Y Course Mooar

Introduction to the course

The course is centred round a story, ‘The American Inheritance’. Listen to the story on the cassettes and read it as well, visualising what is happening. Try memorising parts of the story and saying the Manx out loud. This is particularly helpful if you are learning on your own. It’s also helpful to read out the answers to the exercises where possible.

Notes on the various sections of the story should help you to understand how Manx works and how it is pronounced.

Other parts of the course deal with specific words and expressions relating to certain topics, such as where people live and work, leisure, health and so on.

There is also a fairly large section on grammar and related things.

Remember that you do not have to suffer to learn a language (or anything else). Anyone can learn another language. Do not be put off if you cannot understand some of the points in the grammar. Just keep going, and realise that it’s better to study smallish amounts with small intervals in between rather than tackle large amounts with weeks in between. Flit around the course if you want to and don’t think you have to learn everything that’s in it.

What is Manx?
Manx, or Manx Gaelic is the native language of the Isle of Man. Since many maps these days don’t seem to show the Isle of Man, it’s in the north Irish Sea with Ireland to the left, England to the right, Scotland above it and Wales below it.

For several hundred years up until, say, about 1400 AD, almost all people in Ireland, the Isle of Man and a large part of Scotland had as their first language what became known in English as ‘Gaelic’. This word ‘Gaelic’ came from the Irish word for the Irish language - up until about 1400 AD, if you spoke Irish you could travel right through Ireland from south to north, through the Isle of Man and through a large chunk of Scotland and make yourself understood all the way. But in later times, the Gaelic languages of Scotland and the Isle of Man became different from Irish, so we ended up with three separate ‘Gaelic’ languages - Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.

Manx was the majority language in the Isle of Man until the early part of the nineteenth century. By 1900, Manx had practically disappeared as a language spoken by whole communities. And by the 1950’s, there were only a few old people left who had learned Manx as their first language. The last native speaker of what we can call ‘old Manx’ was Ned Maddrell, who died in 1974.

But although Manx died as a community language, most of the language has been preserved in dictionaries, the Manx translation of the Bible and prayer book, the ‘carvals’ (traditional ‘carols’) and in tape recordings of the last native speakers.
Summaries of new laws passed each year by Tynwald, the Manx parliament, have been read out in Manx on Tynwald Day, 5th July, the Manx Independence Day, for hundreds of years. This practice was never given up.

There have always been people who have learned to speak Manx as a second (or third or fourth...) language. Some of these people have been very keen to revive Manx. A complete revival of Manx seems a fantasy, but there’s no doubt that the language is being revived for an increasing number of people, young and old, who can live more and more of their lives through Manx. You don’t have to be Manx to take part in this great enterprise!

Basically, Manx is an easy language. English speakers usually find the pronunciation easier to manage than that of, say, French. Manx grammar has the great advantage of being on two levels - easy and not so easy. When you get into the language, you’ll see what I mean. Don’t be put off if someone tries to get you to go straight to the not so easy level first. This may be all right if you just want to learn to read Manx and not speak it. But if you want to learn to speak Manx quickly, start off with the easy stuff and pick up the rest later.