New Guernesiais project backed with more investment planned to preserve the language

The committee is initially investing £16,000 from its existing £80m. budget.

It will complement a Plan for Guernesiais, which it will submit to the States for debate early in 2020 and will propose additional investment for three years.

The £16,000 is in response to a proposal from the Culture, Heritage, Education and Museums’ Information Network to bring together local volunteers and native speakers of Guernsey-French to work in partnership with two academics: Dr Harry Parkin of the University of Chester and a former pupil of Elizabeth College, and Daibhidh Grannd, Postgraduate Researcher in Toponymy at the University of Glasgow.

The project's ultimate aim is to communicate and digitally link Guernsey’s cultural, historical and linguistic heritage through research into local surnames and place names.

The committee hopes that children, students, researchers, family historians, visitors and others will become involved to help connect the heritage available in separate archives, libraries, museum collections, newspapers, literature and digital media.

ESC president Matt Fallaize said: ‘We know the number of speakers of our native language is in decline.

'This is partly why it is important to capture the different dialects of the language, which is a distinctive part of our culture and heritage. If this modest investment helps to produce a digital resource of island names it will make an important contribution to preserving and strengthening our culture and heritage.

'Action is required before the inevitable loss of the final generation of first-language Guernsey French speakers.

'CHEMIN hopes to contribute substantially to the preservation of this precious intangible heritage by digitising the entire corpus of Guernsey French vocabulary and producing high-quality recordings of pronunciations in the three extant dialects. This initial project, focussing on place name pronunciations, will provide a valuable community asset. In time it may allow academic and local speakers and heritage enthusiasts to produce a more comprehensive digital dictionary.

'Alongside this modest investment, we have been developing a Plan for Guernesiais which will be presented to the States shortly. It will test the appetite of the States, on behalf of our community, to make a three-year funding commitment to promote the research and use of Guernesiais.’

Existing States’ support for the language continues with a modest budget for adult lessons. Guernsey Museums also organise a small number of events during the year where speakers and learners can support each other and put their language into practice.

For many years Guernsey Museums have recorded native speakers of the language. They are currently working on a project called Voice-Vouaïe with Yan Marquis and Aaron Yeandle.

This is a photography and social history project about people who grew up with the language. A free translation service is available (partly supported by Martin & Martin Designer Goldsmiths) which is commonly used for signs, festivals, wedding speeches and house names.