Guernésiais, also known as
Dgèrnésiais,
Guernsey French,
Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of
Norman languageNorman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified in the northern Oïl languages with Picard and Walloon. The name Norman-French is sometimes used to describe not only the modern Norman language, but also the administrative languages of Anglo-Norman and Law French...
spoken in
GuernseyThe Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.As well as the island of Guernsey itself, it also includes Alderney, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, Burhou, Lihou, Sark and other islets. Although the defence of all these islands is the...
. It is sometimes known on the island, by the semi-disparaging name "
patoisPatois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant...
". As one of the
Oïl languagesLangues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, which today make up northern France, part of Belgium, and the Channel Islands...
, it has its roots in the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
language, but has had strong influence from both Norse and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
at different points in its history.
There is intercomprehension (with some difficulty) with
JèrriaisJèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. It has been in decline over the past century as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration...
-speakers from
JerseyThe Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes the nearly uninhabited islands of the Minquiers, Écréhous, the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs. Together with the bailiwick of Guernsey...
and Norman-speakers from mainland
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
.
Guernésiais, also known as
Dgèrnésiais,
Guernsey French,
Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of
Norman languageNorman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified in the northern Oïl languages with Picard and Walloon. The name Norman-French is sometimes used to describe not only the modern Norman language, but also the administrative languages of Anglo-Norman and Law French...
spoken in
GuernseyThe Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.As well as the island of Guernsey itself, it also includes Alderney, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, Burhou, Lihou, Sark and other islets. Although the defence of all these islands is the...
. It is sometimes known on the island, by the semi-disparaging name "
patoisPatois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant...
". As one of the
Oïl languagesLangues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, which today make up northern France, part of Belgium, and the Channel Islands...
, it has its roots in the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
language, but has had strong influence from both Norse and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
at different points in its history.
There is intercomprehension (with some difficulty) with
JèrriaisJèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. It has been in decline over the past century as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration...
-speakers from
JerseyThe Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes the nearly uninhabited islands of the Minquiers, Écréhous, the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs. Together with the bailiwick of Guernsey...
and Norman-speakers from mainland
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
. Guernésiais most closely resembles the Norman
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
of
La HagueLa Hague is a region on the tip of the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, France.La Hague is a picturesque place of Precambrian granite cliffs, coves and small fields surrounded by hedges. It faces the Channel Islands and there any many cousins on both side of the Alderney race.The dialect of the...
in the
Cotentin PeninsulaThe Cotentin Peninsula, also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy, forming part of the north-western coast of France...
(
CotentinaisCotentinais is the dialect of the Norman language spoken in the Cotentin Peninsula. It is one of the strongest dialects of the language on the mainland.-Dialects:...
).
Guernésiais has been influenced less by
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
than has
JèrriaisJèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. It has been in decline over the past century as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration...
, but conversely has been influenced to a greater extent by
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
. New words have been imported for modern phenomena "le bike", "le gas-cooker".
There is a rich tradition of poetry in the Guernsey language. Guernsey songs were inspired by the sea, by colourful figures of speech, by traditional folk-lore, as well as by the natural beauty of the island. The island's greatest poet was Georges Métivier (1790-1881), a contemporary of
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, who influenced and inspired local poets to print and publish their traditional poetry. Métivier blended together local place-names, bird and animal names, traditional sayings and orally transmitted fragments of medieval poetry to create his
Rimes Guernesiaises (1831).
Denys CorbetDenys Corbet was a Channel Islands poet and naive painter and school master. He was the second son of Pierre and Susanne who was born at La Turquie, Vale, Guernsey, Channel Island...
(1826-1910) was considered the "Last Poet" of Guernsey French and published many poems in his day in his native tongue in the island newspaper and privately.
Que l'lingo seit bouan ou mauvais / J'pâlron coum'nou pâlait autefais (whether the “lingo” be good or bad, I’m going to speak the way we spoke back then), wrote Métivier.
The most recent dictionary of Guernésiais, titled "Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernesiais" (English-Guernsey Dictionary) and published by La Société Guernesiaise, April 1967 (revised edition published 1982), was written by Marie De Garis (1910-present). In 1999 De Garis received an
MBEMBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business and Engineering* Mean Biased Error...
for her work.
Current status
The 2001 census showed that 1,327 (1,262 Guernsey-born) or 2% of the population speak the language fluently while 3% fully understand the language. However most of these,
70% or 934 of the 1,327 fluent speakers are aged over 64. Among the young only
0.1% or one in a thousand are fluent speakers. However, 14% of the population claim some understanding of the language.
- L'Assembllaïe d'Guernesiais, an association for speakers of the language founded in 1957, has published a periodical. Les Ravigoteurs, another association, has published a storybook and cassette for children.
- Forest School hosts an annual speaking contest of the island's primary school children (Year 6).
- The annual Eisteddfod
An eisteddfod is a Welsh festival of literature, music and performance. The tradition of such a meeting of Welsh artists dates back to at least the 12th century, when a festival of poetry and music was held by Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth at his court in Cardigan in 1176 but, with the decline of...
provides an opportunity for performances in the language, and radio and newspaper outlets furnish regular media output.
- There is some teaching of the language in voluntary classes in schools in Guernsey.
- Dgèrnésiais is recognised (along with Jèrriais
Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. It has been in decline over the past century as English has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration...
, IrishIrish is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now only spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state, and is used...
, Scottish GaelicScottish Gaelic is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages, and is distinct from the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish...
, WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
, ManxManx , also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken on the Isle of Man. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, but in recent years it has been the subject of language revival efforts, and it is now the medium of education at the , a primary school for four- to...
and Lowland ScotsScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
(in Scotland and Northern IrelandUlster Scots generally refers to the dialects of Scots spoken in parts of Ulster. Some definitions of Ulster Scots may also include Standard English spoken with an Ulster Scots accent – where lexical items have been re-allocated to the phoneme classes that are nearest to the equivalent standard...
)) as a regional languageA regional language is a language spoken in an area of a nation state, whether it be a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider area.-Definition in international law:For the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages:...
by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British-Irish CouncilThe British-Irish Council is a body established under the Belfast Agreement in 1998, and formally established on 2 December 1999 on the entry into force of the consequent legislation...
.
- BBC Radio Guernsey
BBC Guernsey is the BBC Local Radio service for the Channel Island of Guernsey and the other islands in the Bailiwick - Alderney, Sark and Herm...
and the Guernsey Press both feature occasional lessons, the latter with sometimes misleading phonetics.
- A Guernsey language development officer was appointed (with effect from January 2008).
There is little broadcasting in the language, with
Channel TelevisionChannel Television is a television station in the British Isles which has served as an Independent Television contractor to the Channel Islands since 1962. It has a main studio centre in Jersey, a smaller studio complex in Guernsey and offices in London on the South Bank, near to The London Studios...
more or less ignoring the language, and only the occasional short feature on
BBC Radio GuernseyBBC Guernsey is the BBC Local Radio service for the Channel Island of Guernsey and the other islands in the Bailiwick - Alderney, Sark and Herm...
, usually for learners.
Despite the clear historical development of the Norman languages, many believe that Dgèrnésiais is not a language in its own right, instead viewing it as a
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
of French. As the
writing systemA writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
of Dgèrnésiais is based on that of French, a native French-speaker can understand much of written Dgèrnésiais.
History
- Guernsey poet, George Métivier
George Métivier was a Guernsey poet dubbed the "Guernsey Burns", and sometimes considered the island's national poet. He wrote in Guernésiais, which is the indigenous language of the island. Among his poetical works are Rimes Guernesiaises published in 1831...
(1790-1881) - nicknamed the Guernsey BurnsRobert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
, was the first to produce a dictionaryA dictionary is a collection of words in a specific language, often listed alphabetically, with definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
of the Norman language in the Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
, the Dictionnaire Franco-Normand (1870). This established the first standard orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
- later modified and modernised. Among his poetical works are Rimes Guernesiaises published in 1831.
- Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte
Louis Lucien Bonaparte was a French anglophile linguist, and the third son of Napoleon's second surviving brother, Lucien Bonaparte, and Lucien's second wife Alexandrine de Bleschamp...
published a translation of the Parable of the Sower in Dgèrnésiais in 1863 as part of his philological research.
- Like Métivier, Tam Lenfestey
-Works:* Le Chant des Fontaines...
(1818-1885) published poetry in Guernsey newspapers and in book form.
- Denys Corbet
Denys Corbet was a Channel Islands poet and naive painter and school master. He was the second son of Pierre and Susanne who was born at La Turquie, Vale, Guernsey, Channel Island...
(1826-1909) described himself as the Draïn Rimeux (last poet), but literary production continued. Corbet is best known for his poems, especially the epicAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
L'Touar de Guernesy, a picaresque tour of the parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
es of Guernsey. As editor of the French-language newspaper Le Bailliage, he also wrote feuilletonFeuilleton was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the latest fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles...
s in Dgèrnésiais under the pen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Badlagoule ("chatterbox"). In 2009 the island held a special exhibition in the Forest Parish on Corbet and his work acknowledging the centenary of his death and unveiling a contemporary portrait painting of the artist by Christian Corbet a cousin to Denys Corbet.
- Thomas Henry Mahy
Thomas Henry Mahy wrote Dires et Pensées du Courtil Poussin, a regular column in Guernésiais in La Gazette Officielle de Guernesey, from 1916. A collection was published in booklet form in 1922...
(1862-21 April 1936) wrote Dires et Pensées du Courtil Poussin, a regular column in La Gazette Officielle de Guernesey, from 1916. A collection was published in booklet form in 1922. He was still publishing occasional pieces of poetry and prose by the start of the 1930s.
- Thomas Alfred Grut
Thomas Alfred Grut was a Guernsey photographer and author. He published Des lures guernesiaises in 1927, a collection of newspaper columns in Guernésiais. He also translated some of the Jèrriais stories of Philippe Le Sueur Mourant into Guernésiais.Grut was also one of if not the most noted of all...
(1852-1933) published Des lures guernesiaises in 1927, once again a collection of newspaper columns. He also translated some of the Jèrriais stories of Philippe Le Sueur MourantPhilippe Le Sueur Mourant was a Jersey writer who wrote in Jèrriais and French.He was born in St Saviour in 1848 and spent most of his early life working in agriculture in Newfoundland and Lorient...
into Dgèrnésiais.
- Marjorie Ozanne
Marjorie Ozanne wrote stories in Guernesiais, published in the Guernsey Evening Press between 1949 and 1965. Some earlier pieces can be found in La Gazette de Guernesey in the 1920s....
(1897-1973) wrote stories, published in the Guernsey Evening Press between 1949 and 1965. Some earlier pieces can be found in La Gazette de Guernesey in the 1920s.
- Métivier's dictionary was superseded by Marie de Garis
Marie de Garis wrote the Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernésiais , first edition published in 1967. This largely superseded George Métivier's Dictionnaire Franco-Normand. In 1999 de Garis received an MBE for her contributions to the preservations of Guernsey culture....
' (born 1910) Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernésiais; first edition published in 1967, supplements 1969 and 1973, third edition 1982.
- When the Channel Islands were invaded by Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
in World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Dgèrnésiais experienced a minor revival. Many Guernsey people did not always wish the occupying forces to understand what they were saying, especially as some of the soldiers had knowledge of English.
- Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
includes the odd word of Dgèrnésiais in some of his Channel Island novels. Hugo's novel Toilers of the SeaToilers of the Sea , is a novel by Victor Hugo.The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent 15 years in exile.-Plot Summary:...
, is credited with introducing the Guernesiais word for octopus pieuvre into the French language (standard French for octopus is poulpe).
Phonology
MetathesisMetathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phones in a word. The most common instance of metathesis is the reversal of the order of two adjacent phonemes, such as "foilage" for foliage. Many languages have words that show this phenomenon, and some use it as a regular part of their grammar...
of /r/ is common in Guernésiais, by comparison with Sercquiais and Jèrriais.
| Guernésiais |
Sercquiais |
Jèrriais |
French |
English |
| kérouaïe |
krwee |
crouaix |
croix |
cross |
| méquerdi |
mekrëdi |
Mêcrédi |
mercredi |
Wednesday |
Other examples are
pourmenade (promenade),
persentaïr (present),
terpid (tripod).
Verbs
aver - have (auxiliary verb)
| present |
preterite |
imperfect |
future |
conditional |
| j'ai |
j'aëus |
j'avais |
j'érai |
j'érais |
| t'as |
t'aëus |
t'avais |
t'éras |
t'érais |
| il a |
il aëut |
il avait |
il éra |
il érait |
| all' a |
all' aeut |
all' avait |
all' éra |
all' érait |
| j'avaöns |
j'eûnmes |
j'avaëmes |
j'éraöns |
j'éraëmes |
| vous avaïz |
vous aeutes |
vous avaites |
vous éraïz |
vous éraites |
| il aönt |
il aëurent |
il avaient |
il éraönt |
il éraient |
oimaïr - to love (regular conjugation)
| present |
preterite |
imperfect |
future |
conditional |
| j'oime |
j'oimis |
j'oimais |
j'oim'rai |
j' oim'rais |
| t'oimes |
t'oimis |
t'oimais |
t'oim'ras |
t'oim'rais |
| il oime |
il oimit |
il oimait |
il oim'ra |
il oim'rait |
| all' oime |
all' oimit |
all' oimait |
all' oim'ra |
all' oim'rait |
| j'oimaöns |
j'oimaëmes |
j'oimaëmes |
j'oim'rons |
j' oim'raëmes |
| vous oimaïz |
vous oimites |
vous oimaites |
vous oim'raïz |
vous oim'raites |
| il' oiment |
il' oimirent |
il' oimaient |
il' oim'raönt |
il' oim'raient |
Examples
| Guernésiais |
English |
French |
| Quaï temps qu’i fait? |
What's the weather like? |
Quel temps fait-il ?
Colloquial: Quel temps qu'il fait ? |
| I' fait caoud ogniet |
It's warm today |
Il fait chaud aujourd'hui |
| Tchi qu’est vote naom? |
What's your name? |
Comment vous appelez-vous ?
Quel est votre nom? |
| Coume tchi que l’affaire va? |
How are you?
Lit. How's business going? |
Comment vont les affaires ?
Coll: comment que vont les affaires ? |
| Quaï heure qu'il est? |
What's the time? |
Quelle heure est-il ?
Coll: Quelle heure qu'il est ? |
| À la perchoine |
See you next time |
Au revoir
À la prochaine |
| Mercie bian |
Thank you very much |
Merci beaucoup
Coll: Merci bien |
| chén-chin |
this |
ceci |
| ch'techin |
this one |
celui-ci |
| Lâtchiz-mé |
Leave me |
Laissez-moi |
External links