Manx Language - Literature

Literature

Because Manx has never had a large user base, it has never been practical to produce large amounts of written literature. A body of oral literature, on the other hand, did exist. It is known that the "Fianna" tales and the like were known, with the Manx ballad Fin as Oshin commemorating Finn MacCool and Ossian. With the coming of Protestantism, this slowly disappeared, while a tradition of carvals, religious songs or carols, developed with religious sanction.

As far as is known, there was no distinctively Manx written literature before the Reformation, and by this time any presumed literary link with Ireland and Scotland, such as through Irish-trained priests, had been lost. The first published literature in Manx was the Book of Common Prayer, translated by John Phillips, the Welsh-born Bishop of Sodor and Man (1605–33). The early Manx script does have some similarities with orthographical systems found occasionally in Scotland and in Ireland for the transliteration of Gaelic, such as the Book of the Dean of Lismore, as well as in some cases extensive texts based on English and Scottish English orthographical practices of the time. Little secular Manx literature has been preserved.

When the Anglican church authorities commenced the production of written literature in the language in the 18th century, the system developed by John Philips was further "anglicized", the one Welsh-retention being the use of ⟨y⟩ to represent schwa (e.g. cabbyl "horse" and cooney "help" as well as /ɪ/ (e.g. fys “knowledge”), though it is also used to represent, as in English (e.g. y Yuan "John" (vocative), yeeast "fish").

Later pieces included short stories and poetry. Translations also occurred, notably of Paradise Lost in 1796.

In 2006, the first full length novel in Manx, Dunveryssyn yn Tooder-Folley (The Vampire Murders) was published by Brian Stowell, after being serialised in the press.