Jèrriais

When English displaced it

Until the 19th century Jèrriais was the everyday language of most of the island, and at the start of the Second World War up to half the population could still use it. During the German occupation islanders spoke it among themselves as a language neither the Germans nor their French interpreters understood. English use rose sharply after the Liberation. The last monolingual adults probably died in the 1950s, though monolingual children still arrived at schools in St Ouen in the late 1970s.

What the surveys measured

The 2001 census found that about 3% of islanders spoke Jèrriais in their personal dealings: 113 people said they usually spoke it and 2,761 sometimes. St Ouen had the highest share of speakers, 8%, and St Helier the lowest, 2.1%, though St Helier held the highest number. The Jersey Annual Social Survey of June 2012 found that 18% of the population could say some words and phrases, and just over 7% of those over 65 were fluent or close to it.

Which institutions have kept it going

The Jersey Eisteddfod has had a Jèrriais section since 1912. L'Assembliée d'Jèrriais was founded in 1951 and launched a quarterly magazine the next year, and Le Don Balleine, a trust funded by the will of Arthur E. Balleine, promotes the language. Paul Birt's grammar Lé Jèrriais pour tous appeared in 1985, and Frank Le Maistre's Dictionnaire Jersiais-Français came out in 1966, the 900th anniversary of the Norman Conquest. The States fund a teaching programme in schools.

How it reached Gaspé and Sark

Jersey companies controlled the cod fisheries of the Gaspé peninsula in Quebec into the early 20th century, and Jèrriais was their language of business; a few speakers remained in Gaspé villages in the 1960s. The Gaspé phrase faire une runne, to work away from home, comes from the Jèrriais run, a fishing station. Settlers from Jersey took the language to Sark in the 16th century, where it became Sercquiais.