Jèrriais is the form of the
Norman language spoken in
Jersey, in the
Channel Islands. It has been in decline over the past century as
English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration. There are very few people who speak
Jèrriais as a mother tongue and, owing to the age of the remaining speakers, their numbers decrease annually. Despite this, efforts are being made to keep the language alive.
A similar language,
Dgèrnésiais is spoken in neighbouring
Guernsey; the language of
Sark,
Sercquiais, is a descendant of the Jèrriais brought by the Jersey colonists who settled Sark in the
16th century; and there is inter-comprehension with the Norman language of mainland
Normandy.
Jèrriais is often called "Jersey French" or "Jersey Norman French" by English-speakers (though this may give the mistaken impression that the language is a
dialect of
French) and "jersiais" or "normand de Jersey" by
French-speakers. Care should be taken to distinguish between Jèrriais and the
Jersey Legal French used for legal contracts, laws and official documents by the government and administration of Jersey. For this reason, some prefer using the term "Jersey Norman" to avoid ambiguity and to disassociate the language from standard French.
Status Main article Jèrriais literature The literary tradition is traced back to
Wace, the
12th century Jersey-born poet, although there is little surviving literature in Jèrriais dating to before the introduction of the first printing press in Jersey in the
1780s. The first printed Jèrriais appears in the first newspapers at the end of the
18th century, and the earliest identified dated example of printed poetry is a fragment by Matchi L'Gé (
Matthew Le Geyt 1777 –
1849) dated
1795.
An astonishing boom in competing newspapers and journals throughout the
19th century provided a platform for poets and writers to publish regularly — typically, satirical comment on the week's news, elections, Jersey politicians and notables.
The first printed anthology of Jèrriais poetry,
Rimes Jersiaises, was published in
1865.
Influential writers include "Laelius" (Sir
Robert Pipon Marett 1820 –
1884,
Bailiff of Jersey
1880 –
1884), "A.A.L.G." (
Augustus Aspley Le Gros 1840 –
1877), "St.-Luorenchais" (
Philippe Langlois 1817 –
1884).
Elie (
Edwin J. Luce 1881 –
1918) was editor of the French-language newspaper
La Nouvelle Chronique de Jersey and a poet who wrote topical poems for the newspaper. He was also active in promoting the development of drama in Jèrriais and organised performances, ultimately leading to the establishment of a Jèrriais section of the
Jersey Eisteddfod in
1912.
During the
Occupation, little original writing was permitted to be published by the German censorship. However very many older pieces of literature were re-published in the newspapers as an act of cultural self-assertion and morale-boosting.
After the Occupation and with the re-establishment of a free press,
Edward Le Brocq (
1877 –
1964) revived a weekly column in
1946 with a letter from
Ph'lip et Merrienne, supposedly a traditional old couple who would comment on the latest news or recall time past.
The most influential writer of Jèrriais in the
20th century was a U.S. citizen,
George Francis Le Feuvre (
1891 –
1984) whose pen-name was "George d'la Forge". He emigrated to North America after the
First World War but for almost forty years maintained a flow of articles in Jèrriais back to Jersey for publication in newspapers. Selections of his articles have been published in book form.
Frank Le Maistre (
1910 –
2002), compiler of the dictionary, maintained a literary output starting in the 1930s with newspaper articles under the pseudonym
Marie la Pie, poems, magazine articles, research into toponymy and etymology.
Since Le Maistre,
Geraint Jennings has been influential in preserving the language by compiling thousands of pages of Jèrriais text online in
Les Pages Jèrriaises.
Literature Although Jèrriais is now the first language of a very small minority, until the
19th century it was the everyday language of the majority of the population, and even until the Second World War up to half the population could communicate in the language. However, there is no complete Bible in Jèrriais (although there are versions of favourite Bible texts in Jèrriais), as French was, until the
20th century, the predominant language of the Church in Jersey (although sermons would be preached, or explained, in Jèrriais in country areas).
Awareness of the decline of language use became apparent in the 19th century in scholarly circles. Among foreign linguists,
Louis Lucien Bonaparte visited Jersey and interested himself in the language and its literature.
Victor Hugo, during his exile in Jersey, took an interest in the language and numbered some Jèrriais writers among his circle of acquaintances and supporters.
Sir Robert Pipon Marett's prestige and influence helped to reinforce the movement towards standardisation of the writing system based on French orthography, a trend which was also helped by the nascent Norman literary revival in the neighbouring
Cotentin area of mainland
Normandy where writers, inspired by the example of the Norman writers of Jersey and Guernsey, began their own production of literary works. However, differing (if mutually comprehensible) writing systems have been adopted in Jersey, Guernsey and mainland
Normandy. The question is sometimes raised as to whether Jèrriais should move to a writing system based on English
orthography, however this would have implications for the continuity of the literary tradition over two centuries or more (note though, that the digraph "th" for the typical dental fricative of Jèrriais has evidently been borrowed from English orthography).
As English became dominant in Jersey in the
20th century, efforts were made to preserve the language. Associations undertook measures; 19th century
manuscript glossaries, the work of Philippe Langlois, A. A. Le Gros and Thomas Gaudin, were revised and expanded into the
Glossaire du Patois Jersiais (published in
1924 by the
Société Jersiaise); a quarterly magazine has been published (with the occasional hiatus) since
1952; a comprehensive Jèrriais-French
dictionary was published (
1966); an English-Jèrriais vocabulary published (
1972); a standard grammar appeared in
1985; cassettes, booklets and other materials have also been produced.
George d'la Forge's maintenance of the language in North American diaspora is not as surprising as it might seem, as considerable numbers of Jersey people had been involved in the economic development and exploitation of the New World (hence
New Jersey), although much of the concentration focused on the
cod fisheries of the
Gaspé peninsula in
Quebec,
Canada, which were controlled into the early 20th century by Jersey-based companies or companies of Jersey origin employing Jersey labour. The common language of business was Jèrriais, and it is reported that there were still some Jèrriais-speakers in Gaspé villages in the
1960s.
The use of Jèrriais is also to be noted during the German
Occupation of the Channel Islands during the
Second World War; the local population used Jèrriais among themselves as a language neither the occupying Germans, nor their French interpreters, could understand. However the social and economic upheaval of the War meant that use of English increased dramatically after the Liberation.
It is considered that the last monolingual speakers probably died in the
1950s.
Famous Jèrriais speakers include
Lillie Langtry and Sir
John Everett Millais, the
Pre-Raphaelite painter.
History Although Jèrriais is occasionally misleadingly described as a mixture of
Norse and
French, it would be more linguistically accurate to state that when the Norse-speaking
Normans conquered the territory that is now called
Normandy they started speaking the
langue d'oïl of their new subjects. The Norman language is therefore basically a
Romance language with a certain amount of vocabulary of Norse origin, plus later
loanwords from other languages.
Vocabulary Norse origins can be seen in Jèrriais words such as these:
mielle (sand dune)
mogue (mug)
bel (yard)
gradile (blackcurrant)
mauve (seagull)
graie (to prepare)
hèrnais (cart)
bète (bait)
haûter (to doze)
Influence of Norse Jèrriais has also adopted a small number of words from the
Breton language (e.g.
pihangne 'spider crab', from Breton
bihan 'small';
quédaine 'fast', from Breton
gaden 'hare'), although the influence on today's language has overwhelmingly been from French and, increasingly, English.
Influence of Breton A large number of
gallicisms have been introduced into the language due to the use of French as an official language and the cultural influence of France and French literature. Some French words have displaced in modern usage Jèrriais words that can still be found in older texts from the 18th and 19th centuries, for example:
Efforts are being made to maintain some Jèrriais words which are competing in usage with French forms, for example:
French
leçon (in the form
léçon) has displaced native
lichon (lesson)
French
garçon has displaced native
hardé (boy)
French
chanson has displaced native
canchon (song)
native
hielle is being promoted over French
huile (oil)
native
huiptante (eighty) is being promoted over French
quatre-vingts (fourscore)
Influence of French Some maritime vocabulary was borrowed from English at an early date, for example
baûsouîn (boatswain), but by the late
18th century some domestic vocabulary, such as:
entered the language through the employment of Jèrriais-speaking servants in the houses of bourgeois English-speaking immigrants.
Other words borrowed from English before 1900 include:
Care however needs to be taken in identifying
anglicisms as some words such as
mogue (mug) or
canne (can) which are often assumed to have been borrowed from English were in fact Norman words exported to England in the wake of the
Norman Conquest, and words such as
fliotchet (flock) and
ridgi (rig) are Norman
cognates of English words.
More recently, words such as
boutchi (to book),
partchi (to park) and
tyeur (tyre) have been absorbed into the language, although current initiatives in creating
neologisms for technological and social innovations prefer to avoid wholesale borrowing where possible. Among recent coinings are words such as
textéthie for
texting,
maître-pêtre for
webmaster (literally
master-spider) and
mégabouochie for
megabyte.
bliatchinner (to polish shoes, from
blacking)
coutchi (to cook)
grévîn (gravy)
ouâchinner (to rub in soapy water, from
washing)
scrobbine-broche (scrubbing brush)
sâsse-paine (saucepan)
stchilet (skillet)
ticl'ye (from
tea-kettle)
chârer (to share)
drâses (underpants, from
drawers)
ouothinner (to worry)
ouadinne (cotton wool, from
wadding)
nosse (nurse)
souîndgi (to throw, from
swing)
sténer (to stand, to endure)
Influence of English The phonological influence of Norse is debated, although the aspirated "h" may be due to Norse influence.
Phonology The
palatalization of
Latin /k/ and /g/ before /a/ that occurred in the development of French did not occur in northern dialects of Norman, including Jèrriais:
However the palatalization of /k/ before
front vowel produced different results in the Norman dialect that developed into Jèrriais than in French. (Many developments are similar to those in
Italian, cf.
cento-hundred and
faccia-face).
At a later date surviving /k/ and /g/ underwent a secondary process of palatalization:
This palatalization continues to operate (except in initial position) as can be seen by recent borrowings from English:
Palatalization One of the features of Jèrriais that is immediately noticeable and distinguishes it from neighbouring languages is the
voiced dental fricative — written
th — that typically occurs in intervocalic position:
Or in final position:
The fricative devoices to assimilate with a neighbouring unvoiced consonant in words such as
paqu'thie (packing) or
malaûc'theux (disgusting).
The fricative developed from /r/ + front vowel, but evidently after the 16th century as this feature is unknown in the language of Sark (colonised by Jersey families). Although the voiced dental fricative is standard in the literary language, it is not found in the eastern dialects.
Some older speakers in St. Ouen use a dental fricative in positions where other dialects show a /z/. This may be represented in the orthography of particular writers.
The dental fricative in the dialect of such speakers may also be heard in
liaison:
Dental fricative Length is phonemic in Jèrriais. Long vowels are usually indicated in writing by a
circumflex accent. A noun ending in a vowel lengthens the final vowel to indicate the plural (shown in writing by adding an
s).
Gemination occurs regularly in verb tenses, indicated by a consonant-
apostrophe-consonant
trigraph, for example:
ou pâl'la (she will speak);
jé c'mench'chons (we will begin);
i' donn'nait (he would give).
Gerunds will also regularly contain geminate consonants, for example:
faîs'sie (doing, making);
chant'tie (singing);
tith'thie (shooting);
brîng'gie (sweeping);
gângn'nie (winning).
Grammar Verbs Jèrriais distinguishes between simple,
progressive and
perfect aspect:
Past:
Future:
Present:
Aspect Verbs can be made iterative in aspect by prefixing
èr- (long form) or
r' (short form):
Iterative Verbs can be transformed into
gerunds, which are commonly used:
Examples Auregnais Culture of Jersey Sercquiais
Origin of name
Events
Lefthit