an they are
in the case of Scotland. There are a number of references to the island
in Irish literature, but the earliest monument of the vernacular we
possess is the version of the Book of Common Prayer made by Bishop
Phillips in 1610. In this translation the traditional Irish orthography
is not followed. The spelling resembles the orthography which was
employed in Scotland by the compiler of the _Book of the Dean of
Lismore_. How far this system was used is a question which it is
difficult to decide. In Scotland the Irish orthography has prevailed in
a slightly modified form, but Manx writers adhered to a mode of spelling
which was as phonetic as any system based on English, or, probably more
correctly Anglo-Scottish, orthography could be. This fact, combined with
the rapid phonetic decay of the language, makes it extremely difficult
to discover what sound-values are to be attached to the various symbols.
At the beginning of the 18th century English was not understood by
two-thirds of the natives, and in 1764 the S.P.C.K. issued a paper
containing this statement: "The population of the Isle is 20,000, of
whom the far greater number are ignorant of English." But from this time
English gradually crept in. The last edition of the Manx Bible was
issued in 1819, and of the New Testament in 1840. The present writer's
great-grandmother refused to speak English, his grandfather (b. 1815)
preached in Manx and English, and his father (b. 1844) only spoke
English. The following figures illustrate the rapid decline of the
language:--

Monolinguists. Bilinguists.
1875 190 12,340
(out of a population
of 41,084 exclusive
of Douglas)
1901 None 4,419

Manx stands in a much closer relation to Scottish Gaelic than Irish,
and fishermen state that they could understand a good deal of what is
said in South Argyll, though they are quite at a loss at Kinsale. Manx
exhibits the same tendency as Scottish to use analytical and
periphrastic forms in the verb, thus _jannoo_, "to do," is used like
Scottish _deanamh_ with an infinitive to express the past and future.
The present has acquired a momentary (future) signification, and the
past participle ends in -it (Scottish -te). The negative is _cha_ as
in Scotland and Ulster. Manx goes as far as northern Scottish in
dropping uns