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Manx oddity

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:57 pm
by Audiendus
While I was browsing through Wiktionary, I came across the word eeee, which is Manx for "will eat".

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eeee#Manx

There is also ee, which means "she", "her", or "it" (feminine). So:

Eeee ee ee = She will eat it.

An interesting piece of trivia. :wink:

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:42 pm
by Perry Lassiter
Talk about an irregular verb! Derives from "ithidh," with no E at all! Also the word order. Why not "ee eee ee"? And the nominative the same as objective. Fascinating language. Of course, English "to be" is pretty wild also. Consider: is, are, were, was...not a B til you get to been.

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:19 am
by bnjtokyo
Cute sentence. Wonder how it would sound?

According to my chart of Indo-European languages, Manx is leaf on the Gaelic twig on the Celtic branch of the Indo-European tree. According to Wikipedia, and like other Celtic languages, its normal word order is VSO.

The last native speaker died in 1974. Although it is extinct, there is a revival attempt on, and there are currently about 100 speakers.

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 12:40 pm
by LukeJavan8
I feel such a great loss with extinction of these languages,
even tho' I cannot speak them. I receive two newspapers
online from Wales, and there is a revival there. I was talking
with three boys on lunch break the last time I visited. They
were in what is our 6th grade (ll-l2 years), and were
required to take five languages, Welsh being one of them.
So many Indian (Native Am) languages at death's doorstep.
I had an Indian grandmother, and she preferred the term
Indian, so I feel PC or not, I can use it.

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:02 am
by Philip Hudson
I grieve the passing of languages, especially the Celtic languages from whence I sprung. The passing seems inevitable. I visited with a Kenyan lady today who is a fluent speaker of Swahili. Here is a vibrant language with a growing number of users. It is a relatively new language. If I weren't older than dirt I would try to learn it.

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:57 pm
by LukeJavan8
I think I'd try Arabic, the script is so beautiful,
but yes, older than dirt. Like I mentioned in some
thread, I was hiding in the cave when the asteroid
hit destroying the dinosaurs.

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:37 pm
by Perry Lassiter
I tried Arabic twice. The first time, I tried to memorize the alphabet, which quickly frustrated me because there are multiple symbols for the same letter. Then I tried the oral route with cd's from the library. That was better, and I may go back to it, but I really need to read it. Then I could read signs in the protest parades, khayam in the original, etc.

Re: Manx oddity

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:35 pm
by LukeJavan8
I understand, and can see it would be quite difficult.
I'd have to take classes, could not do it on my own.