Manx phonology

This chapter provides an overview of the synchronic and diachronic phonology of natively-spoken Manx based on the evidence of the corpus of written texts from c. 1610 to c. 1900, as well as fieldwork transcriptions, recordings and descriptions of the last native speakers made between the 1880s and the middle of the twentieth century. Special attention is given to the evidence of the Manx orthographies, which have previously been somewhat overlooked as a data source. The synchronic aspect concentrates on the phonology of the Classical Manx of the mid-eighteenth century, with reference where appropriate to the Early Manx of Bishop John Phillips’ translation of the Book of Common Prayer (c. 1610) and the Late Manx of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The diachronic aspect sketches the principal phonological changes which distinguish Manx from other Gaelic varieties, as well as developments within Manx during the period of its attestation. The main developments in the vowel and consonant systems are described, as well as prosodic and suprasegmental processes. New analyses of distinctive Manx developments are provided which clarify areas of contestation in the existing literature, including preocclusion, stress shift and unstressed long vowel shortening.