Geraint Jennings me transmet un lien très intéressant qui permet de découvrir ce qui est fait pour la langue jèrriaise, grâce à un journaliste qui visite l’île :
Oxford Dictionaries bliogue: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/08/jersey-shore/
extrait : ou cliquez directement sur le lien ci-dessus pour tout lire :
… « I looked at the bus ticket the driver had given me and saw:
Bouônjour à bord d’la beusse
It looked like French; or rather, it looked how French might look through a tropical haze. In fact, it was my first glimpse of real Jèrriais, the native language of Jersey – rich, colourful, and full of quirky (bizarres) phrases. I’m not sure if I ever worked out whether we were actually à l’êtrangi (abroad) or not; but I did learn this handy Monday-morning response to Comme est qu’ tu’es? (How are you?): J’sis coumme eune pouque mouoillie (I feel like a wet bag).
Séyiz les beinv’nus à Jérri!
Jèrriais is a distinct form of the old Norman spoken in nearby Normandy (the French mainland is just 14 miles away), which itself developed from Latin with a heavy sprinkling of Norse vocabulary. If you had pulled your baté (boat) ashore on one of Jèrri’s (Jersey’s) wide, golden, palm-fringed grèves (beaches) a century and a half ago as a native English speaker, you would have found yourself in a flourishing and linguistically distinct community where Jèrriais was spoken every day at home, at school, and in the workplace (just as Guernésiais was spoken on neighbouring Guernsey.) But as the twentieth century unfolded, the island’s native language began to gradually give way to Angliais, a process which was already well underway by the time a law was passed in 1912 to establish English as the language of education.
Unexpectedly, Jèrriais came into its own during the wartime occupation of the Channel Islands in 1940-1945, when locals used it to talk to each other without being understood by the Nazis. However, many native speakers were evacuated to Britain during this time, only to return five years later with Yorkshire accents and no desire to revert to their mother tongue. As Jersey’s economy began to grow rapidly in the post-war years thanks to increasingly strong business links with the English-speaking mainland, one particular side-effect of the new prosperity was somewhat inevitable: Jèrriais was becoming a minority language.
“A living language”
So from the mid-twentieth century onwards, local speakers began to be proactive about keeping the language alive, forming networks (such as the Société Jèrriaise) to promote Jèrriais through evening classes, radio broadcasts, and fêtes or Eisteddfods focusing on the common Norman linguistic and cultural heritage shared by Jersey, Guernsey, and mainland Normandy. “We want to keep it as a living language,” explain L’Office du Jèrriais (part of the governmental Dêpartément pouor l’Êducâtion, l’Sport et la Tchultuthe) who have embraced the Întèrnet (with a daily bliogue and lively twitter feed (@le_jerriais)), seeing it as an invaluable way of collating, showcasing, and updating the language: for example, text message abbreviations have been recently added to the online léçons.
However, history may regard the single most significant development in the revival of Jèrriais to be the successful move to start teaching the language at primary school back in 1998, which was so popular that plans have since been mooted to introduce a GCSE in the language.
Nevertheless, despite all these measures, there are au jour d’aniet (these days) still relatively few people who actively speak Jèrriais in addition to English (as there are believed to be no more monolingual speakers left). The number of current active speakers is estimated to be between 1.5% – 3% of the population, although more people are believed to be able to understand it.
Language… or dialect?
You may be wondering if Jèrriais really is a language in its own right, or “just” a dialect. In fact, there are no universally-agreed linguistic criteria for determining what distinguishes the two, and in practice, the factors are usually political: as the linguist Max Weinreich is believed to have said, “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”. (…).
Author
Joanna Rubery is an online editor at Oxford University Press who says, until next time, “À la préchaine!”
Je sis magnifique !
(de Mme Amélia Perchard – Jèrri)
Refrain :
J’ sis magnifique, jé sis magnifique !
l’ n’y’a ryin d’ma auve ma santé
J’sis hardi bein, considéthant !
Man doue! J’sis magnifique, merci !
1er couplet :
J’ai des rhonmatisses dans mes g’nours,
Et la goutte dans man gros orté,
Man pouls est faibl’ye, et j’n’ai pas des dents,
Et j’ai des cors sus les deux pids,
Et lé ma m’tracache tout l’temps.
Ch’est rare que j’dors lé long des nyits.
2e couplet :
Nous ouait qu’ la vieillèche est doraée,
J’en douote quand je grîmpe dans man liet!
Quaund j’pose men ouïe dans le titheux,
Et pis mes dents dans le dgichon,
Men yi au pid du carillon !
Veire, y’a t-i âote chose qu’ j’i oublie ?
3e couplet :
J’me lève dé bouonne heuthe lé matin et amprès eune boune tâssée d’ thée
dauns la gazette et j’lié les décès;
Lé mein n’y’est pas, j’dis « Dgieu merci »
Et j’mange deux beurré es d’gelée
Et pis du couop j’vas m’ercouochi!
Ce texte amusant sur le mode de « Madame la Marquise, tout va très bien ! … », de Jèrri, est chanté par Théo Capelle et ses musiciens (Jean-Louis Dalmont, Manuela Lecarpentier et Dany Pinel) et sera dans le prochain CD !
Deux camions destinés au nouveau programme de recyclage à Saint-Hélier ont reçu un décor en jersiais.
Auve la lanch’chie du nouvieau progranme d’èrcycliéthie à Saint Hélyi, deux ouadgîns portent du Jèrriais.
Two new refuse trucks employ branding in Jèrriais for Saint Helier recycling scheme.
contact de Geraint Jennings Offici assistant du Jèrriais :
L’Office du Jèrriais
Dêpartément pouor l’Êducâtion, l’Sport et la Tchultuthe
PO Box 142
JE4 8QJ
Jèrri
tél: +44 1534 449292
http://www.jerriais.org.je
Bliogue: http://officedujerriais.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @le_jerriais
Langue normande 