Continuity and hybridity in language revival: The case of Manx

Christopher Lewin

doi:10.1017/s0047404521000580

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents a typology of phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical features illustrative of factors conditioning the usage of speakers and writers of Revived Manx, including substratal influence from English; language ideologies prevalent within the revival movement, especially forms of linguistic purism; and language-specific features of Manx and its orthography. Evidence is taken primarily from a corpus of Revived Manx speech and writing. The observed features of Revived Manx are situated within Zuckermann's (2009, 2020) framework of ‘hybridization’ and ‘revival linguistics’, which takes Israeli Hebrew as the prototypical model of revernacularization of a non-L1 language. However, Manx arguably provides a more typical example of what to expect when a revived minority language remains predominantly an L2 for an indefinite period, with each new cohort of speakers able to reshape the target variety in the absence of a firmly established L1 norm. (Manx, Celtic, language revival, language ideology, language shift, language contact)*

Highlights

This article presents a brief description and analysis of some of the categories of linguistic features found in contemporary Manx, by which present-day usage may diverge from the norms of the traditional language
We have traced a complex set of internal and external factors which are likely to be present in any language revival scenario, as well as particular traits of the linguistic and orthographic relationship between Manx and English, and specific historical developments and ideological trends in the course of the revival
The kind of ‘hybridization’ noted by Zuckermann (2009) in the case of Israeli Hebrew is clearly apparent in Revived Manx; there is an ongoing dynamic of malleability whereby features of the target variety remain fluid and variable in the absence of a definitive ‘founder generation’ and subsequent nativization as a dominant L1

Summary

Introduction

This article presents a brief description and analysis of some of the categories of linguistic features found in contemporary Manx, by which present-day usage may diverge from the norms of the traditional language. Manx today is a revived Celtic language with no traditional native speakers.

Results

Conclusion