The Goidelic Celtic language of the Isle of Man — extinct in 1974 with the death of its last native speaker, then revived from records and is now learnt anew.
Where it’s spoken
Manx (Gaelg) is the native language of the Isle of Man, a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea. It descends from Old Irish brought by settlers around the 5th century. After centuries of decline under English-language schooling, the last fully fluent native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. UNESCO declared Manx extinct in 2009.
What it sounds like
Closely related to Scottish Gaelic and Irish but with distinctively Norse-influenced phonology — palatalised consonants, initial mutations, and verb-subject-object word order shared with the other Goidelic Celtic languages.
How it’s written
Manx uses the Latin alphabet with an idiosyncratic English-influenced orthography developed in the 17th century — quite different from Irish or Scottish Gaelic spelling. A vigorous revival is underway with a Manx-medium primary school on the island and a few hundred new speakers.
Find more languages by letter
Manx starts with M and ends with X. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Manx":