Part 3.2 Notes about Part 3.1
Ayrn 3.2 Notyn mychione Ayrn 3.1

Combination ‘oo’
Pure vowel sound like ‘oo’ in Scottish/Irish pronunciation of English ‘pool’, or ‘uh’ in German ‘Kuh’.
shooyl (SHOO-al) = walking
dy liooar (the-L’YOOR) = enough

Combinations ‘ea’ and ‘eay’
Pronounced like ‘ay’ or ‘ee’. Manx words with these vowel combinations in them often come from words in Irish where the combinations are spelled ‘ua’.
gleashtan (GLAYSH-chan) = a car (Irish: gluaisteán)
keayn (keedn) = sea (Irish: cuan)

You have to learn when to say ‘ay’ and when to say ‘ee’. In some words, you’ll find both pronunciations - take your pick:
cleaysh (kleesh/klaysh) = ear

Don’t get worried over variations in the pronunciation of Manx! (Remember the big variations there are in ‘standardised’ languages like English).

Manx peculiarities: (highly) intrusive ‘d’ and ‘b’
You probably thought ‘keedn’ was a mistake for the pronunciation of keayn: it wasn’t. Manx speakers developed the habit of sticking in d’s before some n’s and b’s before some m’s. Some people get worried about this, possibly associating the habit with irredeemable decadence. If it worries you, say the words as written - but keayn does sound very strange pronounced as ‘keen’. The word for ‘full’ also does not sound genuine without its ‘d’:
lane (leddn) = full
trome (trohm/trohbm) = heavy

Combination ‘dd’
In the middle of a word, this is pronounced like English ‘th’ in ‘that’:
moddey (MAWTH-a) = a dog
geddyn (gETH-un) = getting, finding

Combination ‘gh’ at beginning of word
This is a sound not found in English - it’s pronounced right back in the throat.
Say ‘g’ as in English ‘goat’ and gargle a bit:
shooylaghan Ghoolish (SHOOL-akh-an-GHOO-lish) = Douglas promenade (the promenade of Douglas)





S’mie lesh Kirree shooyl = Kirree likes walking (‘Is good with Kirree walking’).
share = is better
Share shooyl = It’s better to walk (‘Is better walking’).
Share lhiam moddee = I prefer dogs (‘Is better with-me dogs’)

Historically, share came from is-are (‘is better’). We meet ‘are’ in another disguise in this:
Cre’n fa ren oo gra dy nhare lhiat moddee? = Why did you say that you prefer dogs? (‘Why did you say that better with-you dogs?’)

We use nhare in questions:
Nhare lhiat moddee? = Do you prefer dogs? (‘Is better with-you dogs?’)


If we’re talking about one of anything, we’ve got the singular. More than one, and we’ve got the plural. So, ‘house’ is in the singular and ‘houses’ is in the plural. It’s generally easy to make plurals in English - we just add ‘s’ (as with ‘house’). But there are some exceptions, like ‘man’ and ‘men’, and ‘mouse’ and mice’.

The commonest way to make plurals in Manx is it add -yn:
thie = a house; thieyn = houses
gleashtan = a car; gleashtanyn = cars

Like lots of other languages, Manx has a few ways of making plurals (and it’s not optional which way you use). One fairly radical example is:
keeill = a church; kialteenyn = churches
Don’t worry - they’re not all like this.

In Manx, the word for ‘the’ goes into the plural as well:
y thie / yn thie = the house
ny thieyn = the houses

In the singular, ‘the’ can be y or yn before a consonant, but, naturally, it’s always yn before a vowel:
y traie / yn traie = the beach, the shore
yn olk = the evil; the mischief


You may be getting indigestion with technical terms, but words like ‘I’, ‘he’, ‘her’ are called personal pronouns. Piling on the agony, little words such as ‘at’, ‘of’, ‘with’ are prepositions. Celtic languages are very fond of combining prepositions with personal pronouns to make single words. We’ve seen a few of these already:
aym = at-me
ayd = at-you
echey = at-him; at-it
eck = at her; at-it
ain = at-us
oc = at-them

jeu = of-them
hooin = towards-us
roin = before-us
dooin = to-us

You can study all these combinations in their full splendour, laid out in tables. But at first, it’s best for most people to take it easy and swallow them up gradually as they appear in conversation.


You can give orders easily all the time by shouting Jean.....!
Jean goll! = Go! (‘Make going!’)
Jean çheet! = Come!

To make it negative, just put Ny in front:
Ny jean goll! = Don’t go!
Ny jean çheet! = Don’t come!

If you’re talking to more than one person, or if you’re talking to one person politely (giving orders politely!), you add -shiu (-jee in Old Manx):
Jean-shiu goll! = Go!
Ny jean-shiu sansheraght! = Don’t whisper!
Ny jean-shiu arganey! = Don’t argue!

If the verb isn’t defective (which is usually isn’t), there are shorter ways of giving orders, but it’s often convenient to use jean, especially when you’re speaking Manx.

In Manx (and Gaelic generally), if someone dies they ‘find death’ or ‘get death’: Hooar ee baase = She died (‘She found/got death’).


If something upsets us, it puts the evil or the mischief on us:
Hug shen yn olk orrin = That upset us. (‘That put the evil (mischief) on- us’).


See how we say things like ‘That farm’ and ‘This dog’:
Y gowaltys shen = That farm.
Y moddey shoh = This dog.
Y.......shen and Y....... shoh sandwich the nooun (‘name-word’).