No time to die: the resurrection of Manx Gaelic

The Manx Gaelic language died in 1974, together with its last native speaker, 97-years-old fisherman Ned Maddrell. At least, that is what UNESCO believed when they declared the language extinct in 2009.

Until a letter, written in perfect Manx by primary school children, reached UNESCO headquarters: dozens of kids from the Isle of Man were asking the organisation to reverse its decision. This prompted UNESCO to create a new category: revitalised languages.

Here’s how a movement anchored in education and music brought a language back from the dead.

*ERRATUM*
While our team had multiple sources confirming Brian Stowell was responsible for the recordings, we were contacted by Mr Stowell's daughter who gave us more insight into the revitalisation movement. Rather than Mr Stowell, it's the Irish Folklore Commission (IFC) and representative Kevin Danaher that, in 1948 and with the help of other activists, recorded conversations and hymn readings by over a dozen native speakers

Chapters:
00:00 - 00:46 Intro
00:46 - 01:19 What is the Isle of Man?
01:19 - 03:04 A record-setting primary school
03:04 - 04:10 Children become teachers
04:10 - 04:50 Basics of Manx Gaelic
04:50 - 05:51 A pub for Manx speakers
05:51 - 06:40 UNESCO's mistake
06:40 - 08:40 Music matters

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There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, and around 40% of them are disappearing. Unesco estimates show that every two weeks, a language disappears. Raising voices is ENTR's series about Europe's disappearing languages and the people fighting to save them.