member of the Goidelic (Goidelic languages) group of Celtic languages, formerly spoken on the Isle of Man. Like Scottish Gaelic, Manx was an offshoot of Irish, and it is closely related to the easternmost dialects of Irish and to Scottish. The earliest record of the Manx language is a version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, translated into Manx in 1610 by a Welsh bishop who used an orthography based on that of English. Manx was spoken by the majority of inhabitants of the Isle of Man until the 19th century, when it was displaced by English. When very few native speakers remained, an attempt was made to preserve the language, and a revival was underway in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.