Jèrriais love poem

Jèrriais (the Jersey language), is the Norman language of the inhabitants of the Channel Island of Jersey; it is therefore an Oïl language like Gallo, Picard etc. In Jersey there are two official languages, English and French; Jèrriais is not an official language, but is recognized as a regional language. I like this audio, in a language that a French can understand, and pronounced with an Anglo-Saxon accent.

Despite their name "Anglo-Norman Islands" the languages spoken in Jersey and Gernsey are related to the Norman language. The Norman from Guernsey is related to the dialects of the north of the Channel. It is particularly archaic compared to that of Jersey, which is related to the dialects of the south.

It is considered that there would be a hundred people to daly use this language, and perhaps 3,000 to speak it. The language has recently been codified (half 20th century), a dictionary and a grammar exist, a standard has even been defined.

For literature, in the 12th, there is Wace, and Le Geyt in the 19th century. During this century and the following will follow many poets and writers. Let us quote in 1973, George Le Feuvre and his "Jèrri jadis".

Before 933AD Jersey was under the control first of continental Celts, and then of Celtic Britons from Great Britain who established Brittany. Viking settlement introduced Norse elements to the Gallo-Romance speech of the inhabitants, and this was reinforced by the incorporation of the Channel Islands into the Duchy of Normandy. When the Duke of Normandy became King of England in 1066, a link to the English monarch was established which remained after the taking of continental Normandy by the King of France in 1204. Jèrriais has not only Gallo-Romance roots and Norse influence, but also influences from French and English, as the Island has sat between two major cultural powers for centuries.