Sage Kinvig (c. 1870–1962) was, at the time of her death, one of the last surviving native speakers of the Manx language.
After initially training in Castletown to become a dressmaker, Sage Kinvig eventually came to dedicate her time to maintaining the croft and raising their family of ten children.
[1] Sage Kinvig and her husband were fluent native speakers of Manx, as was the norm for residents of Ronague in their youth.
At the time of her death in 1962,[2] Sage Kinvig was believed to be one of only two living native Manx speakers,[3] the other being Ned Maddrell,[4] who died in 1974.
[5] This was instigated by Éamon de Valera, in order to preserve the speech of the remaining native speakers – a task neglected since it had been attempted by the Manx Language Society under the stewardship of Sophia Morrison in the 1900s[6] and by Carl Marstrander in 1929–1933.