Manx English

Manx English, or Anglo-Manx, is the historic dialect of English spoken on the Isle of Man, though today in decline. It has many borrowings from the original Manx language, a Goidelic language, and it differs widely from any other English, including other Celtic-derived dialects such as Welsh English and Hiberno-English.

Early strata of Anglo-Manx contain much of Gaelic and Norse origin, but more recent Anglo-Manx displays heavy influence from Liverpool and Lancashire in North West England. A.W. Moore noted that the dialect varied to some slight extent from parish to parish and from individual to individual, but in the main the same turns of phrase and the same foundational stock of words pervaded the whole Island.

The best known recorder of the Anglo-Manx dialect was the poet T.E. Brown. Following him, many poems and plays were written in Anglo-Manx at around the turn of the Twentieth Century, notably by Cushag, J. J. Kneen and Christopher R. Shimmin. More recently, Kathleen Faragher wrote a number of Anglo-Manx poetry books in the 1950s and 60s. The published work of all these writers featured footnotes to explain much of the dialect terms.