Manx grammar

Summary

The grammar of the Manx language has much in common with related Indo-European languages, such as nouns that display gender, number and case and verbs that take endings or employ auxiliaries to show tense, person or number. Other morphological features are typical of Insular Celtic languages but atypical of other Indo-European languages. These include initial consonant mutation, inflected prepositions and verb–subject–object word order.[1]

Nouns edit

Gender edit

Manx nouns fall into one of two genders, masculine or feminine.

Masculine is considered the "default" or "unmarked" gender.[2] Nouns ending in a "broad" (non-palatalised) consonant are usually masculine, as are those ending in the suffixes: -agh, -an, -ane, -ee, -er, -erey, -ey, -oo, -oon, -oor, -ys.

Nouns ending in a "slender" (palatalised) consonant are usually feminine, as are those ending in the suffixes: -ag, -age, -aght, -eig, -id, -oge. Verbnouns are also usually feminine, especially those ending in -ail or -eil.[2]

Number edit

Nouns show singular and plural number in Manx. Plurals can be formed from the singular by adding an ending, most often -yn, but other endings include -aghyn, -ee or a consonant followed by -yn. Sometimes a plural ending replaces a singular ending, as in the case of -agh becoming -ee or -eeyn or of -ee or -ey becoming -aghyn. Some mostly monosyllabic nouns pluralise by means of internal vowel change, such as mac "son" to mec, kayt "cat" to kiyt and dooiney "man" to deiney. Manx also has a handful of irregularly formed plurals, including ben "woman" to mraane, keyrey "sheep" to kirree and slieau "mountain" to sleityn.[2]

Case edit

Nominative edit

The base form of a noun is in the nominative case, e.g. carrey "friend", caarjyn "friends".

Vocative edit

A nominative noun is lenited to become vocative, e.g. charrey "friend!", chaarjyn "friends!". This also extends to proper nouns such as Vorrey from Morrey.

Genitive edit

Some mostly feminine nouns possess a distinct genitive form, usually ending in -ey, e.g. bleeaney "of a year" (nominative: blein), coshey "of a foot" (nominative: cass). Historical genitive singulars often survive in compounds and fixed expressions although no longer productive, such as thie-ollee "cowhouse" using the old genitive of ollagh "cattle" or mullagh y ching "the crown", literally "the top of the head", employing lenited king "of a head" (nominative: kione).[3] Keyrragh "of sheep" is the only distinct genitive plural, the nominative plural being kirree.

Dative edit

The dative case is encountered only in set expressions such as ry-chosh "on foot", where chosh is the lenited dative cosh "foot" (nominative: cass "foot").[4][2]

Articles edit

In common with the other Insular Celtic languages except Breton, Manx has a definite article but no indefinite article. The definite article takes the form yn before masculine nominative and genitive and feminine nominative nouns. This yn is often reduced to y before consonants or to 'n after grammatical words ending in a vowel. Plural nouns and feminine genitive nouns take the article ny, another archaic form of which is found in some placenames as nyn.[2]

Adjectives edit

Number edit

Certain adjectives may be made plural by the addition of -ey to the singular form. In earlier versions of the language, these were used attributively, but are little employed in modern Manx.[2]

Degree of comparison edit

Adjectives ending in -agh form their comparative/superlative form by replacing this with -ee, e.g. atçhimagh "terrible" becomes atçhimee, resulting in ny s'atçhimee "more terrible" and s'atçhimee "most terrible". As in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the comparative-superlative is commonly marked by the copula verb s in the present and by in the past. The superlative is often shown by the word nys, from Middle Irish ní as "thing that is" (cf. Modern Irish níos, past ní ba).[5] A number of adjectives form their comparative/superlative irregularly.

Irregular comparative/superlative forms of Manx adjectives
Positive English Comparative/Superlative
aalin beautiful aaley
aashag easy assey
aeg young aa
ard high yrjey
beg small loo
bog soft, moist buiggey
bwaagh pretty bwaaie
çheh hot çhoe
çhionn tight, fast çhenney
çhiu thick çhee
faggys near niessey
foddey far, long odjey
garroo rough girroo
gial bright, white gilley
giare short girrey
lajer strong troshey
leah soon leaie
lheann wide lea
liauyr long, tall lhiurey
mie good share
moal slow melley
mooar large, big moo
olk bad, evil messey
reagh merry, lively reaie
roauyr fat, broad riurey
shenn old shinney
thanney thin theinney
trome heavy thrimmey
ymmodee many lee

The comparative/superlative can also be formed using smoo "more" with the positive form, e.g. s'thrimmey = smoo trome.[2]

Verbs edit

Regular verbs edit

Manx verbs generally form their finite forms by means of periphrasis: inflected forms of the auxiliary verbs ve "to be" or jannoo "to do" are combined with the verbal noun of the main verb. Only the future, conditional, preterite and imperative can be formed directly by inflecting the main verb, but even in these tenses, the periphrastic formation is more common in Late Spoken Manx.[6] An example using the forms of tilgey "throwing" is as follows.

Manx finite verb forms: tilgey "throwing"
Tense Periphrastic form
(literal translation)
Inflected form Gloss
Present ta mee tilgey
("I am throwing")
"I throw"
Imperfect va mee tilgey
("I was throwing")
"I was throwing"
Perfect ta mee er jilgey
("I am after throwing")[7]
"I have thrown"
Pluperfect va mee er jilgey
("I was after throwing")[7]
"I had thrown"
Preterite ren mee tilgey
("I did throwing")
hilg mee "I threw"
Future neeym tilgey
("I will do throwing")
tilgym "I will throw"
Conditional yinnin tilgey
("I would do throwing")
hilgin "I would throw"
Imperative jean tilgey
("do throwing!")
tilg "throw!"
Past participle tilgit "thrown"

The future and conditional tenses (and in some irregular verbs, the preterite) make a distinction between "independent" and "dependent" forms. Independent forms are used when the verb is not preceded by any particle; dependent forms are used when a particle (e.g. cha "not") does precede the verb. For example, "you will lose" is caillee oo with the independent form caillee ("will lose"), while "you will not lose" is cha gaill oo with the dependent form caill (which has undergone eclipsis to gaill after cha). Similarly "they went" is hie ad with the independent form hie ("went"), while "they did not go" is cha jagh ad with the dependent form jagh.[8][9]

The fully inflected forms of the regular verb tilgey "throwing" are as follows. In addition to the forms below, a past participle may be formed using -it: tilgit "thrown".

Inflection of a regular Manx verb
Tense Independent Dependent Relative
Preterite hilg (same as independent)
Future tilgym1, tilgmayd2, tilgee3 dilgym1, dilgmayd2, dilgee3 tilgys
Conditional tilgin1, tilgagh3 dilgin1, dilgagh3
Imperative tilg (same as independent)
^1 First person singular, making the use of a following subject pronoun redundant
^2 First person plural, making the use of a following subject pronoun redundant
^3 Used with all other persons, meaning an accompanying subject must be stated, e.g. tilgee eh "he will throw", tilgee ad "they will throw"

There are a few peculiarities when a verb begins with a vowel, i.e. the addition of d' in the preterite and n' in the future and conditional dependent. Below is the conjugation of aase "to grow".

Inflection of a regular Manx verb beginning with a vowel
Tense Independent Dependent Relative
Preterite d'aase1 (same as independent)
Future aasym, aasmayd, aasee n'aasym, n'aasmayd, n'aasee aasys
Conditional aasin, aasagh n'aasin, n'aasagh
Imperative aase (same as independent)
^1 d' may also be spelt j when pronounced /dʲ/ [dʒ] i.e. before a slender vowel, e.g. "ate" can be either d'ee or jee.

These peculiarities extend to verbs beginning with f, e.g. faagail "to leave".

Inflection of a regular Manx verb beginning with f
Tense Independent Dependent Relative
Preterite d'aag1 (same as independent)
Future faagym, faagmayd, faagee vaagym, vaagmayd, vaagee,
n'aagym, n'aagmayd, n'aagee
aagys
Conditional aagin, aagagh vaagin, vaagagh, n'aagin, n'aagagh
Imperative faag (same as independent)
^1 Again, d' may also be spelt j where appropriate.

Irregular verbs edit

A number of verbs are irregular in their inflection.

Inflected forms of irregular Manx verbs
Infinitive Preterite Future Conditional Imperative Past participle
Independent Dependent Independent Dependent Independent Dependent
çheet "come" haink daink higgym, higmayd, hig jiggym, jigmayd, jig harrin, harragh darrin, darragh tar
clashtyn "hear" cheayll geayll cluinnyn, cluinnee, cluinmayd1 gluinnyn, gluinnee, gluinmayd chluinnin, chluinnagh gluinnin, gluinnagh clasht cluinit
cur "put, give" hug dug verrym, vermayd, ver derrym, dermayd, der verrin, verragh derrin, derragh cur currit
fakin "see" honnick vaik hee'm, hemayd, hee vaikym, vaikmyd, vaik heein, heeagh vaikin, vaikagh jeeagh, cur-my-ner faikinit
feddyn "find",
geddyn "get"
hooar dooar yioym, yiowmayd, yiow voym, vowmayd, vow yioin, yioghe voin, voghe fow feddinynt "found",
geddinynt "given"
goll "go" hie jagh hem, hemmayd, hed jem, jemmayd, jed raghin, ragh (same as independent) gow, immee
gra "say" dooyrt jirrym, jirmayd, jir
abbyrym, abbyrmyd, abbyr
jirrym, jirmayd, jir
niarrym, niarmayd, niar
n'abbyrym, n'abbyrmyd, n'abbyr
yiarrin, yiarragh niarrin, niarragh abbyr grait
goaill "take" ghow goym, gowmayd, gowee2 goym, gowmayd, gow ghoin, ghoghe goin, goghe gow goit
jean "do" ren nee'm, neemayd, nee jeanym, jeanmayd, jean yinnin, yinnagh jinnin, jinnagh jean jeant
^1 Future relative: clinnys
^2 Future relative: gowee

The most common and most irregular verb in Manx is ve "to be", often used as an auxiliary verb. In addition to the usual inflected tenses, ve also has a present tense. The full conjugation of ve "to be" is as follows.

Forms of verb ve "to be"
Form Independent Dependent Relative
Present ta vel, nel
Preterite va row
Future bee'm, beemayd, bee (same as independent) vees
Conditional veign, veagh beign, beagh
Imperative bee (same as independent)

Adverbs edit

Manx adverbs can be formed from adjectives by means of the word dy (from Middle Irish go "with, until"), e.g. mie "good" to dy mie "well", gennal "cheerful" to dy gennal "cheerfully". This dy is not used when preceded by such words as ro "too" and feer "very" or followed by dy liooar "enough", e.g. feer vie "very good, very well", gennal dy liooar "cheerful(ly) enough". The prepositional phrase for "home(wards)" is formed with dy "to" and the noun balley "place, town, homestead" to give dy valley, while the noun thie "house, home" can be used unchanged as an adverb to convey the same meaning.[2]

Adverbs of location and motion edit

In common with its Goidelic sister languages, Manx has a number of adverbs corresponding to English "up" and "down", the meaning of which depend upon such things as motion or lack thereof and starting point in relation to the speaker.

Manx adverbs expressing "up" and "down"
Stationary Motion towards speaker Motion away from speaker
above heose neose seose
below heese neese sheese

Examples of practical usage are Ta dooinney heese y traid "There's a man down the street" and Ta mee goll sheese y traid "I'm going down the street", Jean drappal neese "Climb up (towards me)" and Jean drappal seose "Climb up (away from me)".

Likewise, Manx possesses various other single words that distinguish between stationary location and direction or movement towards or away from the speaker, e.g. shiar "to the east, eastwards" and niar "from the east", sthie "in, inside" (location) and stiagh "in, inside" (direction), wass "this side, here", noon "from this side, to the other side" and noal "over to this side, over to the other side".[2]

Pronouns edit

Personal edit

Technically, Manx has a T-V distinction where the second person singular pronoun oo is used to show familiarity while the second person plural shiu is used as a respectful singular as well as with plural referents. Because of the solidarity of the small speech community, however, Manx speakers would automatically use oo when addressing another individual Manx speaker.[2]

In common with Irish and Scottish Gaelic, in addition to its regular personal pronouns, Manx has also a series used for emphasis. Under certain phonological circumstances, these can be used as unemphatic pronouns, e.g. "you were not" is cha row uss [xa ˈrau ʊs] as cha row oo [xa ˈrau u(ː)] sounds too similar to cha row [xa ˈrau] "was not".

Manx personal pronouns
Person Regular Emphatic
First singular mee mish
Second singular oo uss
Third singular masculine eh eshyn
feminine ee ish
First plural shin shinyn
Second plural shiu shiuish
Third plural ad adsyn

Reflexive pronouns are formed with the addition of -hene, which can also indicate emphasis, e.g. mee-hene "myself", oo-hene "yourself".[2]

Interrogative edit

Manx interrogative pronouns include quoi "who?", cre "what?" and c'red "what?".[2]

Indefinite edit

The Manx equivalent of English "-ever" or "any-" is erbee, e.g. quoi erbee "whoever, anyone". Ennagh is used like English "some-", e.g. peiagh ennagh "someone" (with peiagh "person").[2]

Determiners edit

Possessive edit

A gender distinction is made in the third person singular by means of lenition following masculine e "his, its" and lack of lenition after feminine e "her, its".

Manx possessive determiners
singular plural
1st person my nyn
2nd person dty nyn
3rd person masculine e nyn
feminine e

An alternative to using the possessive pronouns is to precede a noun with the definite article and follow it with the inflected form of ec "at" to show the person, e.g. yn thie aym "my house" (literally "the house at me") instead of my hie "my house". This is especially useful in the plural, where all persons share one possessive pronoun, e.g. yn thie oc "their house", as opposed to nyn dhie "our/your/their house".

Possessive determiners are used to indicate the object of a verbnoun, e.e. T'eh dy my akin "He sees me". E is dropped after the particle dy, although the mutation or lack thereof remains, and dy combines with nyn to give dyn, e.g. T'eh dy akin "He sees him", T'eh dy fakin "He sees her", T'eh dyn vakin "He sees us/you/them".[2]

Prepositions edit

Like the other Insular Celtic languages, Manx has so-called inflected prepositions, contractions of a preposition with a pronominal direct object, as the following common prepositions show. Note the sometimes identical form of the uninflected preposition and its third person singular masculine inflected form.

Conjugation of Manx prepositions using pronominal ending
Singular Plural
1st
person
2nd
person
3rd person 1st
person
2nd
person
3rd
person
masc. fem.
ass
"out of"
assym assyd ass assjee assdooin assdiu assdoo, assdaue
ayns
"in"
aynym aynyd ayn aynjee ayn, ayndooin ayndiu ayndoo, ayndaue
da
"to"
dou dhyt da jee2 dooin diu daue
dys, gys1
"to"
hym hood huggey huic(k) hooin hiu huc
ec
"at"
aym ayd echey eck ain orroo oc
er
"on"
orrym ort er urree orrin erriu orroo
fo
"under"
foym foyd fo foee foin feue foue
gollrish
"like"
gollrym gollryt gollrish gollree gollrin gollriu gollroo
harrish
"over"
harrym harryd harrish harree harrin harriu harroo, harrystoo
jeh
"of"
jeem jeed jeh j'ee2 jin jiu jeu
lesh
"with"
lhiam lhiat lesh lhee lhien lhiu lhieu
marish
"with"3
marym mayrt marish maree marin meriu maroo
mysh
"about"
moom mood mysh mooee mooin miu moo, mymboo
rish
"to"4
rhym rhyt rish r'ee5 rooin riu roo
roish
"before"
roym royd roish roee, rhymbee roin reue roue, rhymboo
shaghey
"past"
shaghym shaghyd shaghey shaghee shaghin shaghiu shaghoo
veih, voish
"from"
voym voyd voish, veih voee voin veue voue
^1 Dys is the usual word today. Gys is literary. This is also the inflection of hug "to".
^2 J'ee "of her" is distinguished from homophonous jee "to her" in spelling by means of an apostrophe.
^3 Sometimes, these forms, apart from mayrt are written with a circumflex over the first vowel, e.g. mârish, mêriu.
^4 Rish is equivalent to various different prepositions in English depending on context, e.g. clashtyn rish "listen to", caggey rish "fight against", rish tammylt " for a while".
^5 The spelling r'ee distinguishes it from the homophonic noun ree "king".

In addition to the above "simple" prepositions, Manx has a number of prepositional phrases based on a noun; being based on nouns, the possessive personal pronouns are used to refer to what would in English be pronominal prepositional objects. This also happens in English phrases such as "for my sake".[2]

Conjugation of Manx prepositional phrases using possessive pronouns
1st person
singular
2nd person
singular
3rd person singular Plural
masc. fem.
erskyn
"above"
er-my-skyn er-dty-skyn er-e-skyn er-e-skyn er-nyn-skyn
mychione
"concerning"
my-my-chione my-dty-chione my-e-chione my-e-kione my-nyn-gione
son
"for the sake of"
er-my-hon er-dty-hon er-e-hon er-e-son er-nyn-son
lurg
"after"
my lurg dty lurg e lurg e lurg nyn lurg
noi
"against"
m'oi dt'oi n'oi ny hoi nyn oi
trooid
"through"
my hrooid dty hrooid e trooid urree nyn drooid

Alternative conjugation patterns are sometimes found with these more complex prepositions using inflected prepositions, e.g. mychione aym for my-my-chione "concerning me", son ain "for our sake" instead of er-nyn-son "for our/your/their sake".[2]

Conjunctions edit

The main coordinating conjunctions in Manx are as "and", agh "but" and ny "or". Subordinating conjunctions include choud('s) "while", derrey "until", dy "that; so that", er-y-fa "because", ga dy/nagh "although (affirmative/negative)" and tra "when". My "if" introduces conditional clauses as do myr "as if" and mannagh "unless".[2]

Numbers edit

Manx numbers are traditionally vigesimal, as seen below. Some speakers use a more modern decimal version of some numbers, in a similar way to Irish and Scottish Gaelic, for example, to simplify the teaching of arithmetic.[2]

Manx numbers
Value Cardinal Ordinal
Traditional Modern
0 neunhee, veg
1 un, nane1 chied
2 daa, jees1 nah
3 tree trass
4 kiare kiarroo
5 queig queigoo
6 shey sheyoo
7 shiaght shiaghtoo
8 hoght hoghtoo
9 nuy nuyoo
10 jeih jeihoo
11 nane jeig nane jeigoo
12 daa yeig daa yeigoo
13 tree jeig trass jeig
14 kiare jeig kiarroo jeig
15 queig jeig queiggoo jeig
16 shey jeig sheyoo jeig
17 shiaght jeig shiaghtoo jeig
18 hoght jeig hoghtoo jeig
19 nuy jeig nuyoo jeig
20 feedoo kiare
21 nane as feed feed-nane chied as feed
22 daa as feed feed-jees nah as feed
23 tree as feed feed-tree trass as feed
30 jeih as feed treead jeihoo as feed
31 nane jeig as feed treead-nane chied jeig as feed
32 daa yeig as feed treead-jees nah jeig as feed
33 tree jeig as feed treead-tree trass jeig as feed
40 daeed kiarad daeedoo
50 jeih as daeed, lieh cheead queigad jeihoo as daeed
60 tree feed sheyad tree feedoo
70 tree feed as jeih shiaghtad tree feedoo as jeih
80 kiare feed hoghtad kiare feedoo
90 tree feed as jeih nuyad tree feedoo as jeih
100 keead keeadoo
1,000 jeih keead, milley, thousane jeih cheeadoo, millioo, thousaneoo
1,000,000 millioon millioonoo
^1 Un and daa are used before noun, nane and jees when counting.

References edit

  1. ^ Strazny, Philipp (2005). Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. p. 183. ISBN 9781135455224.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Kewley Draskau, Jennifer (2008). Practical Manx. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781846311314.
  3. ^ Thomson 1992, 118–19; Broderick 1993, 239–40
  4. ^ Goodwin, Edmund; Thomson, Robert (1966). First Lessons in Manx. Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. p. 50.
  5. ^ Gell, John (1989). Conversational Manx. St. Judes: Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. p. 34. ISBN 1870029100.
  6. ^ Broderick 1984–86, 75–82; 1993, 250, 271; Thomson 1992, 122
  7. ^ a b The particle er is identical in form to the preposition er "on"; however, it is etymologically distinct, coming from Old Irish íar "after" (Williams 1994, 725).
  8. ^ This contrast is inherited from Old Irish, which shows such pairs as beirid ("(s)he carries") vs. ní beir ("(s)he does not carry"), and is found in Scottish Gaelic as well, e.g. gabhaidh ("will take") vs. cha ghabh ("will not take"). In Modern Irish, the distinction is found only in irregular verbs (e.g. chonaic ("saw") vs. ní fhaca ("did not see").
  9. ^ Broderick 1984–86, 1:92; 1992, 250; Thomson 1992, 122