Cornish and Manx: the Inside Story

MANX is different--really different.

It too was a dialect of Irish, but the Isle of Man was conquered by the Norse (Vikings), who dominated the place. It's been seriously and scholarlyly suggested that Manx developed as a sort of "Baby Irish" spoken by the children of the Norse nobility who married Manx women. Since this group of children of Norse fathers and Gaelic mothers dominated society, its speech became a privileged norm, and as Norse gradually ceased to be used, Manx took over all speech functions on the island, eventually also supplanting the original 'adult' Irish.

What does "Baby Irish" mean? Mostly, the grammar is simplified in strange ways.

To be fair, it's not really Baby Irish, though that is certainly a catchy theory. The Scottish Gaelic of the island of Arran formed a sort of transition from Scottish Gaelic toward Manx, and at least one of the odd aspects of Manx grammar (past tense formed using the verb 'to do' as an auxiliary) particularly characterizes the Welsh of the somewhat nearby island of Anglesey (if I remember correctly). Some other strange aspects of Manx are likely modern developments in a speech community that was dominated by official English; a speech community that lacked a written or spoken standard of its own; lacked a prestigious literature; lacked people cultivating the language.

It doesn't help, though, that Manx is written using a very strange orthography probably based on late medieval Lowland Scots or Northern English. (The Stanleys, a noble Lancashire family were given the island in 1399 and ruled it into the early 18th century.) If it weren't for the orthography, it would be somewhat easy for Irish or Scottish Gaelic speakers to read Manx, and for Manx speakers to read Irish or Scottish Gaelic. It's a shame....

Boayl nagh vel aggle cha vel grayse.
"Where there is no fear there is no grace."

Eshyn nagh gow rish briw erbee t’eh deyrey eh hene.
"He who will acknowledge no judge condemns himself."

Ta bee eeit jarroodit.
"Eaten food is forgotten."

Cha vel fer erbee cha bouyr, as eshyn nagh jean clashtyn.
"There is no man so deaf as he who will not hear."

Gowee bleb rish voylley, as gowee dooinney creeney rish foill.  (criona - wise man?)
"A fool will receive praise, and a rich man will receive blame."

Ta fuill ny s’chee na ushtey.
"Blood is thicker than water."

Except for one ballad about Fionn Mac Cumhail, Manx literature is translations of mostly English religious texts; hymns, and then nineteenth-century folk tales and songs.

The last native speaker (he was raised by his grandparents) died in 1974, but a few people had learned the language from him, and also from other native speakers who died before he did. The Norwegian linguist Marstrander and others had investigated the language when it was more generally spoken early in the 20th century, so Manx is fairly well known. There are once more fluent speakers and an elementary school that teaches in Manx. However, since many speakers don't interact with others daily, and the parents of the children learning the language in school generally don't speak it themselves, it remains to be seen whether Manx will become a spoken language again.

George Broderick has published a number of books in which he collects and edits much of the corpus of 19th and 20th Century Manx. 

Here is a recording of Ned Maddrell, the last native speaker.

CORNISH is the other revived language.

Cornwall was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in the ninth century, and Cornish communities were assimilated into English society in an ongoing process all through the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. By about 1800, Cornish was no longer a spoken language, even in the far west of Cornwall.

Golsow ty goweth        
2 Byth na borth meth
3 Diyskynn ha powes
4 Ha dhymmo deus nes

5 Mar kodhes dha les
6 Ha dhis a rov mowes
7 Ha fest onan deg
8 Genez mara pleg

1 Listen friend,
2 Do not be shy!
3 Come down and rest
4 and come closer to me
5 if you know what is to your advantage,
6 and I will give you a girl,
7 one who is very beautiful.
8 If you like her,
From an early poem text in Wikipedia's "Early Cornish Texts"

The language was subject of an antiquarian revival in the early 20th-century, but it wasn't until maybe fifteen years or so ago that people got serious about actually learning and speaking Cornish. An added problem is the fact that the language is poorly-attested, in many ways. 

Middle Cornish is much better recorded, as regards vocabulary and syntax, than Late Cornish, though. At least two standards (and the personalities behind them) are currently fighting for dominance in the already small Cornish language community. One standard is based on Middle Cornish, the other on Late Cornish. (A third standard is less clearly based on either.)

The standard that is based on Middle Cornish  recognizes the language's close relationship to Breton, and uses that living language's resources to supplement our understanding of Cornish. Indeed, it's been said that Cornish is really an aberrant fifth dialect of Breton. The two languages used to be mutually intelligible, and the two societies were united by the sea, in a way that Wales and Cornwall apparently were not.

There are native speakers of Cornish once more, but that is really only the very first step in reestablishing a speech network, much less a language community. One problem is that because no one in this century ever heard a native Cornish speaker, new speakers use a very "English" phonology and cadence. Gwenno Saunders,  formerly of the English pop group The Pipettes, is an example of this.

The literature was, until very recently, limited. The older literature is mostly late medieval religious plays.

Why, when Cornwall is mentioned, do many people think of mystery, moors and smoldering romance? It probably goes back to Daphne Du Maurier's romance novels of the 1930s and 1940s, and to the 1970s television series Poldark. Not that Cornwall isn't also mysterious--except maybe all the holiday resorts and so forth--and not that Cornish people cannot smolder with love, (though I have no direct experience of such)....