SYNTAX

No attempt can be made in such limited space as is here available to describe Manx syntax which, like that of all the Celtic languages, is much more complex than the grammar and is quite different from English syntax. Certain characteristics of it have already been exemplified in the Manx sentences which have appeared hitherto in the text. Suffice it to say that so little does Celtic syntax resemble that of most European languages that various speculations have been made from time to time as to the possibilities of a non-Indo-European substratum (i.e. a people speaking a totally different kind of language in prehistoric times who after being perhaps conquered by the Celts, adopted the primitive Celtic language as their own but left their own strange syntactical patterns on it). In several respects Celtic syntax has similarities with that of languages like Hebrew and Arabic, e.g. moddey'n uinneyder (=[the] dog [of] the baker, 'the baker's dog') is exactly mirrored in Arabic kelb el-khabbaz. But until further, more concrete evidence for such a relationship between the two language groups comes to light, such speculations must remain just that.