Do you know your ’Traie Vane’ from your ’Kione Doo’, or your ’Claddagh’ from your ’Cronk’?

This week there will be the launch of a series of several short videos exploring some of the Manx Gaelic place names that can be found around the Isle of Man.

The bite-sized videos focus on Manx words that are commonly found in place names around the island and give viewers a brief explanation of the meanings of the words as well as a helping hand with

their pronunciation.

Many place names around the island feature commonly used words such as ’cronk’, which means ’hill, ’beg’ and ’mooar’, means small and big respectively), and ’reayrt’ which translates as ’view’, commonly seen recently in the names of many new housing estates.

The first place-name video will be released today (Thursday), with other videos in the series being gradually released over the next fortnight.

The films were produced on location in a variety of rural and urban landscapes around the island.

These can be accessed via the Learn Manx website and Culture Vannin’s social media pages, as well as YouTube, Vimeo and the Learn Manx website.

The organisers of Gaelg21 believe that starting to recognise and understand and recognise these place names and the individual words can be a great hook into learning Manx.

’The Manx language is woven into the very fabric of the island, and the place names that surround us are a visible and audible reminder of that,’ said Ruth Keggin Gell, the Manx Language development officer for Culture Vannin said.

’Broadening our understanding of place names is a great way to help us feel more deeply rooted to the island - geographically, historically, culturally and linguistically.’

The videos are being released as part of ’Gaelg21’, a month-long celebration and promotion of the Manx language, taking place between June 9 and July 9, which features a variety of project releases as well as a full timetable of events for all the community to take part in.

In case you were wondering, ’Traie Vane’ means ’white beach’, Kione Doo’ is ’black head’, ’claddagh’ is an area of flat grassland by a river and ’cronk’ means ’hill’.

l Find out more about the Gaelg21 celebrations, and programme of events, at learnmanx.com/gaelg21