Category: Manx (Gaelg)

Celtic connections

By Simon

Apart from the odd word here and there, the vocabularies of the two living branches of the Celtic language family, Brythonic (British) and Goidelic (Gaelic), appear to bear little resemblance to each other. So far I’ve only found two words that are exactly the same in Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic: blas (taste/flavour) and glas (blue/green).

To some extent, differences in spelling disguise connections between the languages, but even taking those differences into account, only about 2% of the words appear to be related.

Here are a few other related words I’ve found:

Gaeilge
(Irish) 		Gàidhlig
(Gaelic) 		Gaelg
(Manx)		 Cymraeg
(Welsh) 		Kernewek
(Cornish)		 Brezhoneg
(Breton)		 English
capall (each) cabbyl ceffyl (margh) (marc’h) horse
gabhar gobhar goayr gafr gaver gavr goat
cath cat kayt cat kath kazh cat
cú cù coo cu ki ki dog
abhainn abhainn awin afon avon (stêr) river
muir muir mooir môr mor mor sea
agus agus as a/ac/ag hag ha/hag and
aimsir aimsir emshir amser amzer time
ainm ainm ennym enw hanow anv name
airgead airgead argid arian arghans arc’hant silver
anáil anail ennal anadl anal anal breath

Note: cú actually means hound in Irish – dog is madra. Sea is also farraige is Irish, fairge is Scottish Gaelic, and faarkey in Manx.

To find more connections between the Celtic languages, you need to go back to their earlier forms. For example, the word for true in Welsh is gwir, in Irish it’s fíor, and in Scottish Gaelic it’s fìor. These words are all thought to originate from the reconstructed form, wir or weri. Then at some point the initial w become gw in Welsh and f in the Gaelic languages.

A good place to find connections between the Celtic languages is McBain’s Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.

Ynsee Gaelg (Learn Manx)

By Simon

Ynsee Gaelg is a new site I found this week that contains Manx language lessons, games, stories, news and information about the language. The lessons are available at three levels: Toshiaghteyr (Beginners), Meanagh (Intermediate) and Ard (Advanced) and include sound files for all the phrases and texts, something that’s lacking from other online Manx lessons. The stories and news are in English or Manx.

I’m impressed with this site – it contains a lot of useful, well-presented content, and also looks good. Now if I can just find a bit of time amongst my other activities, I’ll use it to learn some more Manx.

I find Manx texts quite difficult to read due to lack of familiarity with the spelling system. If I read the texts aloud however, I can often understand them better.

Language maintenance

By Simon

This week I’ve been trying out yet another language learning and maintenance strategy. Instead of spending most of the day listening to online radio in one language or other, as I’ve been doing up to now, I’ve started listening to lots of lessons in the languages I’m focusing on at the moment (Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Spanish). At the same time I’m converting the lessons I have on tape to mp3 format. Once I’ve done that, I copy them to my mp3 player.

I bought myself a new mp3 player for my birthday and am filling it with language lessons, podcasts and audiobooks. It can also display images, so I might try to make some virtual flash cards for it. Usually I don’t bother with flashcards as they’re quite cumbersome to carry around. This is no longer an issue.

Word of the day – rio

By Simon

Today’s word, rio, means frost, freezing or ice in Manx, and river in Portuguese. In Spanish, río means river, stream, torrent, lengthy, long-lasting, epic or interminable.

Related Manx words and phrases
riojey = ice up, freeze, frost, icing
rioeeagh = frosty
rioghar = icicle
rioee = glacial
crammag rio = ice hockey (lit. “ice snail”)
moddey rio = husky (lit. “ice dog”)
coyr rioee = fridge
Eean y ghob jiarg = Jack Frost (lit. “Red-mouthed John”)
Ta Eean y ghob jiarg mooie jiu = it’s frosty today

Example of usage
Chan nel bodjal er-egin ‘syn aer jiu as bee rio ayn noght, son shickyrys.
There’s been barely a cloud in the sky today and it’s certainly going to freeze tonight.

The sun’s been shining most of the day here and it’s been pleasantly warm indoors, but the moment you step outside you’re hit by the cold. There’s a ring around the moon as well – a sure sign of frost.

Are there equivalent names for Jack Frost, the personification of frost or winter weather, in other languages?

Learning Russian and Manx

By Simon

I’ve been learning Russian with Rosetta Stone for just over six months now and don’t feel like I’m making much progress. The Rosetta Stone Russian course is a fairly effective way of learning vocabulary and some sentence patterns, but not particularly useful if you want to learn how to converse in Russian. So I’m considering trying a different course. Any suggestions? As far as I can tell, the Teach Yourself Russian courses seem to be pretty good.

Why am I learning Russian? Well, a knowledge of that language would be quite useful to me when editing websites in Russian, and I am quite interested in Russian literature. I’ve read and enjoyed some Russian novels and short stories in English and French translation, and would quite like to be able to read them and others in the original – it will be quite a while before I can do that though, I think.

Ec y traa cheddin, ta mee gynsaghey Gaelg myrgeddin. Shegin dou jannoo ymmyd mennick jeh fockleyr, agh ta fys ennagh aym er y Ghaelg nish. Ta mee goaill gynsaghey çhengaghyn, ny çhengaghyn Celtiagh er lheh, as ta treisht orrym bee Gaelg flaaoil aym dy leah.

At the same time, I’ve also been learning Manx, and can now understand, speak, read and write it, at least to some extent, with frequent reference to a dictionary. The Manx courses I’ve been using are more focused on everyday language, and I’m more motivated to learn Manx.

Word of the day – smooinaghtagh

By Simon

smooinaghtagh (SMUUN-yakhtakh) = thoughtful, imaginable, pensive, notional, serious, thinking

Related words:
smooinagh – to think
smooinaght – sentiment, notion, impression, opinion, concept, thought
ard-smooinaghtagh – inspired (lit. “high thinking”)
far-smooinaghtagh – imaginary, chimerical (lit. “mock/fake thinking”)
shagh-smooinaghtagh – absent-minded (lit. “past thinking”)
trome-smooinaghtagh – deep-thinking (lit. “heavy thinking”)

Here’s a nice Manx word that I spotted on a CD by the Manx group skeeal that arrived today. It appears as part of a desciption of the band:

ta ‘skeeal’ ny phossan manninagh goaill stiagh queig fir. t’ad jannoo ymmyd jeh stoo tradishoonagh as bunneydagh, t’ad cummey yn kiaull er aght gientynagh as smooinaghtagh as gleashaghey eddyr ny chengaghyn gealgagh.

‘skeeal’ is a five-piece band from the isle of man. drawing on traditional and original material, they shape imaginative and thoughtful arrangements, moving between the gaelic languages.

I heard skeeal playing as part of the féile cholmcille in Gleann Cholm Cille when I was there last month and was impressed by them. At that time I didn’t know who they were, but knew they were from the Isle of Man and that they sang in Manx. Some detective work eventually lead me to their website, which is in Manx and English, and where I bought the CD.

The Irish equivalent of smooinaghtagh is smaointeach, in Scottish Gaelic it’s smaointeachail, and in Welsh it’s meddylgar.

This and that

By Simon

Most languages I’ve encountered seem to have a way of indicating that something or somebody is close to the speaker, i.e. this man, or close to the listener, i.e. that man. Some languages make a third distinction: that something is distant from both the speaker and the listener. In standard English you can express this idea by saying something like ‘that man over there’, but in some dialects of English you can say ‘yon man’, ‘yonder man’ or ‘that there man’.

Does anybody know of any languages that make further distinctions?

In the Celtic languages there are no single words for this and that. Instead they use the constructions ‘the man here’ and ‘the man there’.

Irish
an duine seo – this man
an duine sin – that man
an duine úd – that man over there / yonder man

Scottish Gaelic
an duine seo – this man
an duine sin – that man
an duine siud – that man over there / yonder man

Manx
yn dooinney shoh – this man
yn dooinney shen – that man
yn dooinney shid – that man over there / yonder man

Welsh
y dyn ʼma – this man
y dyn ʼna – that man
y dyn acw – that man over there / yonder man

Word of the day – billey

By Simon

billey (BILL-ya) = tree, plural = biljyn (BILL-jin)

Examples of usage:
Vel biljyn sy gharey? (Are there trees in the garden?)
Ta. Tree biljyn mooarey as un villey beg (Yes. Three big trees and a small tree)

This word came up in today’s Manx lesson. While many Manx words are the same as or similiar to words in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, this particular word caught my eye because it’s completely different. In Irish the word for tree is crann (pl. crainn), while in Scottish Gaelic it’s craobh (pl. craoibhe) or crann . The Welsh words for tree are coeden (pl. coed) and prenn (pl. prennau) – also means wood/timber.

Word of the day – kiartey

By Simon

kiartey (K’YART-a), noun = chore, job, task

Examples of usage
Vel kiartey ec Peddyr foast? – Does Peter have a job yet?
Ta mee skee jeh’n chiartey aym – I’m tired of my job
Cre’n sorch dy chiartey by vie lhiat jannoo? – What kind of job would you like to do?

Related expressions
kiartagyn – household chores, odd jobs
coorseyn-kiartey – careers
obbyr – work
faill – wages
ardjaghey – promotion
Ta mee gobbraghey – I’m working
Ta mee ass obbyr – I’m unemployed
T’ee ny taaue – She’s retired
Caghlaa obbyr aash – Change of work is rest (proverb)

There are a couple of ways to say what you do for a living in Manx:

  • Ta mee ny obbrinagh – I’m an engineer, lit. “Is I in my (state of being an) engineer”
  • She fir-lhee mish – I’m a (male) doctor, lit. “Is man-healing myself”

The other Celtic languages use similar structures:

Scottish Gaelic: ‘Se dotair a th’annam – I’m a doctor, lit. “Is doctor that is in me”

Irish: Is dochtúir mé – I’m a doctor, lit. “Is doctor I”

Welsh: Meddyg dwi – I’m a doctor, lit. “Doctor am I”

Word of the day – spotçhal

By Simon

spotçhal = joking

Examples of usage
Vel oo spotçhal? = are you joking?
Cha nel mee spotçhal noadyr = I’m not joking at all
Son spotçh ren mee eh = I did it for a joke
Lhig eh shaghey myr spotçh eh = He passed it off as a joke

Related words
spotçh / spring, noun = joke
spotçheraght / springaght, verb = to joke

This word came up in the Manx lesson I was listening to while making toast this morning, and it really appealed to me.

The equivalent words for joking in the other Celtic languages are:
Irish Gaelic – magadh
Scottish Gaelic – fealla-dhà
Welsh – jocio, cellwair, ffraetheb, smalio

Ta my laa ruggyree ayn jiu, liorish yn raad. Ta mee shey bleeaney jeig as feed.

By the way, it’s my birthday today.