15.1 Introduction
The Channel Islands lie at the entrance to the gulf of St. Malo, some eighty miles off the southern coast of England. The eight islands, in descending order of size, are Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Lihou and Brecqhou (see Figure 15.1). Although the archipelago has been united politically with the British Islands since 1204, each of the four largest islands features Norman varieties, related to French and called locally Jèrriais(J), Guernésiais(G), Aurignais and Sercquiais(S); however, Aurignais died in the 1950s, before any systematic analysis could be undertaken (though see Jones Reference Jones2015b; cf. Le Maistre Reference Le Maistre1982; Emanuelli Reference Emanuelli1907–08).
Figure 15.1 The Channel Islands.
The surviving insular varieties all contain what Joret (Reference Joret1883) considered to be the defining features of Norman and, according to Fleury (Reference Fleury1886:4), they show greatest linguistic affinity with the varieties of mainland Norman spoken around La Hague. However, despite many shared linguistic features (Brasseur Reference Brasseur1978a; Lepelley Reference Lepelley1999; Jones Reference Jones2015a: ch. 3), the insular varieties are not homogeneous and, although some degree of mutual comprehension is often possible, this varies from one speaker to the next (Jones Reference Jones2015a:80). Indeed, as Brasseur has demonstrated (Reference Brasseur1978b:302), the differences between the varieties of insular Norman remain so salient that it is impossible to suggest that any of them has any particular affinity with another.
Despite their small size, Jersey and Guernsey measuring only some forty-five and thirty square miles respectively, regional variation is still evident in both islands. The sub-varieties of Jèrriais are usually divided into two main groups – East and West – with the Eastern varieties differing most from standard French, mainly owing to secondary developments in the vowel system (Spence Reference Spence1993:20; Jones Reference Jones2015a:56–60; see also Le Maistre Reference Le Maistre1979a–d, Reference Le Maistre1993). In Guernsey, the main regional differences exist between the varieties spoken in the North and South of the island (Jones Reference Jones2015a:60–3). However, more localised linguistic variation is found in both islands, and most native speakers can pinpoint geographically the speech of a fellow islander, although Le Maistre (Reference Le Maistre1947) and De Garis (Reference De Garis1982:xxii) both lament the fact that some of these highly distinctive localised varieties are fast disappearing (Jones Reference Jones2001:35–6, Reference Jones2015a:57). Given that Sark measures less than two square miles, it is unsurprising that Sercquiais is more homogeneous, although speakers of Sercquiais claim that Little Sark, to which Sark is joined by a causeway, once had its own distinct variety.
Estimating speaker numbers with any great degree of accuracy is difficult. The most recent censuses of Jersey (2001) and Guernsey (2001) to investigate language use recorded that, at that time, only 2,874 inhabitants of Jersey (3.2% of the population) and 1,327 inhabitants of Guernsey (2% of the population) were able to speak Norman fluently. The Jersey Annual Social Survey of 2012 put the number of fluent speakers of Jèrriais at less than 1 per cent (in other words, fewer than 1,000 speakers) (States of Jersey 2012), and recent estimates put the number of fluent speakers of Guernésiais at no more than a few hundred. It was suggested that, at the end of the twentieth century, fewer than twenty of the permanent inhabitants of Sark spoke Sercquiais (Brasseur Reference Brasseur1998:152). There is no doubt that, today, all these figures are significantly lower: in Sark, for example, only four speakers remain at the time of writing.
As well as being few in number, speakers of insular Norman are distributed unevenly throughout Jersey and Guernsey (Sark has only one village). These live mainly in the parts of the islands furthest removed from their respective towns (St. Helier and St. Peter Port respectively) which have, for centuries, represented focal points of Anglicisation (Jones Reference Jones2008a, Reference Jones2015a). In Jersey, therefore, Norman is most likely to be heard in the north and west (States of Jersey 1990:16) whereas in Guernsey, its stronghold lies in the west and south-west (Sjögren Reference Sjögren1964:xviii–xix). However, even in its last refuges, insular Norman is no longer spoken natively by any children and probably by no more than a handful of working-age adults: in January 2020, a report in the Guernsey Press newspaper estimated that there remained only ten fluent speakers of Guernésiais below the age of sixty.Footnote 1
15.2 Effects of Anglicisation
The reasons behind the Anglicisation of the Channel Islands are many and complex and can only be outlined here (for more detailed accounts, see for example Jones Reference Jones2001, Reference Jones2008a, Reference Jones2015a; Lemprière Reference Lemprière1974; Ramisch Reference Ramisch1989; Domaille Reference Domaille1996; Syvret and Stephens Reference Syvret and Stevens1998). English has been present in Jersey and Guernsey since the Middle Ages, when garrisons were established to defend these islands against the French. However, Norman remained as the everyday language of most islanders until well into the nineteenth century – although from this time on, increasing trade links and more regular transport services, which also precipitated the start of the islands’ tourist industry, led to ever more frequent contact between the Channel Islands and the British mainland. Indeed, by 1840, some 15,000 (or 32%) of Jersey’s total resident population were English (Uttley Reference Uttley1966:174). Mass evacuation of the islanders to the British mainland in the days preceding the German Occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War also had severe linguistic repercussions since a considerable proportion of the child population of each island spent the next five years (1940–45) cut off from their native tongue and immersed in the very language with which insular Norman was in competition.Footnote 2 On their return, many islanders had either forgotten their Norman or chose to continue using English, which they saw as a means to prosperity and social advancement. The events of the War strengthened existing doubts within the islands’ speech communities as to the utility of the insular Norman varieties. They could not offer the economic rewards of English and became increasingly stigmatised, with parents no longer transmitting insular Norman to their offspring. Since the War, Anglicisation has been further strengthened by the fact that low taxation has made Jersey and Guernsey attractive for high-income earners and those servicing the finance industry, the latter now employing a significant percentage of the workforce. Intermarriage between islanders and immigrants has accelerated the decline of insular Norman within the family domain,Footnote 3 and the tourist industry has also continued to grow steadily, with daily sea and air services operating between the islands and the United Kingdom.
Sark was later to Anglicise than Jersey and Guernsey since, prior to the nineteenth century, it was only rarely visited by English people. Indeed, in 1787, one of John Wesley’s missionaries who had been staying there reported that, at that time, not a single family understood English (Ewen and De Carteret Reference Ewen and De Carteret1969:105). It seems likely that Anglicisation stems from the arrival of English-speaking miners who, in 1835, were brought to work in a tin mine on Little Sark. The development of the island’s tourist industry shortly afterwards must also have been a contributory factor. As only 129 of the 600-strong population left Sark during the Second World War, it seems likely that the War had less of an Anglicising influence there than in the other Channel Islands.
Today, all speakers of Jèrriais, Guernésiais and Sercquiais are also fluent in English and this has had far-reaching linguistic consequences, which have served further to differentiate insular and mainland Norman (for an extensive phonological, structural and lexical analysis, see Jones Reference Jones2015a). This is most immediately salient in the lexis, where English borrowings abound in many everyday domains (see Jones Reference Jones2015a:143–54; also Spence Reference Spence1993:23–9 for Jèrriais; Tomlinson Reference Tomlinson1981: Part 2 for Guernésiais and Jones Reference Jones2012a; Liddicoat Reference Liddicoat1994:298–300 for Sercquiais). However, the use of a borrowing in one insular variety does not necessarily imply that it is also used in another: for example, in Jèrriais, the borrowing ticl’ye [tikj̥] (< English ‘tea-kettle’) is used to denote a ‘kettle’, whereas in Guernésiais the indigenous caudjère [kodʒe:r] is used. In Sercquiais, the borrowing [skrẽ]Footnote 4 (< English ‘screen’) denotes a ‘grain riddle’ but not in Jèrriais, which uses the native form cribl’ye [kribj]. Unsurprisingly, borrowings are commonly found in many ‘modern’ domains, such as technology, and here the fact that insular Norman is in contact with English, and mainland Norman with French means that speakers draw loanwords from different languages (see Table 15.1).
Table 15.1 Norman computer terminology: borrowings
| English | Jèrriais | Mainland Norman | French |
|---|---|---|---|
| digital | [diʒital] | [numɛʁik] | numérique |
| software | [sɔftwe] | [lɔʒisjɛl] | logiciel |
| computer | [kɔ̃pjutœ:], [ɔrdinatœ:] | [ɔʁdinatœ:ʁ] | Ordinateur |
| [imɛjl] | [mɛjl] |
Indeed, the abundance of contact phenomena such as loan-shifts (1)–(2) (where the formal similarity between a word of English and insular Norman can lead to the latter extending its meaning to encompass that of the English term), borrowings (3)–(4) and calques (5)–(7) can create considerable lexical divergence between insular and mainland Norman, despite their many shared cognates (Jones Reference Jones2015a: ch. 8).
(1)
[ulapɑ:seavɛkɒnəz] ‘She passed with honours’ (pâsser = ‘to pass’ [movement or time] Le Maistre Reference Le Maistre1966:390); (Jones Reference Jones2001:127) (J).
(2)
[ʒetɛrʒusypɔrtɑjlɛtimdəweɪlz] ‘I’ve always supported the Welsh team’ (lit. ‘the team of Wales’) (supportaïr = ‘to endure’, De Garis Reference De Garis1982:283) (G).
(3)
[illɑɑ̃vlɔpɐduvʏmørsɐdbʎɛ̃kjɛt] ‘He covered it with a piece of blanket’ (S).
(4)
[kɑ̃iltɛbeɪbi] ‘When he was a baby’ (G).
(5)
[ʃɛʃənɑkɪgaʁdeləpatwejɑ̃nalɑ̃] ‘That’s what kept the patois going’ (S).
(6)
[ʒɛːtɛsœlefɛ̃] ‘I was an only child’ (G).
(7)
[silvøpɑːtejkuteilmɛləfəunbɒ:] ‘If he doesn’t want to listen to you he puts the phone down’ (J).
Jones (Reference Jones2001) also found in Jersey that many common terms were being forgotten or only partially recalled, an indication, perhaps, that lack of opportunity to use the language is making speakers ‘rusty’ in their native variety.
The structural effect of English on Jèrriais and Guernésiais is examined in detail in Jones (Reference Jones2000a, Reference Jones2000b, Reference Jones2001, Reference Jones, Jones and Esch2002, Reference Jones2005a, Reference Jones2005b, Reference Jones2008a, Reference Jones, Schreier, Trudgill, Schneider and Williams2010, Reference Jones2015a, Reference Jones, Tyne, Bilger, Cappeau and Guerin2017, Reference Jones2018, Reference Jones, Wolfe and Maiden2020) and Liddicoat (Reference Liddicoat1990). These changes often involve an increase in frequency of syntactic constructions more isomorphic with the structure of English (Jones Reference Jones2001:97–118, Reference Jones, Jones and Esch2002:148–59, Reference Jones2015a: ch. 7). As an example of this, whereas English has one form to convey all functions of the preposition ‘with’, insular Norman is traditionally described as having different prepositions, each of which has a distinct function (Birt Reference Birt1985:165–7; De Garis Reference De Garis1982:214; Liddicoat Reference Liddicoat1994:279–80). The unmarked form, which also tends to be used when the referent is animate, is auve [ov] or avec [avɛk] (J), dauve [dov] (G), [duv] (S), hence:
(8)
dauve sa faumme ‘with his wife’ (Tomlinson Reference Tomlinson2008:21) (G).
However, when the instrumental function is being conveyed, or when the object is inanimate, then another preposition is used, namely atout [atu] (J), atou [atu] (G), [atu] (S):
(9)
[nuz ɛre d la pɛ̃n a marʃi dɑ̃ lɛ: rʏ atu tuo ʃɛ: mɒutœ kɑ:] ‘We would have trouble walking on the roads with all those motor cars’ (Liddicoat Reference Liddicoat1994:280) (S).
A third preposition, acanté [akɑ̃te] (J), à quànté [akẽte] (G), [akãte] (S), is traditionally used to convey a comitative meaning:
(10)
Je m’en vais acanté lyi ‘I am going along with her’ (Birt Reference Birt1985:166) (J).
In insular Norman, however, this threefold opposition is being progressively eliminated by the unmarked form taking over all of these functions, along the lines of the English construction (11)–(14) (Jones Reference Jones2005b, Reference Jones2008a:123–7, Reference Jones2015a:139–40).
(11)
[ilɑ̃kuv̥rɛlɑmɛ̃tʃi:avɛkdyv̥rɛ] ‘He used to cover half of it with seaweed’ (J) (unmarked form used for instrumental).
(12)
[nuvejɛpɑ:dvjɛlʒɑ̃pɑrle:kɛ̃:inmɑrʃepɑ:dovde:bɑtɑ̃:] ‘We didn’t see old people going round about, they didn’t walk with sticks’ (G) (unmarked form used for instrumental).
(13)
[mevlɑhoravɛkdɛdovreilavɛpɛrsɔnavɛkliitɛasɑ̃tusœ] ‘There I was out with Dad going to collect seaweed, there was no-one with him, he was on his own’ (J) (unmarked form used for comitative).
(14)
[ivnɛtɑlapwɛ:kduvnu] ‘He used to come fishing with us’ (S) (unmarked form used for comitative).
As discussed in Jones (Reference Jones2000a, Reference Jones2015a), the motivation behind the structural changes currently being witnessed is not always straightforward and, in the above, simplification may also be a contributory factor. However, cases also exist where influence from English seems clear (Jones Reference Jones2001:118–28, Reference Jones, Jones and Esch2002:149–54, Reference Jones2015a: ch. 7). One such example is that the insular Norman tendency to prepose unmarked monosyllabic adjectives and adjectives of colour is becoming extended to all adjectives (15)–(17), including comparatives (18), superlatives (19) and other modified adjectives (20)–(21). Given that this change does not occur in mainland Norman and that, in English, the unmarked position for most adjectives is prenominal, contact seems a likely motivation (Jones Reference Jones2015a:132–4).
(15)
[ʃɛlaparfɛtpɑrejs] ‘It’s the perfect parish’ (J).
(16)
[ʃejɑ̃jtejtykɑ] ‘It’s a stubborn cat’ (G).
(17)
[jaø̃ʎɛtdɑ̃:laʃɑ̃:brʃɛø̃dubʎəʎɛt] ‘There’s one bed in the bedroom, it’s a double bed’ (S).
(18)
[ʃɛønpy:fintɛl] ‘It’s a finer oilcloth’ (J).
(19)
[lɛpʏ:gʁɑ̃:gaʁso:̃ɛfiʎ] ‘The biggest boys and girls’ (S).
(20)
[ø̃nasɛgrɑ̃gardẽ] ‘Quite a big garden’ (J).
(21)
[nu:zaveɛnɑmɑdyrivɛr] ‘We had a very hard winter’ (G).
15.3 Language Revitalisation
The realisation that insular Norman is declining rapidly in terms of speaker numbers has prompted the establishment of a number of language planning measures, which aim to maintain and strengthen the use of these varieties. These measures are most advanced in Jersey (see, for example, Jones Reference Jones2001, Reference Jones2008b; Jigourel Reference Jigourel2011; Scott Warren and Jennings Reference Scott Warren, Jennings and Jones2015). Most significantly, L’Office du Jèrriais was established in 1999, funded at that time by the States of Jersey (Jersey’s legislative assembly) and Le Don Balleine Trust charity. L’Office du Jèrriais is responsible for promoting Jèrriais within Jersey and for coordinating all language revitalisation initiatives. In 1999, a teaching programme was introduced in the island’s primary schools and, at the time of writing, the Government of Jersey employs seven full-time qualified teachers and two language promotion officers. In 2021–22, the Jèrriais teaching service was able to offer access to Jèrriais to more than 1,000 students, in the form of playgroups, primary school groups, secondary school groups and adult groups, though Jèrriais does not yet form part of the curriculum. Jèrriais versions of children’s books such as We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (2018), The Gruffalo (2019) and The Gruffalo’s Child (2021) have been produced and active links have been established with the British–Irish Council, which enables regular interchange with those working in the field of minority languages in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Momentum in favour of Jèrriais has also gathered outside the classroom, and today the language is more visible in everyday life than it has ever been. Bilingual signage is increasingly common in St. Helier (Jigourel Reference Jigourel2011:44) and at the airport. Jèrriais is included on public buildings, on the side of buses and on bus travel passes and, since 2010, it has featured on Jersey’s banknotes.Footnote 5 The language is also present in the community, with ‘drop-in’ conversation groups held every weekday. The annual Jèrriais Festival (La Fête du Jèrriais) runs a programme of events including talks, song and dance to promote and raise awareness of the language. The status of Jèrriais received a significant boost in 2019, when it was recognised as an official language of the States of Jersey. Since 2019, the language has been mandatory on all official letter headings used in the public sector and on all new public signs, including government branding. In its recently published Jèrriais Language Strategy 2022–2025, the Government of Jersey recognises ‘the importance of Jèrriais to our island culture’ and includes in its aims ‘to increase acquisition of the language by growing the number of learners and, ultimately, speakers’, providing ‘opportunities to increase the use of the language outside the classroom’. It supports ‘the increased visibility of the language’, suggests ‘ways in which the status of Jèrriais could be enhanced further’ and advocates ‘ensuring that Jèrriais continues to develop and evolve, as all living languages must’. (Government of Jersey 2022:4). La Société Jersiaise (established in 1873 for the study of natural history, antiquities and conservation) includes a language section (Section de la Langue, established in 1995), which works to sustain and raise the profile of Jèrriais and has supported the publication of several books including a Jèrriais–English dictionary (2008).Footnote 6 It also hosts the Pages Jèrriaises website, which, at the time of writing, consists of more than 4,000 pages, including indexes of Jèrriais authors, poetry and texts and other topics of interest.Footnote 7 L’Assembliée d’Jèrriais (founded in 1951) organises regular social events in Jèrriais which provide an opportunity to bring together native speakers and learners.
The States of Guernsey (Guernsey’s legislative assembly) has supported Guernésiais with a modest budget for several years via their Museums Service. Most of the teaching currently focuses on adult learning. Traditional class-style courses are available and, from time to time, ‘drop-in’ conversation groups are arranged. Guernésiais is not currently taught as part of the school curriculum, although some primary schools have occasionally hosted lunchtime or after-school clubs run by volunteers. Several children’s books have been produced in Guernésiais suitable for children, including My First Guernésiais Word Book (2021), Teach Your Cat Guernésiais (2022) and translations into Guernésiais of The Gruffalo (2019) and Room on the Broom (2021). In 2020, the States voted to support the language to a much greater extent and to make it an official language of Guernsey. As a result, a Guernsey Language Commission was set up and, at the time of writing, Commissioners are being appointed and links developed with the Indigenous and Minority Languages Workstream of the British–Irish Council.Footnote 8 Outside the classroom, L’Assembllaïe d’Guernésiais (founded in 1956 on a similar basis to Jersey’s Assembliée) remains an important social forum for native speakers. At the time of writing, Guernésiais is becoming more visible in the branding of some local products and services and in public spaces. For example, Guernsey Post includes sayings in the language such as Coum tchi q’l’affaire va? (‘How are you?’) and A la perchôine (‘Till the next time’) on its delivery vans, with its newest fleet of electric vans sporting the phrase Cachi par l’électrique (‘Powered by electric’), and has also published a series of stamps featuring Guernésiais greetings, including Banjour (‘Good day’), Oh! Té v’la (‘Oh! there you are’) and L’affaire va-t-alle? (‘How are things?’). The Guernsey driving licence bears the translation License pour Cachier and Guernésiais also features on orientation signs in St. Peter Port, greeting signs at the airport, in some shops and in the museum. Guernésiais names are often given to local events and festivals such as L’Viaer Marchi (an annual community festival celebrating Guernsey’s culture and traditions) and Les Babouins dé Tortéva (the annual scarecrow festival).
Jèrriais and Guernésiais are also promoted in cultural festivals such as the annual pan-Norman Fête Nouormande and the Eisteddfod of their respective islands, the latter including competitions in music, poetry and theatre plays. Fewer revitalisation initiatives are underway in Sark although, at the time of writing, some Sercquiais is being taught to children at the Sark School.
Although the twelfth-century author Wace hailed from Jersey, no literary writings in insular Norman exist until the nineteenth century. The first author to publish in Jèrriais was Matthieu Le Geyt (1777–1849) (see Rimes et Poësies Jersiaises, Mourant Reference Mourant1865), and the first in Guernésiais was Georges Métivier (1790–1881), whose Rimes Guernesiaises date from 1831. Both Jersey and Guernsey produced several poets and writers during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but their work is not easily accessible as they tended to publish in newspapers, almanacs and in the form of short pamphlets. The largest corpus from one pen in insular Norman, Thomas Martin’s nineteenth-century translations into Guernésiais of the Bible and 100 plays by Shakespeare, Longfellow, Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille, Molière and Voltaire (see Jones Reference Jones2008a) has never been published in its entirety, although Romeo and Juliet has appeared in parallel text format. A nineteenth-century Sercquiais version of the Parable of the Sower is published in Métivier (Reference Métiviern.d.) and a collection of sayings and riddles in the language has recently been produced (Jones and Neudörfl Reference Jones and Neudörfl2022). For further details of individual authors and their work, see Lebarbenchon (Reference Lebarbenchon1988), Lepelley (Reference Lepelley1999:123–51) and Jones (Reference Jones2008a, Reference Jones2012b). Dictionaries and grammar of Jèrriais (Le Maistre Reference Le Maistre1966, Société Jersiaise 2008a, 2008b; Birt Reference Birt1985), Guernésiais (Métivier Reference Métivier1870; De Garis Reference De Garis1982; Tomlinson Reference Tomlinson2008) and Sercquiais have been published (Liddicoat Reference Liddicoat1994, Reference Liddicoat2001) and an extensive comparative glossary of the extant insular Norman varieties has recently been compiled (Jones Reference Jones2022).
In terms of the media, since the 1970s, Jèrriais and Guernésiais have both featured for a few minutes per week in short radio broadcasts, namely Jersey’s Lettre Jèrriaise and Guernsey’s weekly news summary bulletin. Articles in Jèrriais appear regularly in several parish magazines and the Guernsey Press newspaper features a regular ‘phrase in Guernésiais’ item. Digital media are used to enhance the accessibility of Jèrriais and Guernésiais to learners. In Jersey, for example, the Office du Jèrriais hosts a YouTube channel and makes available via the Linguascope platform pedagogical material as a supplement to its online and school classes. It also maintains a regular Jèrriais presence on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Soundcloud, and a uTalk app has also been launched.Footnote 9 Digital resources in Guernésiais are also slowly growing. For example, the Language Commission’s YouTube channel contains playlists that include basic lessons, beginner-level conversations, songs and Christmas carols.Footnote 10
Should revitalisation efforts fail to gain momentum, then the francophone heritage of the Channel Islands will be preserved in their toponymy, patronymics and, for a while at least, in the substrate imprint that their Norman languages have left on the distinctive variety of local English (Ramisch Reference Ramisch1989; Barbé Reference Barbé1994, Reference Barbé1995; Jones Reference Jones2001:167–74, Reference Jones, Schreier, Trudgill, Schneider and Williams2010, Reference Jones2015a; Rosen Reference Rosen2014 and this volume).Footnote 11 However, owing to factors such as population mobility and increased access to more standardised English via the education system and the media, this imprint is starting to decrease (Jones Reference Jones, Schreier, Trudgill, Schneider and Williams2010; Rosen Reference Rosen2014:181–93).
