Manx featured at cultural regeneration event

The growth of Isle of Man’s native language has been highlighted at a cultural regeneration event in Brussels.

The Manx Gaelic was one of nine languages represented at the gathering, which was organised by the the external relations offices of the island, Jersey and Guernsey.

The Minority Language Regeneration event aimed to share initiatives to keep indigenous languages alive and raise awareness of them.

Manx speaker Ruth Keggin Gell, who attended the event on behalf of the government, said it was “great to see a community across the world of different minority language speakers coming together”.

‘Wider audience’

The day-long event, which was attended by 70 delegates, also heard from speakers from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Guernsey, Jersey, Monaco, the Basque Country, Norway and Wales .

It included talks from representatives of each of the nine communities on the theme of how creativity and technology could be used to revitalise languages.

This was followed by a knowledge sharing session between representatives about initiatives they had implemented.

Ms Keggin Gell, who is the Manx language development officer for Culture Vannin, said it was important to hear from other practitioners dealing with similar challenges faced by communities.

She said the key struggle faced across the world was to prevent indigenous languages from getting “forgotten in favour of larger world languages”.

It was important to learn from the successes of other communities, as well as to raise awareness about the Isle of Man and its language, she added.

Michael Vercnocke, who is head of the Isle of Man government’s Brussels office, said the event allowed the island to “reach a wider audience within the European Commission, parliament, and beyond”.

While the first event, held in November 2023, had focused solely on languages within the British Isles, this year’s event had been expanded, he added.