n 1992 the late Dr Brian Stowell was appointed Oarseir Gailckagh (Manx language officer) to guide the promotion of the teaching of Manx Gaelic in Isle of Man schools.

In 2001 the Bunschoill Ghaeilagh was established today housed at St John’s.

The remit, if I understand matters correctly, was to promote the teaching of everyday Manx relevant to the needs and aspirations of both the pupils and teaching staff in this day and age.

In talking to former pupils of the Bunscoill in Ramsey, both at the informal Manx chat session in a Ramsey cafe and later on at the Shennaghys Jiu ceilidh held in the Masonic Hall I was quite impressed with the standard reached in both cases.

The main emphasis, it seems, lies in the acquisition of everyday Manx accompanied by traditional songs, rhymes and chants etc thereby placing Manx in its traditional setting.

All the foregoing belongs to the programme as laid out by Dr Brian Stowell and his teaching colleagues in the various schools.

At the time of the Big Push into the Manx Revival led by Manx lexicographer the late Douglas C Faragher, along with Brian Stowell and colleagues (mostly former field-workers who had learned their Manx direct from the last native speakers) it was felt that Bible Manx as taught in Manx classes throughout the island ever since the establishment of the Manx Language Society (Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh) in 1899 was no longer applicable as a form of Manx relevant to modern everyday living, as exemplified in the current Irish and Scottish Gaelic to which Manx was felt properly to belong.

Hence everyday Manx idiom was brought up to date, much of it deriving as it did from the aforementioned Gaelic languages in Ireland and Scotland. Indeed, Manx neologisms also found their way into Irish at any rate.

Manx Bible expert the late Robert L Thomson also played his part in this dynamic programme.

However, in recent times Dr Christopher Lewin, a post-doctoral research fellow attached to the Department of Irish, University College Galway, and colleague Mr Rob Teare, head of Manx teaching in the Manx schools generally (except the Bunschoill Gaelgagh), wish to reintroduce upper register Manx as found in the Manx Bible and associated publications essentially of 17th to 19th century provenance, seemingly to add significantly to, if not replace altogether, the current form of Manx as initiated by the Faragher-Stowell team.

The intention behind the Lewin-Teare push is to introduce Manx Bible idiom which could also be used in a modern context but on a higher level equivalent to an A-Level standard. A detailed glossary of such Manx is also envisaged.

On the face of it this would seem to be a laudable undertaking. However, in doing so we would need to avoid invoking the ghosts of the past when Manx Bible Manx was the only Manx available to a learning public.

It was this past that was firmly rejected from the 1970s onwards.

However, there is one work of this type which has nothing at all to do with the religious material, but is an upper register Manx translation of the 13th Century Latin Chronicles of the Kings of Man and the Isles made by Brian Stowell at my request in 1973 and upgraded to Manx Bible standard by Robert L Thomson the same year.

The text here is relevant to an earlier but important phase of Manx history and almost certainly would readily find interest among advanced students of Manx.

The introduction of Manx from religious texts as an adjunct to the everyday Manx of the sort promoted by Brian Stowell is fine, but to replace it, that cannot be endorsed.

Prof. Dr. George Broderick

Universität Heidelberg

Heidelberg

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This letter was first published in the Manx Independent of April 27.