Manx 🇮🇲, or Gaelg, is a Goidelic Celtic language native to the Isle of Man and a clos…

Manx 🇮🇲, or Gaelg, is a Goidelic Celtic language native to the Isle of Man and a close relative of Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It was spoken by most of the island’s population until the 19th century, when tourism, emigration and the dominance of English pushed it into rapid decline. By 1974 the last native speaker, a 97-year-old fisherman named Ned Maddrell, had died, and in 2009 UNESCO declared it extinct. But the language never fully disappeared — schoolchildren on the island wrote to UNESCO in Manx to protest the decision, and it was reclassified. Today around 2,200 people can speak, read or write it, a Manx-medium primary school has been running since 2001, and the government wants 5,000 speakers by 2032. It’s one of the most remarkable language revivals anywhere in the world.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​