The plan to revive Manx Gaelic and bring it back into routine use (at least on the Isle of Man) received a big boost in the last week, when the language was added as an option on Google Translate:
There are only about 20 native speakers of the language, and it’s been completely impossible to communicate with them since forever*, so it will be fantastic to hear what they have to say after all this time. Possibly, anyway.
Agh shoh naight mooar da’n cheshaght Manninagh.
One thing you can’t do on the site (yet) is listen to the translated phrase. That’s not great from the point of view of learning how things are pronounced, but it’s actually ok, because – and I’m being nice here – you might think your laptop had been drinking.
It does all sound (no pun intended, Manx people), as if everything is a little slurred and words are running into each other a bit.
As with any language, to really learn it properly, you need to spend regular time with someone who is fluent. I think that I’m unlikely to find anyone that fits that bill here in Cape Town, but maybe that’s something that I should be doing – goaill stiagh ma t’eh goaill stiagh deayrtey!
Hahaha!
* I made this bit up.