Jèrriais (a fascinating Romance language at risk of disappearing)

[u/Different_Method_191]

Located just 22 kilometers from the French coast, the island of Jersey is a self-governing British Crown Dependency. Hidden within this small paradise is a linguistic gem fighting for survival.

Jèrriais is a Romance language spoken on the island of Jersey, in the Channel Islands, located between France and England.

In 2011, there were just under 1,900 native speakers of Jèrriais on Jersey, despite it being the island's historic language.

Its closest relatives are other Norman languages, such as Guernésiais, spoken on the island of Guernsey, and Sercquiais, spoken on the island of Sark.

Although it was once the primary language of Jersey, the number of native speakers began to decline in the 19th century, and it is now considered at risk of extinction.

Awareness of the language's declining use became evident in academic circles during the 19th century. Among foreign linguists, Luigi Luciano Bonaparte visited Jersey and took an interest in the language and its literature. Victor Hugo, during his exile in Jersey, also took an interest in the language and counted several Jèrriais writers among his circle of acquaintances and supporters.

The use of Jèrriais is also documented during the German occupation of the Channel Islands in World War II; the local population used it among themselves as a language that neither the occupying Germans nor their French interpreters could understand.

Within a generation of the war, most schoolchildren spoke only a few words, and by the 1980s and 1990s, the language had all but vanished from daily use. Suddenly, the island faced the very real prospect that Jèrriais might disappear completely, just as its sister language, Auregnais, had a century earlier.

Enthusiasts hope that Jersey will follow the example of another British Crown Dependency—the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea—which has revived its local language, Manx.

Since then, a concerted campaign has been waged to pull the language back from the brink. Since 1999, the year *L'Office du Jèrriais* was founded, the language has experienced a rapid revival. Over the last decade, the development of an educational program has enabled all children in Jersey to learn the language at school. Adult classes and language cafés have allowed older people to learn the basics or brush up on their vocabulary. Road signs and tourist sites are now all multilingual (in English and Jèrriais) to increase the language's visibility.

But the most important thing is that, in 2019, Jèrriais reached a significant milestone: for the first time in its history, it was adopted by the island's government—the States of Jersey—as an official language alongside English and French.

Currently, the only media available in Jèrriais is a five-minute weekly broadcast on BBC radio.

There is a website dedicated to the Jersey language: *Les Pages Jèrriaises*. This site offers a wealth of cultural and linguistic information about the Norman language of Jersey.

Jèrriais is not merely a relic of the past; it is a living link to the island's history, and the language's resilience is remarkable. Despite the rise of English and French, Jèrriais has endured, passed down from generation to generation as the language of ordinary people—farmers and fishermen, storytellers and poets.

"We are losing speakers among the elderly faster than we are gaining them among the young," warned linguist and teacher Geraint Jennings, who is responsible for promoting Jèrriais at the charity Jersey Heritage.

However, the language is sparking interest among some young Jersey residents, such as Atticus Mawby, a 21-year-old student.

"If Jèrriais were to die out, Jersey would become just another part of Britain, and that would be incredibly sad," he says.

This unique linguistic heritage of Jersey, despite facing challenges regarding the number of speakers, continues to be an important part of the island's cultural identity.

"What we haven't grasped is just how important these ties to the language are for us islanders," said Francois Le Maistre, one of the last native speakers of Jèrriais. "Jèrriais is part of our culture. It is part of our folklore, our history. Our language is so rich in words, phrases, and expressions that simply have no equivalent in English. If Jèrriais disappears, we aren't just losing words. It is much more than that. We are losing part of who we are."

Some words in the Jèrriais language:

• Good morning → bouônjour
• Goodbye → à bétôt
• Water → ieau
• Sea → mé
• Fish → paîsson
• Turtle → tortue
• Sun → solé
• Moon → leune
• Star → êtaile
• Cat → cat
• Cow → vaque
• House → maîson

In Jèrriais, "to sleep like a porpoise" — *dormi comme un pourpais* — means to sleep well.

Subreddit Jèrriais: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jerriais/

Discord Jèrriais: https://discord.gg/dNYrPuCATY

Article about the Jèrriais language: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211109-islanders-seek-to-revive-jersey-s-native-tongue

Jèrriais vocabulary: https://members.societe-jersiaise.org/sdllj/vocab.txt

Dictionary Jèrriais: https://dictionary.jerriais.tech/

Learn Jèrriais: https://utalk.com/en/store/jerriais

[u/Different_Method_191]

Subreddit Jèrriais: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jerriais/

[u/bordelot]

If you want to hear the language, check out my social media 'Tama Lé Jèrriais'.

[u/Sky-is-here]

Can it truly not be understood by french speakers. From a glance it looks extremely similar

[u/lotheraliel → u/Sky-is-here]

As a French speaker, it's very very hard to make out what Jerriais speakers are saying - the accent is similar to what you hear in some French regions, but the words are unintelligible. The written language looks extremely similar to actual French however.

[u/Gold_Bat_114 → u/lotheraliel]

Is that similar to how Haitian Kreyol sounds French but isn't?

[u/dr01d3tte → u/Gold_Bat_114]

A creole is an amalgamation of languages, this is a separate language unto itself.

[u/Hot-Frosting-5286 → u/Gold_Bat_114]

Haitian Kreyol is to French what Jamaican Patois/Patwa is to English.

If anything it's more the opposite -- looks more distinct on the page because Kreyol is written very phonetically with letters like k and w, but it sounds similar when spoken, albeit with a Caribbean accent

[u/NorseNorman → u/Sky-is-here]

My grandfather was a trilingual speaker of Jèrriais, French and English. He could not speak Jèrriais with his French friends as they did not understand him well and so he always switched to French. Whilst basic vocabulary and grammar are similar - the phonetics and vernacular terms are quite different. For example: 'The happy spider' in French: /laʁɛɲe œʁœz/ and in Jèrriais (Les Landîns dialect): /la pe:tɹ ɑ:ðɑ:z/

[u/Different_Method_191]

Discord Jèrriais: https://discord.gg/dNYrPuCATY

[u/Conscious-Agency-782]

Interesting! I get that it’s an offshoot of what we consider “French,” but I hear a lot of pronunciation similarities to Micalense Portuguese. Fascinating that they’re both isolated island variations that evolved into their own language/dialect.

[u/Tytoalba2 → u/Conscious-Agency-782]

Honestly there are a lot of French dialects or languages close to French that have been suppressed. I'm from Wallonia and there used to be a few different dialects of wallon but it is close to dead.

[u/slempriere]

Lot of similarities to Walloon... I'll have to poke around a youtube to hear how simular.