Books by George Broderick

Work for the series »Placenames of the Isle of Man« is undertaken under the auspices of the Manx Place-Name Survey, set up at the University of Mannheim in 1988. The survey falls into two parts: material collected from a) oral, and b) documentary sources. Place-name material, mostly Manx Gaelic, for the first part, was collected on sound-recordings or in phonetic script 1989-1992 from some 200 informants, almost exclusively from the farming community. The second part contains material drawn from documentary sources of 13th-20th century date, but mostly from 17th-19th centuries. This is the final volume in the series »Placenames of the Isle of Man«. Six volumes, based on the Sheadings (districts) of Glenfaba, Michael, Ayre, Garff, Middle and Rushen, are already published. Volume 7 includes the town of Douglas (capital), place-name and field-name addenda, as well as complete indexes of place-name elements, place-names, field-names, and personal names. In addition are the following four articles: »Place-Names and the Physical and Human Geography of the Isle of Man: an Overview« (Peter Darvey), »Pre-Scandinavian Place-Names in the Isle of Man« (George Broderick), »The Scandinavian Element in the Place-Names of the Isle of Man« (Gillian Fellows-Jensen), and »Common Elements in Manx Place-Names« (George Broderick). To complete the volume are 17 parish maps containing the traditional land divisions of treen and quarterland.

Volume 6 comprises the three southerly parishes of Kirk Malew (including the town and former capital Castletown and the large village of Ballasalla), Kirk Arbory, and Kirk Christ Rushen (including the Calf of Man island). The material appears in alphabetical form with discussion of any problems of interpretation, and a listing of the various elements making up the names. This volume yields name-forms and elements not found in Manx literature or dictionaries. In addition, reinterpretation of some of the names now places them in the Early Christian period of Manx history (6th-7th centuries), thus adding them to the small list of names predating the Scandinavian period (9th-13th centuries). As documentary material from that time to the 16th century is largely absent, the testimony of placenames is important for the distribution of name elements reflecting the topography and patterns of settlement, and for the development of Manx Gaelic during that period. It also helps to contribute towards comparative placename study in adjacent areas, particularly Ireland, southwest Scotland and northwest England.

Volume 5 comprises the three central and eastern parishes of Kirk Braddan, Kirk Marown, and Kirk Santan. The material appears in alphabetical form with discussion of any problems of interpretation and a listing of the elements making up the names. This volume yields name-forms and elements not found in Manx literature or dictionaries. As all but a handful of names predate the Scandinavian period (9th-13th centuries) and as documentary material from that time till the 16th century is largely absent, the testimony of place-names is important for the distribution of name elements reflecting the geography and showing patterns of settlement, whether Celtic, Scandinavian, etc, and for comparative place-name research in adjacent areas, particularly Ireland, south-western Scotland, and northern England.

The second volume Sheading of Michael embraces the parishes of Kirk Michael, Ballaugh, and Jurby on the western side of the island. The material appears in alphabetical form with discussion of any problems of interpretation, and a listing of the elements making up the names. Field names are given under their respective forms. In the absence of early documentary material in Man, especially for the main native language Manx Gaelic, the testimony of place-names is therefore important in tracing the development of spoken Gaelic in the island from ca. 13th century onwards. It is also important for the distribution of name elements showing patterns of settlement, whether Gaelic, Scandinavian, etc., and for comparative place-name research in adjacent areas, particularly Ireland, south-western Scotland, and northern England.

The first volume Sheading of Glenfaba embraces the parishes of Kirk Patrick and Kirk German, and the town of Peel on the western side of the island. The material appears in alphabetic form,with discussion of any problems of interpretation, and a listing of the elemets making up the names. Field names are given under their respective farms.

Language death is an aspect of language contact which has occupied the interest of linguists from the past twenty-five years or so. Although the phenomenon of language death is occuring all over the world very few instances of it have been dealt with both from a sociolinguistic and formal linguistic standpoint. Those that spring to mind are the works of Nancy Dorian on East Sutherland Gaelic and Hans-Jurgen Sasse on the Albanian dialect of Arvanitika in Greece. In both instances it is dialects of languages that are treated and not complete languages themselves. The study of language death in the Isle of Man deals with the decline and extinction of Manx Gaelic as a community language, and as a language in its own right. After setting the scenario of language death this study then looks into the sociolinguistic reasons which led to the decline and death of Manx in Man. There then follows a detailed look into the study of language and language use in Man, from early observations to the present day. This section includes a detailed description of phonetic and sound recordings made of Manx over the period. This leads to an in-depth study into the formal linguistic situation of Manx, tracing the development in its phonology, morphophonology, morphology, morphosyntax and syntax, idiom and lexicon, which ultimately led to its demise. As language revival is in itself a facet of language death, the study concludes with a short excursus into the various efforts at language revival and maintenance in Man, from the latter part of the 19th century to the present day. The appendices include Professor Carl Marstrander's diary of his visits to Man (1929-33) published for the first time. The diary contains percipient observations of the state of Manx in its final phase. In short, this study looks in some detail into the mechanics of language death on a once thriving and vibrant community language.