ("mountains") [ˈsleːdʒən] correspond to Irish geimhreadh and sléibhte (Southern Irish dialect spelling and pronunciation gíre ([ˈɟiːɾʲə]) and sléte ([ˈʃlʲeːtʲə])).[39] Another similarity to Munster Irish is the development of the Old Irish diphthongs [oi ai] before velarised consonants (spelled ao in Irish and Scottish Gaelic) to [eː] in many words, as in seyr ("carpenter") [seːr] and keyl ("narrow") [keːl] (spelled saor and caol in Irish and Scottish, and pronounced virtually the same in Munster).[40]

Like western and northern dialects of Irish (cf. Irish phonology) 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.[41] The affrication of [t̪ʲ d̪ʲ] to [tʃ dʒ] is also common to Manx, northern Irish, and Scottish Gaelic.[42]

Also like northern and western dialects of Irish, as well as like southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic (e.g. Arran, Kintyre), the unstressed word-final syllable [iʝ] of Middle Irish (spelled -(a)idh and -(a)igh) has developed to [iː] in Manx, where it is spelled -ee, as in kionnee ("buy"; cf. Irish ceannaigh) and cullee ("apparatus"; cf. Gaelic culaidh).[43]

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") [ˈkuːnʲaxt̪ən] (Gaelic cuimhneachd).[44]

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, cloan ("children") [klɔːn], dhone ("brown") [d̪oːn], eeym ("butter") [iːᵇm] 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 [klˠɑːn̪ˠ], Southern Irish/Northern Scottish [kl̪ˠaun̪ˠ], [d̪ˠaun̪ˠ]/[d̪ˠoun̪ˠ], [iːm]/[ɤim]), but short vowels and 'long' consonants in northern Irish, Arran, and Kintyre, [kl̪ˠan̪ːˠ], [d̪ˠon̪ːˠ] and [imʲː].[45]

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, e.g. caggey ("war") [ˈkaːɣə], moylley ("to praise") [ˈmɔlə]; cf. Irish cogadh and moladh, pronounced [ˈkˠɔɡˠə] and [ˈmˠɔl̪ˠə] in southern Irish.[46] In finite verb forms before full nouns (as opposed to pronouns) [əð] became [ax] in Manx, as in southern Irish, e.g. voyllagh [ˈvɔlax] ("would praise"), cf. Irish mholfadh, pronounced [ˈβˠɔl̪ˠhəx] in southern Irish.[47]

Dialect map of Manx (boundaries are approximate)

Linguistic analysis of the last few dozen native speakers reveals a number of dialectal differences between the northern and the southern parts of the island. Northern Manx was reflected by speakers from towns and villages from Maughold in the northeast of the island to Peel on the west coast. Southern Manx was used by speakers from 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 [æː]. In Northern Manx the same happened, but á sometimes remained [aː] as well. For example, laa ("day", cf. Irish lá) was [læː] in the south but [læː] or [laː] in the north. Old ó is always [æː] in both dialects, e.g. aeg ("young", cf. Irish óg) is [æːɡ] in both dialects.[48] In many words before rt, rd and rg, and in one or two other words á, lengthened a and ó have become /œ:/, as in paayrt 'part' /pœ:rt/, ard 'high' /œ:rd/, jiarg 'red' /dʒœ:rg/, argid 'money, silver' /œ:rgid/ and aarey 'gold GEN' /œ:rə/.

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.[49]

Words with ua and in some cases ao in Irish and Scottish are spelled with eay in Manx. In Northern Manx, this sound was [iː], while in Southern Manx it was [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.[50]

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 [sleᵈn] for slane ("whole") and [beᵈn] for ben ("woman"). This phenomenon is known as pre-occlusion. In Southern Manx, however, there is pre-occlusion of [d] before [l] and of [ɡ] before [ŋ], as in [ʃuːᵈl] for shooyl ("walking") and [lɔᶢŋ] for lhong ("ship"). These forms are generally pronounced without pre-occlusion in the north. Preocclusion of [b] before [m], on the other hand, is more common in the north, as in trome ("heavy"), which is [t̪roᵇm] in the north but [t̪roːm] or [t̪roːᵇm] in the south.[51] This feature is also found in Cornish.

Southern Manx tended to lose word-initial [ɡ] before [lʲ], while Northern Manx usually preserved it, e.g. glion ("glen") is [ɡlʲɔᵈn] in the north and [lʲɔᵈn] in the south, and glioon ("knee") is [ɡlʲuːn] in the north and [lʲuːᵈn] in the south.[52]

Some simple conversational words and phrases:

The Manx orthography is unlike that of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, both of which use similar spelling systems derived from written Early Modern Irish, alt. Classical Irish, which was the language of the educated Gaelic elite of both Ireland and Scotland (where it is called Classical Gaelic) until the mid-19th century. In general, these orthographies retain spelling and derivation from older Gaelic, which means that there is not in a one-to-one system. Both systems use only 18 letters to represent around 50 phonemes. While Manx in effect uses the English spelling system, except for ⟨x⟩ and ⟨z⟩, the 24 letters used in its orthography likewise covers a similar range of phonemes, and therefore many digraphs and trigraphs are used.

The Manx orthography was developed by people who were unaware of traditional Gaelic orthography, as they had learned literacy in Welsh and English (the initial development in the 16th century), then only English (later developments). Therefore, the orthography is based on early Modern English pronunciation, and to a small extent Welsh, rather than from a pan-Gaelic point of view.[53] The result is an inconsistent and only partially phonemic spelling system, in a similar way as spelling in English. T. F. O'Rahilly expressed the opinion that Gaelic in the Isle of Man was saddled with an inadequate spelling which is neither traditional nor phonetic; if the traditional Gaelic orthography had been preserved, the close kinship that exists between Manx Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic would be obvious to all at first sight.[54]

There is no evidence of Gaelic script having been used on the island.

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.[74] 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.[79] 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:

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).[82]

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.

Loanwords

Loaghtan, a Manx breed of primitive sheep. The name means "mousy grey" in Manx.

Foreign 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 meaning a sea rock (from sker, compare with skjær and 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 Gaelic guilley and brock. Henry Jenner, on asking someone what he was doing, was told Ta mee smokal pipe ("I am smoking a pipe"), and that "[he] certainly considered that he was talking Manx, and not English, in saying it." 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.

Some religious terms come ultimately from Latin, Greek and Hebrew, e.g. casherick (holy), from the Latin consecrātus; mooinjer (people) from the Latin monasterium (originally a monastery; agglish (church) from the Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklesia, literally meaning assembly) and abb (abbot) from the Hebrew "אבא" (abba, meaning "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 (Irish teilefís) and çhellvane meaning television and telephone respectively. Foreign language words (usually known via English) are used occasionally especially for ethnic food, e.g. chorizo, spaghetti.

To fill gaps in recorded Manx vocabulary, revivalists have referred to modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic for words and inspiration.

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 (the "th" is pronounced as a "t") meaning a ruined farmhouse, quaaltagh meaning a first-foot, keeill meaning a church (especially an old one), cammag, traa-dy-liooar meaning "time enough", and Tynwald (tinvaal), which is ultimately of Norse origin, but comes via 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.

• Cornish, another revived Celtic language.
• Irish language revival
• List of Celtic-language media
• List of revived languages
• List of television channels in Celtic languages

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• Ó Baoill, Colm (1978). Contributions to a Comparative Study of Ulster Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University of Belfast.
• O'Rahilly, Thomas F. (1932). Irish Dialects Past and Present. Dublin: Browne and Nolan. Reprinted 1976, 1988 by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 0-901282-55-3.
• Ó Cuív, Brian (1944). The Irish of West Muskerry, Co. Cork. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 0-901282-52-9.
• Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000). Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish). Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann. ISBN 0-946452-97-0.
• Thomson, Robert L. (1992). "The Manx language". In Donald MacAulay (ed.). The Celtic Languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–36. ISBN 0-521-23127-2.
• Williams, Nicholas (1994). "An Mhanainnis". In K. McCone; D. McManus; C. Ó Háinle; N. Williams; L. Breatnach (eds.). Stair na Gaeilge in ómós do Pádraig Ó Fiannachta (in Irish). Maynooth: Department of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College. pp. 703–44. ISBN 0-901519-90-1.

Manx edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manx language.

For a list of words relating to Manx, see the Manx language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Manx.

Manx language repository of Wikisource, the free library

• Percentage of resident population with a knowledge of Manx Gaelic
• A bit of Manx Gaelic history
• Manx language, alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot
• Information about the language
• isle-of-man.com language section
• Manx dictionaries via Multidict
• Online Manx Lessons with MP3 recordings
• Bilingual Bible in Manx and English by the Manx Language Project
• Manx: Bringing a language back from the dead
• Media article about the Manx revival
• Manx free online course