Manx Gaelic (Manx Gaelic: Gaelg) Is a language from the Isle of Man, it is mostly only used by the minority of the Manx population who can speak it amongst themselves. Most roadsigns are bi-lingual, but most placenames are in Manx only. The language is rarely heard in public except in formal situations such as Tynwald Day and on radio shows for Manx speakers. Manx, in common with Scottish Gaelic, is closely related to Irish, and shares most of its vocabulary and grammar with these languages. Whilst it shares common grammatical features with Welsh, Cornish and Breton it shares very little common vocabulary with these languages. There is one Manx medium primary school in the Isle of Man, and most children on the Isle of Man learn some Manx in primary school. Provision for Manx in secondary school is limited, the number of speakers being far higher in schools with strong community links and the highest academic achievement. All native speakers are bilingual (or multilingual).
The Manx spelling system is quite different from either Irish or Scottish Gaelic, particularly the vowels and in the way it uses auxiliary letters. English speakers will find the Manx spelling system considerably easier than that of Irish or Scottish Gaelic.
Vowels
a â
(Short) Like "a" in "cat", (with circumflex) like "a" in "pale".
e ê
Like "e" in "bed", (with circumflex) like "ea" in "fear".
i î
Like "i" in "pin".
o ô
Like "o" in "hot", (with circumflex) like "oa" in "moat".
u
Like "a" in "cat" or "o" in "hot".
w
Like "u" in "put".
y
Like "u" in "hut" or "i" in "bird". The word y is pronounced like the "e" in "bed".
