Did you know that the last surviving native speaker of Manx Gaelic was Edward "Ned" Maddrell? Edward was born in 1877, and passed away in 1974 at the age of 97. He was born on the Isle of Man, and spent a large portion of his life as a fisherman. According to some historians, he was taught Manx Gaelic by his great aunt when he was a very small child. Other historians disagree with this assessment, and claim that Edward spoke English throughout his early childhood, and that he did not learn Manx Gaelic until much later in life. Prior to Edward, Mrs. Sage Kinvig was the only other person who claimed to speak Manx as a first native language, and she passed away in 1962. Some scholars claim it was her that was actually the last real native Manx speaker, with there obviously being some dispute over the subject. We hope you enjoyed reading about this interesting Manx fact. Please do browse around our website some more.
