A language once classified as “extinct” has been given a new ‘breath of life’ thanks to a former student at the University.
Music graduate Ruth Keggin has produced her debut solo album mostly in the Manx Gaelic language, spoken by around 1,700 people on the Isle of Man.
The 25-year-old has featured new arrangements of modern and traditional folk songs sung in the dialect that was classified as “extinct” by the United Nations cultural body Unesco in 2009.
But Miss Keggin insists that the language, which Unesco were forced to reclassify following protests, “never died out”. She told BBC News: “Manx never died out – the language revival started decades ago. ”
Ruth achieved a first class honours degree in 2010 and returned to the University last March to host a careers event.
She was part of a Manx group called Nish As Rish which scooped the best newcomer prize at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in Brittany in 2011.
BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Mary Ann Kennedy once said she was the “pure and passionate Gaelic voice of the Manx musical renaissance”.
Ruth’s debut solo album Sheear is released today.