Ball Martin, M?ller Nicole. The Celtic Languages

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756 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

not as good as it might have been. Nance’s systems of spelling and pronunciation had

been passed from teacher to pupil, and repeated without critical examination in most

textbooks.

Saunders was the ﬁ rst to react against Nance’s Uniﬁ ed Cornish; in 1979 he produced

a spelling system based on that of Lhuyd, but so radically different from Nance’s that it

did not gain acceptance (for an example, see Saunders 1985). Next, the whole basis of

the revived language was called into question; a small group, led by Richard Gendall,

believed that it was better to use as a base the traditional language of the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries rather than that of the ﬁ fteenth and sixteenth. These problems were

studied in great depth by the present author, and his recommendations were that:

a the grammar of Revived Cornish continue to be based on that of Middle Cornish;

b a phonological base be deﬁ ned, approximating the pronunciation of the traditional

language c. 1500;

c the orthography be modiﬁ ed so as to ﬁ t the phonological base, and form a system

which aspires to phonemic perfection.

The phonological base and its associated orthography (modiﬁ ed from George 1986 in the

light of more recent research) are summarized in Table 16.1.

Table 16.1 Correspondences between phonemes and graphemes in Kernewek Kemmyn

(slightly simpliﬁ ed)

Phonemes Graphemes Remarks

/i,

I, ε, a, ɔ, o, u, œ, y/ <i, y, e, a, o, oe, ou, eu, u>

/ej, aj, ɔj/ <ey, ay, oy>

/iw,

Iw, εw, aw, ɔw, yw/ <iw, yw, ew, aw, ow, uw>

/j, w/ <y, w>

/p, t, k; pp, tt, kk/ <p, t, k; pp, tt, kk>

/b, d, g/ <b, d, g> <- p, - t, - k> in polysyllables

/f, θ, x, s; ff, θθ, xx, ss/ <f, th, gh, s; ff, tth, ggh, ss>

/v, ð, h, z/ <v, dh, h, s>

/ʃ, tʃ, dʒ/ <sh, ch, j>

/m, n, l, r; mm, nn, ll, rr/ <m, n, l, r; mm, nn, ll, rr>

These recommendations were adopted in principle by the Cornish Language Board in

July 1987. The change- over to the new spelling, known as Kernewek Kemmyn, took about

six years to complete. Many teachers, perceiving the advantages of the new system, began

to teach it enthusiastically.

A small number of speakers preferred to continue with Uniﬁ ed rather than to change.

At the same time another small group preferred to use as a base not Middle Cornish as had

Nance, but the Late Cornish of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Williams (1995)

criticized all three forms of Cornish, and put forward his own spelling, called Uniﬁ ed

Cornish Revised (UCR). His criticisms of Kemmyn were rejected by Dunbar and George

(1997). Table 16.2 summarizes the bases of the four reconstructions.

THE REVIVED LANGUAGES – CORNISH AND MANX 757

Table 16.2 Reconstructions of Cornish

Grammar Pronunciation Spelling

Nance

(1929)

Middle Cornish

(principally the

Ordinalia) +

Middle Breton

1 English dialect of West

Penwith, c. 1900

2 Evidence of Lhuyd, 1701

3 Modern Welsh, c. 1925

Middle Cornish

(principally the Ordinalia),

c. 1400 ‘Uniﬁ ed Cornish’

George

(1986)

Middle Cornish

+ Middle Breton

(Brown 2001)

A phonological base

approximating the

pronunciation of Cornish

c. 1500, obtained from a

detailed analysis of:

(a) graphemes

(b) Breton and Welsh sounds

A system which aspires

to phonemic perfection;

similar to Middle Cornish

and to Uniﬁ ed Cornish,

but with some new

graphemes: Kernewek

Kemmyn

Gendall

(1991)

Late Cornish

of the ‘Newlyn

School’, mainly

Wm Rowe,

c. 1690

1 English dialect of West

Penwith, c. 1930

2 Evidence of Lhuyd, 1701

English spelling

conventions of 17th- and

18th- centuries’ ‘signpost

spelling’

Williams

(1995)

Tudor Cornish Based on Williams’

discredited hypothesis of a

‘prosodic shift’

Partly historical, but

with some anachronistic

graphemes: ‘Uniﬁ ed

Cornish Revised’

Lexicon

The work of expanding the lexicon has been continued by the Vocabulary and Grammar

Committee of the Cornish Language Board. In the early 1980s they published three sup-

plements to Nance’s dictionaries, entitled On the Roads, Kitchen Things and Home and

Ofﬁ ce (Snell and Morris 1981, 1984). The principle adopted by the editors of these sup-

plements was to use, in order of preference:

a an existing Cornish word, with extension of semantic range, e.g. maglenn ‘gear

system’, originally ‘mesh, snare’; lost ‘queue’, originally ‘tail’;

b a new word constructed from familiar Cornish elements, e.g. marghlergh ‘bridle

way’ = margh ‘horse’ + lergh ‘track’; glan gales ‘hard shoulder’ = glan ‘border’ +

kales ‘hard’

c a new word based or Breton or Welsh, e.g. oyl- men ‘petroleum’, cf. Breton eoul-

maen; rosva ‘promenade (road)’, cf. Welsh rhodfa;

d a new word based on other European languages, without giving English any special

priority, e.g. tuyow oll ‘through trafﬁ c’, cf. Fr. toutes dir

ections;

e direct borrowing, e.g. patrol ‘patrol’, cf. Fr patrouille; radyo ‘radio’ from inter-

national vocabulary.

758 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

An example of the kind of semantic problem that the compilers of the supplements had

to tackle is the allocation of the following words, all referring to containers of some kind,

to present- day kitchen equipment: bason, bolla, chek, kaltor, lester, padell, per, skala,

skudell, seth. This is very difﬁ cult in the absence of traditional speakers.

The work of coining and examining neologisms is undertaken by the Vocabulary and

Grammar Committee of the Cornish Language Board, and more widely by contributors

to the web- site Govel Geryow, run by Tony Snell. The forthcoming revised edition of the

Gerlyver Meur will contain the following approximate numbers of head- words:

Words in traditional corpus fully assimilated 5,500

partially assimilated 500

unassimilated 1,500

Neologisms 4,500

Total 12,000

It is interesting to note that about eighteen of Nance’s neologisms in group (a) were subse-

quently found in BK. Many of his words in group (b) are in widespread use; e.g. pellwolok

‘television’ (lit. ‘far view’), pellgowser ‘telephone’ (lit. ‘far- speaker’). Others have not

found favour; e.g. margh- horn ‘bicycle’, calqued on Breton marc’h- houarn (lit. ‘iron

horse’) has been replaced by diwros (lit. ‘two wheels’, cf. French deux roues); and golok-

wedrow ‘spectacles’ (lit. ‘view- glasses’) has been replaced by diwweder ‘pair of glasses’.

There has also been a tendency to replace the plural sufﬁ x - ys, which occurs in loan- words

form Middle English, by the Celtic - ow.

Publications

With the formation of the Cornish Language Board in 1967, the number of publications

began to increase. The Board has published new editions of almost the entire corpus of

traditional literature (see chapter 11), and has fostered new literature. The ﬁ rst full- length

novel was written by Bennetto (1984). Many others have followed, notably by Michael

Palmer and John Richards. The most successful magazine is the monthly An Gannas,

which has been running for over thirty years.

Since the introduction of Kernewek Kemmyn, the number of publications has risen con-

siderably (Table 16.3). The volume of new literature in revived Cornish now exceeds that

of the traditional corpus. Although some (e.g. George 2006) still copies the style of the

medieval plays), most work reﬂ ects a more modern style. Translations include Treasure

Island (Lyon 1984), Alice in Wonderland (Edwards 1990) and Die Zauberﬂ öte (George

2000).

THE REVIVED LANGUAGES – CORNISH AND MANX 759

Table 16.3 Number of items in the Cornish Language Board’s sales list

Dictionaries and grammar books 10

Courses (books and recordings) 8

Books about Cornish 14

Texts from traditional Cornish 20

Graded readers 26

Poems, songs and opera 7

Background studies 14

The Bible 24

CD- ROMs and DVDs 3

Total 126

Education

Cornish is taught in only a few schools (about seven at present). Even in these, it is almost

always outside the curriculum. The teachers are either Cornish speakers who happen to be

members of staff, or Cornish speakers who come to the school to give unpaid lessons.

It follows, then, that most Cornish speakers have learned the language at evening

classes, or through private study. In addition to about twenty evening classes in Corn-

wall, there are various classes elsewhere, notably in London and Australia, and from time

to time in Wales and Brittany. A correspondence course, Kernewek dre Lyther, has been

running since 1983. On its formation in 1967, the Cornish Language Board instituted a

system of examinations, now in four grades, which have received formal accreditation.

The glorious ideal, the ultimate goal of the language movement is to restore Cornish as

the vernacular of the Cornish people. This long- term objective is unlikely to be achieved

in the foreseeable future, though it would be brought nearer if Cornish were to be made

available as a proper subject to all schoolchildren in Cornwall.

Other domains

There are at present about ten religious services in Cornish every year, of which the best

attended are the Christmas carol service and the harvest festival. Numerous hymns have

been translated into Cornish. For many years, Rod Lyon has broadcast a short programme

in Cornish every week on Radio Cornwall. The occasional use of Cornish in the worlds

of government and business is newsworthy. Perhaps the most successful domain has been

the making of short ﬁ lms in Cornish.

Organizations

Since 1967, the teaching and development of Cornish have been managed by Kesva an

Taves Kernewek, the Cornish Language Board. This body was set up jointly by the

Gorsedh of Cornwall and the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, but in 1985 it was

re- constituted so as to be independent, and more democratic. Fifteen of its twenty- one

members are elected from Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, the Cornish Language Fellowship,

a society open to the mass of Cornish speakers and learners. The Language Board operates

through the following ﬁ ve committees:

760 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

• Vocabulary and Grammar – deals with problems of grammar, and creates new words;

• Publications – publishes and sells books and recordings (see table 16.2);

• Media – deals with newspapers, ﬁ lm, radio and television: attempts to increase

broadcasting time in Cornish;

• Education – co- ordinates the teaching of Cornish at evening classes and by

correspondence;

• Examinations – conducts yearly examinations at four grades, ratiﬁ ed by a national

body.

A group called Agan Tavas was formed to serve the interests of those who wish to write

in Uniﬁ ed Cornish (and also UCR). Those who use Revived Late Cornish may belong to

another group called Cussel an Tavas.

READY TO RUN?

In 2002, after a long campaign, Cornish was ﬁ nally recognized by the UK government

under Part II of the European Charter for Minority Languages. In principle, this gave

Cornish a measure of ofﬁ cial status which it had never previously enjoyed. In practice,

it allowed a larger sum of money to be made available to the language than formerly.

This money is channelled through Cornwall Council, which set up a partnership on which

serve councillors and representatives of language groups.

The prospect of money caused the groups who do not use Kemmyn to cease squabbling

among themselves and to attack Kemmyn. They re- opened the question of orthogra-

phy, placing it on the agenda of the partnership. Nicholas Williams criticized Kemmyn,

claiming that it was linguistically ﬂ awed. The partnership appointed a commission to

look into the question of the spelling. They were charged with determining which of the

four principal existing orthographies (Kemmyn, Uniﬁ ed, UCR and revived Late Cornish)

would be best for use in education and public life. During the course of their delibera-

tions two ‘compromise’ forms were devised. The commission compiled its report without

either ascertaining the numerical support for the various factions, or consulting the var-

ious bodies which support the language. They stated verbally that the linguistic basis of

Kernewek Kemmyn is sound. They recommended that a new discussion group be set up to

consider the question of orthography.

Hitherto the Cornish language movement has been run by enthusiasts, who have made

great progress with a notable effort of will. If the possibility of increased ﬁ nancial support

is realized, then it will fundamentally change the nature of the movement. This prospect is

already causing considerable internal strain. It remains to be seen how the movement will

cope. We can no doubt learn from our Celtic neighbours and indeed from other minority

language groups.

REVIVED MANX

The ﬁ rst phase

Though some efforts towards revival had been under way in Man since c. 1875, the

Revival of Manx could in reality be said to have started on 22 March 1899 with the found-

ing of Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh (YCG) (The Manx Gaelic Society) under the presidency

THE REVIVED LANGUAGES – CORNISH AND MANX 761

of Manx academic and Speaker of the House of Keys, A. W. Moore (1836–1909). The

founding of a society of this nature had its roots in two main factors: (a) the general wave

of interest and enthusiasm in matters Celtic emanating from Ireland which swept over all

the Celtic countries at that time (late nineteenth century); and (b) more particularly rele-

vant to the situation in Man, the revelation from Henry Jenner’s survey of 1874 (Jenner

1875) of the considerable retreat Manx had sustained by the last quarter of the nineteenth

century.

YCG is still the most important institution in Man for the maintenance and promotion

of Manx. Its objectives and means, then as now, could be outlined from its constitution as

follows:

1 The preservation of Manx as the national language of the Isle of Man.

2 The study and publication of existing Gaelic literature and the cultivation of a

modern literature in Manx.

These were to be achieved through setting up classes, holding lectures, and encouraging

those who have Manx to speak it regularly. In addition, YCG aims were to seek to have

Manx taught in schools, to promote Manx music and songs, to contribute relevant mat-

erial about YCG to magazines and journals, and to collect aspects of oral literature (tales,

songs, etc.) still thought to be extant among the people. In addition, the Isle of Man Exam-

iner contributed (c. 1899–1902) to the revival by running a column in Manx or including

material on Manx folklore, especially that collected by Charles Roeder (1848–1911), a

native of Gera in Thüringen, then resident in Manchester (see also Roeder 1904; Cubbon

1933, 1939).

With regard to YCG aims to have Manx introduced into the schools, several problems

had to be overcome. At the turn of the nineteenth/twentieth centuries the British authori-

ties felt responsible for education in Man, where in 1872 a slightly modiﬁ ed version of the

1870 English Elementary Education Act (which made no provision for Manx, but which

had little or no effect on it, as the language shift in favour of English had by then already

taken place (see Broderick 1991, 1999a) was implemented and so any sanction to teach

Manx in schools had to be sought from that quarter. After three years of correspondence

between Whitehall and YCG it was decided to leave the matter to individual schools, with

the result that only one school was willing to teach Manx. The half- hour lesson per week

was withdrawn shortly afterwards, and efforts to have Manx brought into the schools on a

proper basis had to wait until 1992 (see below).

In May 1913 YCG began publishing its journal Mannin, edited by YCG secretary and

folklore collector Sophia Morrison (cf. Maddrell 2002). A literary publication containing

much on Manx folklore, folklife, music and songs, etc., it appeared twice yearly (May and

November) for nine issues until May 1917, folding just after the death of its editor (in Jan-

uary 1917).

The demise of this publication marked the end of a phase prompting YCG stalwart

J. J. Kneen in 1931 to comment that ‘Celtic enthusiasm, always of a fugitive nature, sadly

waned again during the last twenty years’ (Kneen 1931: 20), and the revival was not to see

a further surge in energy and activity until about 1930.

Concomitant with, but slightly predating the surge in interest in Manx Gaelic, was the

interest in Manx traditional music, songs and lore. In 1893 the Castletown general prac-

titioner and ﬁ ddle player Dr John Clague (1842–1908) began a systematic collection of

Manx folksongs and folktunes while on his rounds, concentrating in the south (c. 1893–6),

and the brothers W. H. and J. F. Gill collected material in the north (c. 1895–8). Clague’s

762 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

music collection contains some 270 items, plus variants, in four manuscript notebooks

(Clague 1893–8; Gilchrist 1924–6; Jerry 1987), and his fragmentary song collection

(relating to the foregoing) in a further nine notebooks now in the Manx Museum archive

(MM) (see Broderick 1982). Clague collected a considerable amount of folklore material

also (see Clague 1911; Broderick 1982), found in the Manx Museum archive (MS 450A).

The Gills’ music collection recently came to light and is also housed in the Manx Museum

archive (Gill Manx Music Collection). At about the same time A. W. Moore was also

collecting material, partly from oral, but predominantly from documentary sources. His

collection (Moore 1896) consists of 74 songs or song- fragments, of which 40 have airs

associated with them (see also Broderick 1981).

The second phase

Personal enquiry seems to indicate that the revival received a second major impetus in

enthusiasm c. 1930 lasting until the outbreak of the Second World War. The two main

protagonists at that time were J. J. Kneen (1872–1938) and Mona Douglas (1898–1987).

J. J. Kneen, also active during the ‘First Phase’, was a producer of mint rock by profes-

sion who found time to be a proliﬁ c Heimatforscher. He brought out a six- volume work

on Manx place- names (Kneen 1925–8), a Manx grammar (Kneen 1931), and a work on

Manx personal names (Kneen 1937), not to mention a ﬂ ood of smaller writings to do

with Manx (see Cubbon 1933, 1939). The Norwegian Professor of Celtic and Compara-

tive Philology at Oslo, Carl J. S. Marstrander, praised Kneen’s efforts during visits to Man

in 1929 and 1930 (Marstrander 1929–33), and arranged for the Nansen Fund in Norway

to grant Kneen £200 to assist him in his work. However, in spite of Marstrander’s praise,

Kneen was not a trained linguist or academic (see Thomson 1969: 189, fn. 1). He was

active in YCG, holding the posts of secretary and latterly as president.

Mona Douglas, also active during the ‘First Phase’, was a folklorist and folksong

collector at a time (particularly in the 1920s) when scant attention was being paid to

things Manx, collecting from c. 1912 to c. 1930 from some of the last bearers of the

Manx music and song tradition (see Douglas and Foster 1928, 1929, 1957; Cubbon

1933, 1939; Kissack 2006; Maddrell 2007; Broderick 2008). Mona Douglas was also

a poet and a romantic, and some of her poetry regarding Man was inspired by the 1916

Rebellion in Ireland (Douglas 1916). In 1931 she and others founded the Manx youth

movement Aeglagh Vannin (Douglas 1932) at a time when such movements were in

vogue, and was active in YCG and the Celtic Congress right up until the Second World

War. Ms. Douglas was evidently equally vigorous in pursuing her interests in Manx

national politics, and from personal enquiry (1990) and interviews with surviving mem-

bers it seems that she played a central role in the apparently shadowy organization Ny

Manninee Dhooie ‘the true Manx’, at the outbreak of war or shortly before. Like Plaid

Cymru in Wales (taking its cue from Ireland), Ny Manninee Dhooie, it seems, advo-

cated a neutral stance for Man during the Second World War, which caused many Manx

people to regard the movement as pro- German. It is probably due to these activities that

Mona Douglas failed to become President of Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh in 1939 (Miller

2004: viii). After the war Mona Douglas’s overt interests in Manx politics appear to

have ceased.

From the very beginning and even today, interest in and enthusiasm for matters Manx,

particularly the language, is linked, in the minds of many Manx people, with pride in

Manxness and the Manx national identity, hence the YCG motto Gyn çhengey, Gyn çheer

‘no language, no country’. The striving for individual national consciousness in Man,

THE REVIVED LANGUAGES – CORNISH AND MANX 763

but also in other Celtic countries at that time (1920s to 1930s), attracted interest from

Germany where ‘exaltation of the native thing’ was a fundamental aspect of government

policy, particularly after 1933.

The Nazis took a keen interest in matters Celtic (including Manx), especially the SS-

Wissenschaftsamt Ahnenerbe (in 1940 renamed ‘Wissenschaftsamt A der SS’), set up

in 1935 by Reichsführer- SS Heinrich Himmler and two others. The purpose evidently

was to attract specialists in a number of ﬁ elds that could also serve the political inter-

ests of the state (Simon 1985a, 1985b). One such ﬁ eld was devoted to matters Celtic

and was headed by Professor Dr Ludwig Mühlhausen (1888–1956) who became Pro-

fessor of Celtic in Berlin in 1936 on the enforced resignation of his Jewish predecessor

Julius Pokorny. Mühlhausen joined the NSDAP in 1932 and the SA in 1933, and in 1943

transferred to the SS. In December 1936 Mühlhausen, with others, set up in Berlin the

Deutsche Gesellschaft für keltische Studien (DGKS, German Society for Celtic Stud-

ies) which had as its secretary the West Prussian Celticist Gerhard von Tevenar (d. 1943)

and as its honorary president the renowned Celtic scholar Rudolf Thurneysen (d. 1940);

Mühlhausen was chairman. By 1942 through Mühlhausen’s efforts the DGKS (and the

Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie und Volksforschung, as it was then known) had come

under SS control (Berlin Document Centre 1941–4; Simon 1992; Lerchenmüller 1997,

2002, 2008).

In addition to his duties as secretary of the DGKS, Tevenar, an SS man, seemingly had

an interest in Breton studies, as well as Cornish and Manx. In September 1941 he deliv-

ered a lecture on the Isle of Man, its history, constitution, traditions, language, etc., at

a joint symposium of the DGKS and a science ministry sponsored initiative (primarily

directed against England) styling itself Kriegseinsatz der Geisteswissenschaften at Werni-

gerode, Sachsen- Anhalt (Tevenar 1941a). It is clear from the contents of the published

version of the lecture that Tevenar was fairly au fait with the Manx situation and almost

certainly had contacts with Man, either through correspondence or personal visits. The

Irish Rising of 1916 and its aftermath made it clear to the Nazis that it was possible for a

Celtic country to detach itself from its domineering occupying power, and SS interests in

matters Celtic evidently had as an aim, in a British Isles context, to fragment English con-

trol through support for political and cultural movements in the Celtic countries. Tevenar

was also the author of an obituary and laudatio to J. J. Kneen after the latter’s death in

November 1938 (Tevenar 1941b).

In promoting Manx traditional music and dance, etc., Mona Douglas was evidently

imbued with the nationalist ethos of the 1920s–40s, which ﬁ nds a place in her writings

even as late as 1981 (Douglas 1981; Broderick 1999b, 2001/2).

The third phase

After the Second World War language enthusiasts and nationalists turned their attention

once more to matters Manx. On 30 September 1952 Douglas C. Fargher (1926–1987),

then secretary of YCG and one of the ‘giants’ of the language movement, together with

Joe Woods, secretary of the Manx Branch of the Celtic Congress, printed an appeal in

the Mona’s Herald to ‘Support the Manx Language’. This came at a time (1951–3) when

YCG, following the examples of the Irish Folklore Commission (1948) and the Manx

Museum Folklife Survey (1949–52), made a series of sound- recordings of the last dozen

or so of the native Manx Gaelic speakers (Broderick 1983), and felt that it had a sufﬁ -

cient corpus of material to get the ball rolling once more. At the end of what essentially is

Fargher’s appeal a call is made to:

764 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

throw off apathy and disinterestedness and take part in another crusade which can

harm no one, but which will strengthen us as individuals and as a nation. We refer to

the crusade for maintaining and using the Manx Language. Join an Evening Class,

Manxmen, and bring a friend with you.

(Fargher and Woods 1952)

At that time a number of Manx enthusiasts had learned the language direct from the then

surviving native speakers. Interest in native Manx speech had evidently been sparked off

in the 1930s by the Marstrander visits (1929, 1930, 1933) and by April 1946 C. W. Loch,

a visitor to the island, interviewed some of the enthusiasts and was able to report a total of

twenty surviving speakers whose names and addresses were printed by A. S. B. Davies of

Moelfre, Colwyn Bay, in 1948 (Loch 1946; Davies 1948). Fargher had at that time opened

a fruiterer’s business in Douglas with a close friend and Manx speaker Leslie Quirk, and

the duo, according to themselves, conducted all their business together in Manx. In 1956

the business folded and Fargher took off to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) for a six-

year stint in the mines, as a result of which YCG for a while lost an active secretary.

Fargher returned to Man in 1962, but seemingly did not take an active interest again in

language affairs until 1970, when, once again at the helm of YCG now injected with fresh

blood, he set things in motion once more.

Over the next few years Fargher and his dynamic team set in train a series of pub-

lications: new (Jerry 1978, 1980) or reprints of older editions (Kneen’s Place- Names

(1925–8)); this encouraged publications by others, for example, books (Broderick and

Stowell 1973b), records (Broderick and Stowell 1973a; Broderick 1977), maps (Bro-

derick 1973), language courses (Stowell 1986), dictionaries (Fargher 1979), etc. From

1983 to 1986 the local amateur ﬁ lm unit Foillan Films produced four documentary ﬁ lms

entirely in Manx Gaelic and one bilingual Manx–English ﬁ lm for public consump-

tion. The subject matter covered ranged from folk- songs to the Manx language and its

native speakers to modern- day poets (Foillan Films 1983, 1984, 1985a, 1985b, 1986).

In 1985 YCG instituted the Ned Maddrell Memorial Lecture in honour of the last known

native Manx speaker. The lecture is held annually in April, delivered by an invited aca-

demic in the ﬁ eld of Celtic Studies. In a similar vein YCG in 1998 instituted Leeaght

y Ghaaue (The Gaaue Lecture) in honour of Manx native speaker, former blacksmith

(Mx. gaaue) John Kneen (1872–1958), latterly of Ballaugh Curragh. The lecture is deliv-

ered in Manx by an invited speaker.

In the early 1970s, in order to promote an active competence in the spoken language,

YCG held Oieghyn Gailckagh ‘Manx- speaking evening sessions’ once a mouth in a

pre- arranged bar, changing in venue from month to month. This had the effect of inspir-

ing conﬁ dence in speaking Manx and presenting an opportunity to learners to acquire it

directly from those who had obtained Manx from the old native speakers themselves. In

that respect, at any rate, the tradition of spoken Manx could be said to be unbroken. The

pronunciation of Manx as spoken today is essentially that of the last native speakers. In

late 1974 regular Saturday night Manx music and song sessions began to take place in

the Central bar in Peel, since late 1989 transferred to the White House, also in Peel. This

is the longest known continuous Manx traditional music session in the island (cf. Wool-

ley 2003). Emphasis is nowadays laid more on music than on song, and the sessions have

thereby encouraged many musicians into the music aspect of Manx tradition. At present

Manx music and dance (Curtis 2006) enjoys considerable popular support in the island

(cf. Maddrell 2006a, 2006b), with active support from the Manx Heritage Foundation

(a Manx government quango) for its promotion in schools. This in turn has led to a rapid

THE REVIVED LANGUAGES – CORNISH AND MANX 765

increase in the number of youth groups playing Manx traditional music in Man and the

monthly publication (since February 2006) of Kiaull Manninagh Jiu ‘Manx music today’,

which gives details inter alia of Manx (and other Celtic) music sessions in Man and of

visiting traditional Celtic music groups to the island.

MANX IN THE SCHOOLS

There has always been in Manx schools a recognition that, despite the use of the ‘English

Code’ from the 1872 Act (see above) in the Manx education system, there was a strong

ﬂ avour of Manxness about the whole arrangement. Until the recent inﬂ ux of a non- Manx

population most of the pupils bore Manx names: Juan, Finlo, Orry, Kirree, Joney (fore-

names), Cowle, Clague, Corlett, Kelly, Mylchreest, Quine (surnames) – the list goes on.

They spoke a Manx–English dialect, lived in places bearing Manx names, and their teach-

ers used the occasional greeting of moghrey mai [mɔrə 'maːi] ‘good morning’ or fastyr mie

[faːstə 'maːi] ‘good afternoon/evening’. Efforts to have Manx taught in island schools,

which failed in the early years of the twentieth century, did not begin to bear fruit until

1974 when a new Director of Education, Mr Alun Davies, a native Welsh speaker of Dol-

gellau, was appointed. He was sympathetic to the idea, provided that there were people

capable of teaching Manx. The situation then was that there were a number of individuals,

usually YCG members, competent in Manx, but not trained teachers, and a few trained

teachers (about a dozen at the maximum) both competent in Manx and able to teach it.

The latter were mainly concentrated in the thirty- two primary schools, and were given the

opportunity of introducing Manx into the classroom when and where they saw ﬁ t. In the

ﬁ ve secondary schools at that time there was no teacher on the staff competent in Manx.

To remedy this the Director of Education sanctioned the use of ‘laymen/laywomen’ to

teach Manx once a week during lunchtime break as a ‘club’ activity. The ﬁ rst of such

clubs was set up in the Easter term of 1976 at Ballakermeen High School, Douglas.

In 1982 a GCE ‘O’ level examination in Manx was instituted, preparation for which

took place at evening classes initially for adults at the College of Further Education (now

the Isle of Man College). The idea was that teachers with an ‘O’ level qualiﬁ cation would

be in a position to teach Manx formally in the schools. One or two secondary school teach-

ers took up this option. However, a lack of ‘takers’ for the examination caused it to be

suspended four years later. Its replacement by a GCSE examination, with more emphasis

on the spoken language, has been available in the schools since 1992. This was shortly fol-

lowed by an Adanced level course in Manx, also with emphasis on the spoken language.

In recent years, in line with the general trend in Europe to favour minority rights and

cultures, there has been a move to have Manx taught on a regular basis in all the island

schools. This ‘demand’, evidently emanating from pressure groups such as the Celtic

League and from a Gallup Poll (January 1991) showing 36 per cent of those asked in

favour of Manx as an optional subject in schools, resulted in Government (in reality the

government quango Manx Heritage Foundation) setting up the position of Oarseyr Gail-

ckagh ‘Manx Language Ofﬁ cer’ under the aegis of the Department of Education. The

initial task is to set up syllabuses in Manx for pupils in the schools, eventually cover-

ing the full age range (5–19). Dr Brian Stowell, the ﬁ rst incumbent of that post, took up

his duties on 2 January 1992 and was assisted by two peripatetic teachers seconded from

the teaching pool, in the implementation of what was a historic undertaking in the his-

tory of education in the Isle of Man. The numbers of teachers has over the years been

increased to cope with demand. At present some 800 (out of a total of c. 10,000) pupils