[From Yn Lioar Manninagh Vol 3 pp59/64]

FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE MANX LANGUAGE.

A. W. MOORE, M.A., F.R.H.S.

As I think the subject of the non-Celtic elements in the Manx language may be of interest to the members of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, I venture to lay before you some notes I have made about them, premising that what I have done in this way is very imperfect and tentative. The subject, indeed, is one which deserves much more knowledge and research than I can lay claim to, and I trust that someone may be induced to take it up thoroughly, as, by doing so, he will be able to throw a flood of light, not only on Manx glottology, but on the due proportions of the various races and elements which have influenced Manx history. Saint Beuve has described the Romance tongue as une ancienne langue qui a ere des malheurs — " an ancient language which has had misfortunes," a description which may be aptly applied to Manx. The Manx language has, of course, suffered from not having been printed till the eighteenth century. Indeed, as late as 1663, Bishop Barrow wrote that not only was there nothing printed, but nothing written in Manx; and, moreover, that those who spoke it were not able to write it, as they had "no character or letter of it among them " ¹ He was, however, mistaken; as Bishop Phillip's translation of the Prayer Book, which has recently been published by the Manx Society, had been made as early as 1610. It has been a very great misfortune for the Manx language that this translation was ignored by the translators of the Prayer-book published in 1765, as a careful comparison of the two texts will show that the corruptions which now disfigure it have, for the most part, crept in between these two dates. The foreign elements in the Manx language are derived from (1) Latin, ² (2) Old Norse, (3) Anglo-Saxon, (4) Lowland Scotch — these three latter contributing but very few words — (5) Middle English, (6) Modern English. The last element, however, is such a large one, and so palpable to any one who has some knowledge of Manx, or refers to a Manx dictionary, that its presence will be only briefly indicated. The interesting question of the relationship between certain Manx words and those in classical and other languages, though it does not strictly belong to our subject, will be also referred to. By far the greater number of the Manx words derived from Latin are connected with religion. The word for the Church itself, agglish, is from ecclesia; a church (building) being chiamble or teamzbyl, from templum; and a chapel, cabbal, from the Middle Latin cappella. The bishop, aspick, from episcopus; the priest, saggyrt, from sacerdur; persoon, from the Low Latin persona; the cleric, or clerk, cleyragh, from clericus; and probably the deacon, joghan, from diaconus.

Recollections of the early Church are afforded by the words desert,³ meaning the solitary abode of a religious recluse, from desertum, pirgrin, ⁴ pilgrim, from peregrinus; and of the mediaeval Church by maynagh, monk, from monachus, mannishter, monastery, from monasterium, ab, abbot, from abbas and baccal, crosier, or staff, from baculum. The Pope is called Paab, from Papa. The services of the Church are represented by maddin, mattins, from matutinus; aspyrt, vespers, from vesperus; bashtey, baptism, from baptisma; 'cred, the Creed, and credjue, the belief, from credo; padjer, prayer, from pater. ⁵ The two important elements in the Communion Service are from the same source, viz.:— Body, corp, from corpus, and wine, feeyn, from vinum; and possibly the holy wafer, oalan, is from oblatio, and the offering, oural, from offerre. The ideas of hell, sin, and the devil also come from the same source, thus : niarin is from inferna, peccah from peccatum, and jouyll from diabolus. Other important religious ideas are conveyed in annym, soul, probably from anima; and spyrryd, spirit, from spiritus. The holy dove, collum, is from columba; apostle, ostyl, is from apostolus. The episcopal seat, caayr, is possibly from cathedra; the kiss of peace, paag, from pace (pax); the name given in baptism, ennynn, from nomen. The names of the seasons and feasts of the Church are also, for the most part, of Latin origin. Thus. Lent, Kargys, seems to be a corruption of Quadragesima; Easter, Caisht, of Pascha; Whit Sunday, Kingeish, of Qunquagesima; Trinity, Trinaud, of Trinitas; and Christmas, Nolic, of Natalicia; while the eve of each feast, Feaill, or Feailley, is probably from Vigilia.

A remarkable proof, however, of the independence of the Manx Church in Celtic times is afforded by the fact that of the names of the days of the week, only three — Monday, Jy lune ⁶, Dieslunæ; Tuesday, jy mayrt, Dies-martis; Saturday, Jy-sgyrn, Dies-Saturni; are of Latin and pagan origin; and only one, Sunday Jy-doonee, Dies-dominica, of Latin and Christian origin; while three, Wednesday, Je-crean, "(the) first day of (the) fast," Thursday, Jardain, "(the) day between two fasts," and Friday, Jy-heiney, "(the) day of (the) fast," are of purely native and Christian origin. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the Manx word for the Deity, Jee, is cognate with Deus. Among other Manx words derived from Latin are the names of two metals, aur, or airth, "gold," from aurum, and airgid, "silver," from argentum, though this last must be regarded as uncertain. Non-indigenous animals have usually English names with Manx terminations, but asyl probably comes direct from assellus, not ass, and conning may be direct from cuniculus, not coney. We have also (n)edd, "nest," from nidus, and ooh, "egg," from ovum. Pobbyl seems to have come from populus rather than people; while fockle, "word," obbyr, "work," are certainly from vocida and opera respectively. Ree, "king," is from rex (gen. regis), and possibly rein, "queen," from regina. (Note French reine) Feer, "very," is from veros, "true"; lioar, "book," from liber; streean, "bridle," probably from frenum; luan, lune, "moon." from luna; oraa, "saying," from oratio. With reference to the second contributory to the Manx language, the Old Norse, it is very remarkable, considering the long rule of the Norsemen in Man (say from 850 to 1270), that though there are numerous Norse place-names, only seven Norse words certainly remain in the spoken Manx language, viz, cleg, from kleggi; a horse-fly; blaber, from blaber, a bilberry; ling, from lyng, "heather;" gil, from gil, "a deep narrow glen;" ghaw, from gja, "a chasm," rift, and kirk, from kirk-ja (this being derived from Greek, kupixkos, "belonging to the Lord") a church.⁷

Of Anglo-Saxon origin there are probably ping, from pening (or possibly from old English penig) "a penny;" kelk, from cealc, "chalk;" scadoo, from sceadu, "a shadow," and perhaps grunt, from grund, "ground;" and kute, "cunning, clever," from cuth.

The words from Lowland-Scotch, though possibly some of these are of Middle English origin, are shicker, from sicker, sikkar, "sure;" tuck, from tuck, "to beat or walk" (of cloth); flid, from flird, "flirt;" stook, from stook, "a stock" (of corn); douyr, from dour, "stupid"; and fog, from fog, i:e., rank grass which has been eaten down in the summer; and perhaps drappal, "to drop," is taken from drap, rather than drop.

The following will serve as specimens of the middle-English words from which the corresponding Manx words are derived: — Crune (crown), pooer (power), favour (favor), maishter (master), kist (chest), dansen (dance), sample (example), resoun (reason), sannen (save), sondiour (soldier), streng (string), and burdoon (burden), the refrain of a song ; the Manx forms being crooin, pooar, foavr, mainshter, kistey, daunse, sampleyer, resoon, sauail, (to save), sudoor, streng, and bardoon (literally, "a lament, elegy").

To give an idea how largely modern Manx has borrowed from modern English, we may mention that under the letter p ⁸ in Kelly's dictionary, only about thirty words are of native origin, the rest, about 300 in number, being mainly English. We should also note that even the form of Manx language has been largely influenced by English, as we can show by comparing a few instances of Manx and Irish forms. Thus:—

As regards the words in Manx cognate to those in Latin and Greek, it is, of course, impossible to decide what was their original source. All that can be said is that their original forms were probably in use long before either these languages or the Celtic took their ultimate form. Of this the words themselves form a proof, as it will be seen from the following list that these relate to God, and such things as the commonest animals, relationships, plants, natural features, the lowest numbers, &c., as well as some of the most necessary adjectives which must have been in use from the earliest times. ⁹

The following Manx and Middle English words are of cognate origin :-

AS are the following Manx and modern English words :-

The following English words are almost certainly of Celtic origin :-Basket (Manx, bascaad), glen (Manx, glaõne), crag (Manx, Greg), twig (slang), (Manx,loa~-aal, to understand; imperative, lolg), bard, a poet (Manx, bard).

Footnotes

1 Butler's Memoirs of Bishop Hildesley, p. 305.

2 Latin only, not Greek, is referred to, as it is well known that the medieval monks were not acquainted with Greek. Most of the Latin words, however, have themselves been derived from the Greek.

3 Not in the Manx dictionaries

4 Now usually applied to a crutch.

5., from the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, 'Paternoster."

6 Jy being from dies.

7 There are a number of place names in Man of Norse origin, but the words composing them, except those above, are now obsolete in Manx. (See " Manx Names," p. 320-1.) We have also, possibly, kirk, ''a twist," from kengr ; and ruck, " a tick," from krankr.  

8 N.B.-This is not a Goidelic initial.

9 Late latin words marked * are exceptions to this.

10 Of later origin.

11 Welsh cengl.

12 Celtic root cam,

13 These are, however, probably not of primitive origin.

14 The form ean translated into modern English thus: '

'That all the eanlings which were streak'd and pied
Should fall as Jacob's hire."

-Merchant of Venice, I, 3, 88