After my recent 'excursions’ to Scotland and Wales, I'm doubling back and heading north to the Isle of Man to have a brief look at Manx.

A curious little language, once extinct and now in the process of being revived. I was a bit sceptical about reports showing about 1000 or so speakers (presumably using a broad interpretation of what it means to be a speaker) but if, like me, you are happy to be convinced otherwise, you have to watch this beautiful 10 minute video about the children and staff at the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh.

Anyway, the exercise below is taken from Bunneydys - a course in spoken Manx, published by Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh (the Manx Gaelic Society). 

It's a pretty slim tome, with basic conversations and vocabulary set out over 60 lessons. There is no grammar explanation or verb tables, etc. There is a very brief guide to spelling and pronunciation at the front, which is not as illuminating as one might prefer. (For example, for the pronunciation of 'gh', it makes a comparison with Scottish 'loch', but also says "if you can, get a Manx speaker to demonstrate this sound." Ironically this edition of the book was published in the auspicious year of 1974, so I guess it was still possible up to 24 December.... The wikipedia page also has a good guide to the oddities of Manx pronunciation as well as a certain amount of grammar information.

Anyway, a transcript of lesson 58 is set out below. One of the main points of interest for me is how similar Manx is to Irish and Scots Gaelic, while at the same time this similarity is hidden by its rather strange orthography, and so I’ve set out in the vocabulary list below the text all of the cognate forms as I see them. In many places, each of the languages are still cognate, but in some cases Manx is closer to Scots Gaelic, and in others closer to Irish, and in some cases Manx has diverged from both of them. In a couple of cases I’ve not been able to establish a cognate form in Irish and Scots Gaelic, so it’s either been lost from both of them or come from a different source, which is quite possible.

Manx has been separated from Irish/Scots Gaelic since about the 5th century (Russell (1995)), and appears to have been a spoken language only. At any rate, there does not appear to be any evidence of it ever having had a 'Celtic' script like Irish or Scots Gaelic. At some point around the 16th century, a script was devised which was based on the English of that time, based on the use of 'gh' for guttural /χ/, but clearly with some influence from Welsh, in the use of 'y' for /ə/ and possibly other languages having an influence as well. 

An obvious downside to the script is that it loses a lot of the more obvious connections between words as they go through their various Celtic mutations such as lenition, eclipsis/nasal mutation and palatalisation, although arguably this is also a feature of the Welsh script to some extent. The upside is that the pronunciation is (somewhat) more transparent - at least to native English speakers - and also to those lovely kids in the Bunscoill!

Conversation

Moirrey: Naik oo mee hene as Juan heose er yn villey 'sy gharey, vummig?

Ealish: Honnick mee shiu, dy-jarroo. Ta treisht aym nagh vaik jishag shiu!

Moirrey: Cre'n fa, vummig?

Ealish: Er y fa nagh mie lesh paitçhyn beggey y gholl seose er yn villey shen.

Moirrey: Cha nel mee smooinaghtyn dy naik eh shin, aghterbee.

Ealish: S'mie shen. Agh cha mie lhiam shiu y gholl seose er yn villey, edyr.

Moirrey: Ta jishag çheet nish. Nagh insh da.

Vocabulary

Moirrey - girl’s name, equivalent of Moira Ealish - mother’s name, equivalent of Eilis, Elizabeth naik oo - did you (sg) see? Irish (Ir) an fhaca, Scots Gaelic (ScG) am faca mee - I, me. The subject and object form of the pronoun is the same; the position determines the meaning. Here it is the object, following VSO verb order, as in the other Celtic languages. Ir mé, ScG mi hene - self.  Ir féin, ScG fhèin /he:n/ as - and. Ir, ScG agus, is Juan - John. heose up (location), seose upwards (motion). Ir suas (both meanings) ScG shuas /huəs/ up, suas upwards er on (here perhaps to be translated as in). Ir ar, ScG air yn, y the. Ir an, ScG an, am, a' billey (f) tree. Here lenited as villey, as it is a feminine noun after the article, the same mutation as in Irish and Scots Gaelic. Note different forms for tree are Ir crann and ScG craobh, however Dwelly (1901-1911) lists one meaning of bile as 'cluster of trees' (alongside lip), so this may be an archaic cognate form. 'sy in the from ayns yn. Ir sa ScG 'sa', derived from anns an garey (f) garden, here lenited as gharey. Ir. gardín, garrai ScG gàradh honnick mee I saw. Ir chonaic mé. ScG chunnaic mi shiu you (pl). Ir, ScG sibh dy-jarroo indeed. Ir go dearfa, ScG gu dearbh. Note the regular sound change from ScG -bh /v/ to -u/-oo /u/ in Manx, but also note the Manx divergence from Ir/ScG g- to d- in the adverbial particle. ta is. Ir tá, ScG tha treisht hope. Ir dóchas, dúil ScG dòchas. I haven’t been able to find a cognate form for treisht. aym at me. Ir/ScG agam. Ta treisht aym lit “there is hope at me” = I have hope = I hope (that) nagh - (that) not. Relative negative conjunction. Ir nach, ScG nach nagh vaik - did not see. The v- in the Manx form perhaps reflects eclipsis like in Ir nach bhfaca ScG nach fhaca jishag - daddy. Note unrelated forms: Ir daidi ScG dadaidh. I haven’t been able to find a cognate form for jishag. cre'n fa - why. Ir cén fáth? (lit. “what-the reason”). Note different form in ScG carson (lit “what-for-cause”) mummig mummy. In its lenited form here vummig reflecting the vocative form, as in Irish/Scots Gaelic. Ir mamaí, a mhamaí, ScG mamaidh, a mhamaidh er y fa because, lit "for the reason [that]". Ir mar, óir, ScG o chionn ’s (lit. from the reason that), oir mie good. Ir maith, ScG math. lesh with him. nagh mie lesh (it is) not good with him = he does not like. Ir  is maith leis, ScG is toigh/toil leis (lit. is pleasing with him) paitçhyn children, singular paitçhey. Ir leanbh, páiste. ScG leanabh, pàiste, but Ir/ScG plural usu. clann beg small here in plural form beggey. Ir, ScG beag, beaga goll, y gholl go(ing) (verbal noun). Ir dul, do/a dhul, ScG dol, a dhol. It is interesting to note that in Irish and Scots Gaelic, initial broad gh- and dh- share the /ɤ/ sound, and so perhaps the Manx infinitive to go gholl also shared this sound. Was the original verbal noun doll, but given the identity of the two sounds, did it then back-form goll? Just a thought. shen that. Ir / ScG sin cha nel mee I am not. Similar to ScG chan eil mi. Standard Ir has “lost” the cha, giving a different negative form níl mé smooinaghtyn think(ing) (verbal noun). Ir smaoineabh, ScG smaoineachadh dy naik eh that he saw. Ir go bhfaca e   ScG gum faca e shin we. Ir, ScG sinn aghterbee anyway. Different forms seen in Ir ar aon chaoi and ScG co-dhiù. But Ir also uses the similar wording ar bith any in other “any” phrases such as duine ar bith anyone. Is Manx aght perhaps the same as Ir acht condition? s'mie shen that’s good, fine, literally 'is good that'. Ir ‘s maith sin ScG 's math sin. Has been said to be the source of colloquial British English, 'smashing!'. agh but. Ir / ScG ach cha mie lhiam I don't like ('not (is) good with me'). Ir ní maith liom ScG cha toigh leam edyr at all. Ir ar chor ar bith ScG idir. (NB Ir idir means ‘between’ and cognate with ScG eadar) çheet come/coming (verbal noun). Ir teacht ScG tighinn nish now. Ir anois, ScG a-nis insh tell (here in root form = 2s imperative). Ir inis ScG innis da to him. Ir dó, ScG da,dha

Translation

Moirrey: Naik oo mee hene as Juan heose er yn villey 'sy gharey, vummig?

Did you see me and John up in the tree in the garden, Mummy?

Ealish: Honnick mee shiu, dy-jarroo. Ta treisht aym nagh vaik jishag shiu!

I saw you, indeed. I hope that Daddy didn’t see you!

Moirrey: Cre'n fa, vummig?

Why, Mummy?

Ealish: Er y fa nagh mie lesh paitçhyn beggey y gholl seose er yn villey shen.

Because he doesn’t like little children going up into that tree.

Moirrey: Cha nel mee smooinaghtyn dy naik eh shin, aghterbee.

I don’t think he saw us, anyway.

Ealish: S'mie shen. Agh cha mie lhiam shiu y gholl seose er yn villey, edyr.

Good. But I don’t like you going up in that tree, at all.

Moirrey: Ta jishag çheet nish. Nagh insh da.

Daddy’s coming now. Don’t tell him.

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As ever, if I’ve made any mistakes, please let me know. Or otherwise if you’ve enjoyed it, also let me know!

Thinking about my next ‘excursion’ now! Happy to take any suggestions.

(Named) References

Russell (1995), An Introduction to the Celtic Languages)