Manx Language Stuff



As with most of my other pages, this page more or less only makes sense to me.


Lenition and Eclipsis

Here's a chart similar to what Kewley Draskau has done:

Changes that all three lenition types do
b > v; boo, bw > v or w
c >ch
f > Ø
g > gh; gi > ghi or yi
k > ch
m > v; mw, moo > v or w
p > ph
qu > wh
Type IType IIType III
s > h
sh > h
sl > l
shl > l
sn > n
str > hr
çh > h
d, dh > gh
j > y
t, th > h		 s > t
sh > çh
sl > cl (or tl—rare)
sn > tn (rare)
str > tr
shl, çh, d, dh, j, t, and th do not change.		 Type III includes only the changes above.


Here are the reasons for lenition:

Type I

The Article

Masculine SingularFeminine SingularPlural Both Genders
Nominative-Accusative-Dativeyn1yn1,2ny
Genitiveyn1,2ny3ny4

1. Yn often becomes y before a word beginning with a consonant. It also occurs in the middle of a sentence if a preceding word ends in and a following word begins with a consonant. Yn becomes 'n after words ending in a vowel, h, or y. It is often connected in spelling to the preceding word: veih'n, ta'n, fo'n
2. This yn triggers Type II lenition.
3. While this is the normal form for the feminine genitive singular, its use tends to be used before feminine nouns that have a distinct genitive form only. It doesn't cause lenition, but it will cause an h- to be placed before a noun beginning with a vowel. Usually yn (the masculine form) is used for feminine singular genitives. Of course, this triggers Type II lenition.
4. In older forms of the language, ny used to trigger nasalization. Nasalization still shows up in place names and set phrases. The older form nyn is also seen here and there.



Manx Numerals

In many languages, maybe even most, counting is a fairly straightforward thing. So is putting a noun after a number—you just put the noun in the plural and you're done with it. Manx is much more complicated.

The information below comes from Practical Manx by Jennifer Kewley Draskau and First Lessons in Manx by Edmund Goodwin (revised by Robert Thomson).

Here are the cardinal numbers with pronunciations mostly from Wiktionary:

  1. 'nane or nane /nɛ:n/—is used for counting. The full form unnane is sometimes found. Before nouns the form is un /e:n/, /ɯ:n/, /u:n/.
  2. jees /dʒi:s/—is used for counting. If a noun follows, use daa. On the other hand, jees can be used to refer to two persons, 'pair', and 'couple'. The form ghaa /ɣæ:/ is also found.
  3. tree /tri:/—is also found as three. The form troor (trooar) also exists and is used for persons. As I vaguely remember, something like jees and troor exist in Polish and perhaps other Slavic languages; that is, special numbers for persons. Anyway...
  4. kiare /k´e:ə(r)/
  5. queig /kwɛg/
  6. shey /ʃe:/
  7. shiaght /ʃa:x/
  8. hoght /ho:x(t)/
  9. nuy /nɛi/, /ni:/
  10. jeih /dʒɛi/
  11. nane-jeig /dʒeg/
  12. daa-yeig /deig´/—for some reason Kewley Draskau has ghaa-yeig here.
  13. t(h)ree-jeig
  14. kiare-jeig
  15. queig-jeig
  16. shey-jeig
  17. shiaght-jeig
  18. hoght-jeig
  19. nuy-jeig
  20. feed /fi:d, fi:t/ (At least, that's what it sound like to me, but that final consonant might be platalized.)
  21. un as feed /u:n.../
  22. daa as feed /de:.../
  23. t(h)ree as feed...

Manx is a base-20 system like French. 'Twenty-one' is 'nane as feed, 'twenty-two' is daa as feed, and 'thirty-one' is 'nane-jeig as feed. ('Thirty' is jeih as feed.) This system is used up to fifty-nine.

'Forty' is two twenties—daeed (=daa feed). 'Sixty' is tree feed. 'Eighty' is kiare feed. 'One hundred' is keead.

Kewley Draskau says that from sixty until ninety-nine the word order is changed. The twenties are put first: kiare feed as jees is 'eighty-two'. This is a distinction that Goodwin doesn't make. For him, eighty-two would presumably be jees as kiare feed.

And now the fun begins. If you use a noun, the noun usually gets wedged in between the first chunk of number and all the rest. So 'fifty three boats' is tree baatyn jeig as daeed. Do not separate the noun incorrectly and get the wrong number: tree baatyn as feed 'twenty-three boats' but tree feed baatey 'sixty boats'.

Un (Type III) and daa (Type I) cause lenition. After un, nouns are lenited except for nouns beginning with dentals (t-, d-, çh-, and j-): un vac, but un dooinney. After daa, everything is lenited: daa vac, daa ghooinney.

As can be seen by the examples above, the singular is used if daa, feed, daeed, tree feed, kiare feed, keead, or thousane precedes the nouns.


Ordinals:

1st yn chied
2nd yn nah
3rd yn trass
4th yn chiarroo
5th yn wheiggoo
6th yn çheyoo
7th yn çhiaghtoo
8th yn hoghtoo
9th yn nuyoo
10th yn jeihoo

All ordinals cause lenition. After chied, nouns beginning with a dental are not lenited. Note that only the first element of a compound ordinal is in the ordinal form: yn chied jeig as feed 'thirty-first'.

Note also the use of keayrt 'a time, turn': un cheayrt 'once', daa cheayrt 'twice', tree keayrtyn 'thrice', etc...

Dual

1. If the article is used, it's in the singular: yn
2. Then daa. Daa causes type I lenition in the following noun and adjective (if there is one).
3. Next comes the noun. It's in the singular.
4. If there's an adjective, it's lenited and the plural form is used. Remember that only a few adjectives have a distinct plural form.
Example: Yn daa hie vooarey. The singular is yn thie mooar, and the plural is ny thieyn mooarey.

Dates

The Gaelg Corpus Search offers this for "on July 14, 1899": er y kiarroo laa yeig jeh yn shiaght (not çhiaghtoo) vee hoght keead yeig as kiare feed as nuy jeig.
Presumably, "2024" is daa housane kiare as feed.

Manx Irregular Verbs [Because I can never remember these...Also, see verb formulas below.]

Verbal NounPresent TenseFuture Tense1, 2Preterite TenseConditional1ImperativePast Participle
IndependentDependentIndependentDependentIndependentDependentIndependentDependent
ve /vi/, /ve/ 'be'ta3 /ta/, /te/vel /vel/, nel /nel/4bee'm or beeym /bim/
bee /bi/
bee
beemayd /'biməd´/5
bee
bee		bee'm or beeym
bee
bee
beemayd5
bee
bee		va6 /va/row7 /rau/veign /vi:ən/
veagh /vi:(ə)x/
veagh
veagh
veagh
veagh		beign /bi:dn/, ?/bi:ən/
beagh /bi:(ə)x/
beagh
beagh
beagh
beagh		bee (singular)
bee-jee (plural)8		(er) ve
jannoo /'dʒinu/, /'dʒenu/ 'do, make'ta mee jannoo, etc...vel (or nel) mee jannoo, etc...nee'm or neeym /n´i:m/
nee /n´i:/
nee
neemayd /'n´i:məd/5
nee
nee		jeanym /'dʒenəm/
jean /dʒin/, /dʒen/
jean
jeanmayd /'dʒinməd/, /'dʒenməd/5
jean
jean		ren /ren´/renyinnin
yinnagh
yinnagh
yinnagh
yinnagh
yinnagh		jinnin
jinnagh
jinnagh
jinnagh
jinnagh
jinnagh		jean /dʒin/, /dʒen/
jean-jee		jeant /dʒɛn´t´/10
çheet /tʃit/, /tʃɛt/10ta mee çheet, etc...nel (or vel) mee çheethigym11
hig /hig/
hig
higmayd
hig
hig		jigym11
jig
jig
jigmayd
jig
jig		haink /henk/daink /denk/harrin
harragh
harragh
harragh
harragh
harragh		darrin
darragh
darragh
darragh
darragh
darragh		tar
tar-jee

1. Only future and conditional conjugate.
2. Ve has special future relative forms: vee'm, vees, vees, veesmayd, vees, vees. Its use is described in Wheeler.
3. With the subject pronoun: ta mee, t'ou, t'eh, t'ee, ta shin, ta shiu, t'ad.
4. Either nel or vel can be used after cha. After nagh, dy, and interrogatives, only vel is used.
5. It's unclear to me whether the d in the -mayd suffix is palatalized or not. Some of the last speakers (in Broderick) seem to have palatalized the d. Some did not. In the Irish equivalent muid, the d would be palatalized.
6. With the subject pronoun: va mee, v'ou, v'eh, v'ee, va shin, va shiu, v'ad.
7. With the subject pronoun: row mee, r'ou (but often row uss), row eh, row ee, row shin, row shiu, row ad.
8. A hyphen is sometimes used between the jee and the root. Sometimes jee is added directly to the stem. The forms with (-)jee tend to be Biblical. Today the (-)jee is replaced with shiu or -shiu: bee shiu, bee-shiu.
9. There is a special form te (from t'eh) which is found.
10. The pronunciation(s) according to Broderick.
11. Goodwin has higgym and jiggym.


Verb Formulas

Present:

Imperfect: Preterite of ve or jannoo + verbal noun: va mee çheet or ren mee çheet. Interestingly, ren mee jannoo (using ren with jannoo) doesn't exist.
   Goodwin mentions an older written form if the verb has an object: auxilliary verb + subject + y(n) + lenited verbnoun. Example: Ren mee yn thie y akin. If the object is a personal pronoun, then: Ren eh my akin. 'He saw me.' If the object pronoun is emphatic, then: Ren eh mish y akin.

Prefixing g- Present Perfect: