Sage Kinvig

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.