(Extract from 'The Future Development of the Manx Language' A report to Tynwald by the Department of Education December, 1995.) Prepared by Dr. Brian Stowell.

Manx is a Celtic language. Scholars divide the six modern Celtic languages into two main groups. These are the British or Brythonic group and the Gaelic or Goidelic group. The British group consists of Welsh, Breton and Cornish, while the Gaelic group comprises Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx.

Before the rise of the Roman Empire and the subsequent pre-eminence of Latin, Celtic languages were spoken over most of Europe and into Asia Minor. Following the long period of dominance by Rome, Celtic survived strongly only in the extreme west, in the British Isles and Ireland, where Latin had made little or no impression on the local populations.

When the Romans withdrew from Britain, virtually all the people in what later became England, Wales and Scotland spoke a British (or Brythonic) language which eventually gave rise to modern Welsh, Breton and Cornish. It is likely that, at this time, people in the Isle of Man spoke this same British language.

With the collapse of Roman rule, British Celts were subject to increasing pressure in the south and east from Germanic colonists, leading to the creation of England and the dominance of the Anglo-Saxon language there. At the same time as the Anglo-Saxon incursions, there was significant Irish expansion into what became Scotland, Wales and south west England. The Irish colonies in Wales and south west England did not survive, but this was not the case in Scotland, where Irish speakers came to rule most of the country. In the Isle of Man also, the language changed from British to Gaelic (Gaelic is simply the Irish word for the Irish language itself), probably about 500 AD.

When the Norse arrived in the Isle of Man, then, the Manx would have been Gaelic speaking. There is historical evidence that, during the Norse period in the Isle of Man (ninth century to 1266), the ruling class spoke both Gaelic and Norse. It is likely that the rest of the population spoke only Gaelic.

It seems that, until (say) the thirteenth or fourteenth century, virtually the same, unified Gaelic language was spoken throughout Ireland, the Isle of Man and most of Scotland. For various reasons, three distinct Gaelic languages then began to develop, leading to modern Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx. These languages remain closely related, it being relatively easy to acquire a working knowledge of the others if one has a good grounding in any one of them.

Following the defeat of the Norse in 1266, control of the Island passed to the Scots and eventually to the English in the fourteenth century. Some Latin was used in the administration of the Island, but English quickly became the language of power and prestige. In spite of this, Manx remained as the first language of the majority of the population until about the 1830's and survived as a community language until the early part of the twentieth century. There are still significant numbers of people alive now whose grandparents or great-grandparents had Manx as their first language.

No traces of written Manx survive which date from before the early 1600's, although it is possible that The Manx Traditionary Ballad was composed about 1547 (this is a long poem in Manx giving the history of the Island). However, it should be emphasised that the Manx shared a common Gaelic cultural heritage with Ireland and Scotland. Oral (not written) tradition played a very large role in this heritage which did not separate into Irish, Scottish and Manx components until relatively late. In any case, from an early period, if Manx people were literate, they were literate in English rather than Manx. It is therefore understandable that written Manx (like Scots Gaelic) made what may seem to be a late appearance.

It is generally stated that Manx has little or no literature. Historically, this may be a fair statement as regards original literature in Manx. However, Manx can be said to possess a reasonably significant body of literature in translation when one considers the relatively recent emergence of Manx as a separate language and the loss of a ruling class prepared to act as patrons for works in the native language. The Book of Common Prayer and the Bible were translated into Manx in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The eighteenth century saw something of a flowering in the publication of religious works translated into Manx. Those literate in Manx showed their creativity by composing long religious poems in Manx called carvallyn or carols which were sung in churches.

It seems that Gaelic could have received a serious blow to its standing in the Isle of Man during the Norse period. Possibly, in terms of social status, Gaelic in the Island never fully recovered from such a blow. This might go some way towards explaining the remarkable zeal which many Manx people showed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in dropping their native language and yearning for its complete disappearance.

However, one of several paradoxes concerning the Manx language is that, unlike the other Celtic languages in, say, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it did possess a certain status and was used to some extent for official purposes. Clergymen coming to the Island were obliged to learn Manx, the language was used in courts, and the practice of promulgating summaries of new laws in Manxwas never discontinued. And it is said that Manx was spoken in the imperial residence of Sir Mark Cubbon when he was Governor of Mysore Province in the Indian Empire. Such a thing would have been unthinkable in the case of some other Celtic languages.

The Revestment Act of 1765 whereby the Duke of Atholl sold the Island to the British Crown set off a chain of events which caused a sharp drop in the fortunes of the Manx language. Immediately after 1765, the Manx economy declined markedly because of the suppression of the running trade and the imposition of direct rule from London. Before 1765, the Island had been relatively isolated with English not being needed outside the towns. Even in the towns, Manx co-existed with English without being immediately threatened by it. But after 1765, there was significant emigration, which naturally led to a trend towards English. Other factors contributed to a sharp decline in the use of Manx in the nineteenth century. These included immigration from north-west England (1790-1814), further migration from the Island because of depression (from about 1825 onwards), and the rise of mass tourism from about 1830.

Many Manx began to turn violently against their own language, as can be seen from a letter written by A Native in the Manks Advertiser in 1822. The following excerpt gives a flavour of the letter, but cannot fully convey the condition of pathological self-hate revealed by the whole letter: What better is the gibberish called Manx than an uncouth mouthful of course (sic) savage expressions....Abolish the Manx; I would say then, as fast as ye can, ye learned of the country. Judges, Lawyers, Clergy, crush it. Allow no one, not even one of your servants or neighbours to speak one word of Manx; and thus, by degrees, annihilate it.

Although the language had started to decline and both Kelly (1800) and Cregeen (1835) felt impelled to apologise for producing their dictionaries, many thousands of Manx people in the nineteenth century effectively knew no other language but Manx. The census of 1871 showed that 25% of the population were Manx speakers. Almost certainly, this would have been an underestimate, because by that time many people were ashamed to say they spoke Manx. The trauma of a change of language and hence of culture undoubtedly left its mark on many Manx people, contributing to the jus the shy syndrome and giving a loss of self-confidence the legacy of which, it can be argued, we are still living with.

Against all this, the resilience of Manx in some country areas was shown by the fact that, in 1863, Governor Loch issued wanted notices which were entirely in Manx. These notices offered a reward of one hundred pounds to anyone who gave information about persons who had destroyed stone walls in Lezayre and Maughold (provided the informant could prove he or she had not taken part in destroying walls themselves).

In 1899, Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh (The Manx Language Society) was formed to preserve and promote the language. It is interesting to note that, at the first annual general meeting of Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh, Mr A.W. Moore, who did so much for Manx culture, warmly supported the study of Manx. However, he expressed his disapproval of knowledge of Manx being handed on to children. This attitude that the study of the language should be kept as purely academic is, of course, understandable. But there is no reason why antiquarianism and revivalism cannot live together and complement each other (as has been happening from some time).

Prominent among those working for Manx was J.J. Kneen, whose devotion at a time of almost total neglect of the language was an inspiration to many.

By the 1950's, only about ten native speakers remained, the most prominent being Ned Maddrell from the South and John Kneen from the North. Luckily, the advent of tape recorders enabled a healthy collection of recordings to be made, thus preserving the essential features of the spoken language of the middle and late nineteenth century. The late Doug Fargher played a major role in popularising Manx and promoting it as a living, spoken language. In Millenium Year, 1979, he published his comprehensive English-Manx dictionary, with support from the Government.

With their academic work, the Reverend Robert Thomson and Dr George Broderick have done a very great deal to make up for the previous lack of publications on Manx in the field of Celtic Studies. The Reverend Thomson has pointed out that the recent history of Manx is not about revival but continuity. Manx did die as a general community language, but the continuity of knowledge about it and the ability to speak it has not been broken. As the display about Manx in the heritage centre at Machynlleth in Wales has it: T'ee foast ayn - It's still there.