Focklyn Noa
Conning - Rabbit Keyll - Forest
Bayr - Lane Jeeragh - Straight
Lossreeyn - Vegetables Shed - Bwaane
Curn spreih - Watering can Streighyraght - Sneeze
Boagandoo - Scarecrow
Feyshtyn
1. He went for John.
2. Do that for him.
3. This, for you, is Manx Radio.
4. He is working for Peter.
5. This is bad for you.
6. I bought this for the teacher.
7. He was there for a year when I came.
8. They will come for me.
9. I sold it for a shilling.
10. Send for the butcher, I am hungry.
11. I was waiting for two hours.
12. This coat is too small for me.
13. I keep this shirt for a sunny day.
14. I ate fish for dinner.
15. Once upon a time there were four little rabbits.
16. They lived with their mother under a big tree.
17. Go out and play said Mrs. Rabbit,
18. but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden.
19. Then old Mrs. Rabbit went through the forest to the bakery.
20. The three good rabbits went down the lane to collect blackberries
21. but Peter ran straight to Mr. McGregor's Garden.
22. He ate lots of vegetables there and felt ill.
23. While he was eating he met Mr. McGregor.
24. Peter ran away and lost one of his shoes.
25. He lost his new blue coat as well.
26. He hid in a watering can.
27. Mr. McGregor looked for Peter in the shed.
28. Peter sneezed and Mr. McGregor heard him.
29. He ran away again through the window.
30. He was lost in the big garden.
31. Then he saw the gate.
32. He ran out as fast as he could
33. Mr. McGregor made a scarecrow with Peters new coat and shoes.
34. Peter ran home and slept for several hours.
35. I am sorry to say that Peter was ill that evening.
36. His mother made him a cup of hot camomile tea.
37. The other three rabbits ate bread and blackberries and milk for supper.
Thing's things
In Manx there are several ways of linking two nouns together. The way we already know
is to say something is
at
something or someone.
Yn thie ec Moirrey - The house at Mary (Mary's house)
Ta thie ec Moirrey - Mary has a house (Just to clear up
Ta thie lesh Moirrey - Mary owns a house the difference)
A rather more elegant way of saying a similar thing is to refer to the thing followed
by the thing that is identifying it. This also works for nouns identified by things
as well as people.
Thie Voirrey - Mary's house Lioar Yuan - Juan's book
Kione chabbil - a horse's head Ooh chiark - a hen's egg
When the first thing is associated with a particular second thing you should use jeh
to describe it.
roih jeh dooinney - an arm of a man
Yn mwannal jeh boteil - The neck of a bottle
stroin jeh'n chayt - nose of the cat
Yn glioon jeh'n ghuilley - The knee of the boy
A good way of shortening this is to say
glioon y ghuilley - The knee of the boy (NOT - yn glioon y guilley)
mullagh y thie - The roof of the house
reayrt ny marrey - The view of the sea (from Mooir (f) - Sea)
cassan ny greiney - The path of the sun (from Grian (f) - Sun)
What follows the
y
or
ny
is known as the genitive form of a noun. This is listed in dictionaries. It is usually
the same as the normal noun (as in thie - thie), but can be the same as the plural
(e.g. cabbyl - cabbil) or different again (e.g. grian - greiney). Don't worry about
them, the frequently used exceptions will be picked up in conversation or deduced from
placenames anyway.
The rule is use
y
before a masculine genitive and
ny
before a feminine one. After
y
the genitive mutates. Like all rules, there are exceptions I'm afraid. Also use
ny
before plural genitives of course. The y or ny can even be omitted completely in
conversational Manx (e.g. moddey keyrragh - sheepdog). Here are some genitives you
may already have heard.
boaryd - buird - table
cabbyl - cabbil - horse
cass - coshey - foot
keeill - killey - church
blein - bleeaney - year
moir - mayrey - mother
mooir - marrey - sea
keeill - killagh - church
dreeym - drommey - back
marroo - merriu - dead man
margey - margee - market