On 2013-01-11 19:00:45 +0000, Emery Davis said:

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:32:17 +0000, Sacha wrote:

Bouôn annivèrsaithe


Bouon eunnivarsé from south of the Joret line, also! (Only
approximately Jersiais. I've become quite interested in this language
question of late.)

-E

I never learned Jèrriais unfortunately because in my youth it was
considered a sort of pidgin French and the idea was to teach 'proper'
French. And because it's based on old Norman French and has shortened
forms of words (and some very different words) I can't read all of it,
though can usually get the gist. I know a couple of now very old farmers
who speak Jèrriais all the time when they're together but few people
really know it now. When I was a child and even up into the 1970s, one
often heard it spoken in the market, especially at week ends. It doesn't
help that a genuine Jersey accent is very strong, too. Doing some family
research i often see where the poor English enumerator has tried to get
a name or address from an ancestor who probably only spoke Jèrriais.
The parish of Grouville often gets written as Yarwelle and what happens
to some of the French surnames is amazing! I have a Jèrriais-French
dictionary which is quite handy at times. I think children have the
option of learning the language as an 'extra' now but I wonder how many
bother. However, on a visit to Normandy some years ago, a very
chauvinistic Frenchman practically adopted me because, among a crowd of
English, I was a Jersey woman and therefore almost Norman!


I think Jersiais (French spelling, though I don't doubt yours is more
accurate) seems to be one of the best preserved examples of Normand from
the north of the Joret line. It would be a terrible shame if it were
lost as a living language. Of course it's really "old French" and was
spoken by many, including the English courts apparently for a couple of
hundred years, after the battle of Hastings.

I know a couple of speakers of old Norman, but it's really down to a few
words slipped in here or there. I'd really like to learn more of it
though, and looking through the online dictionaries I do recognize a few
words that I've heard.

I'm not sure if I have a problem so much with the "old Norman" accent as
the fact that those I know who speak it have practically no teeth, so
even in straight French they're pretty hard to follow!

As a Jersey woman, I'd think you would be fully qualified as a Norman!

cheers,

-E

But my paternal Jersey ancestry is Italian 400 or 500 years ago. I
didn't tell him that...! Mother's maiden name is Jersey enough to
satisfy!
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk