Aavioghey as y Breear: Language Revitalization and the Manx Verbal System

Abstract

Many minority languages across Europe and elsewhere, including in the Celtic-speaking world, underwent linguistic obsolescence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In some cases, this ultimately progressed to language death. Manx, the autochthonous Goidelic Celtic language of the Isle of Man, was one such case. In more recent times, the Manx language has seen a revival, which has increased speaker numbers. Manx represents an atypical situation among minority languages, as the present-day speaker community is, with few exceptions, made up of speakers who have had no direct contact with traditional native speakers. Therefore, the present-day Manx speaker community bears closer resemblance to that of Cornish, as well as those of urban varieties of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, than to speaker communities in traditional Celtic language heartlands. This article discusses the language use of speakers of Revitalized Manx. It investigates some aspects of linguistic structure in the language use of three groups of speakers who have acquired the language in different contexts: teachers of Manx, speakers who received Manx instruction through the medium of English, and speakers who have received Manx-immersion education. An analysis of a number of verbal forms reveals differences in these three groups of Manx speakers, which may be correlated with the amount and type of input in Manx these speakers have received. The article discusses these findings in the wider context of processes influencing the linguistic production of speakers of revitalized minority languages.