Patois is ‘a link to the past and a bridge to the future’

I’ve been studying Guernesiais since 2000 and have interviewed and recorded over 100 speakers and learners of the language. Mr De La Rue describes it as a dialect of French, but it is more accurate to designate Guernesiais as a cousin of French, a variety of Norman with a root in Vulgar Latin but distinct influences from Norse and other languages. At its heyday the Norman empire stretched from Norway to Syria. Linguists estimate that between 25% and 40% of English is derived from Norman (both vocabulary and grammar), so we could say that borrowing words from English is just the return of long-term loans. All speakers of Guernesiais speak English too, so naturally mix languages sometimes.

All languages change and evolve; languages which don’t respond to new needs are truly dead. English has adopted words such as pyjamas, chocolate and robot from Hindi, Aztec and Polish, among others.

Computers didn’t exist 100 years ago, but we’ve developed words to talk about them. Even ‘bicycle’ is taken from Latin roots, although the Romans didn’t have bicycles!

‘Warro’ is attested in the usage of elderly speakers, and is included in the dictionary compiled by Marie De Garis (born in 1910), who spelt it ‘Ouâroh’. I am told that ‘Warro’ was used more by men in informal settings such as pubs, so older ladies may not have used it. It is true that some Guernesiais speakers don’t use greetings at all, but people who are used to English can feel the need for a way to greet people informally. ‘Warro’ fits this purpose admirably, and is certainly better attested and more authentic than ‘Baonjour’.

(Incidentally, English ‘Hi’ and ‘Hello’ have Norse roots.)

Guernesiais now has very few speakers, which means that some variations are specific to just one family. Just because some people don’t remember using a term, doesn’t mean that others didn’t or can’t, if it is useful to them.

Guernesiais is just one of at least 3,000 languages currently at risk of dying out around the world. In Guernsey, like elsewhere, people are realising what they are losing and are making efforts to maintain and reclaim their language – not just as an important part of Guernsey’s history and heritage, but as a living language. For myself, for example, it gives me a great deal of enjoyment to speak it with friends; it has also been valuable in my career as a linguist.

I very much hope that Guernesiais won’t go the same way as Manx in the Isle of Man, whose last native speaker died in 1974. In 1986 a quality of life survey there identified language as a key factor for island identity. There are now around 1,500 speakers of Manx, including 80 pupils who learn their whole school curriculum through Manx. Children in Guernsey are already taught French from a young age, yet levels of knowledge are lamentable given the island’s location. The islanders who are most likely to speak good French are speakers of Guernesiais.

In countries such as Spain, children are taught the local language, the national language, and an international language. Experiences indicate that teaching Guernesiais alongside French (pointing out history, similarities and differences)would motivate students and improve knowledge of both.

As one of my MA students put it, language is ‘a link to the past and a bridge to the future’. You could also say ‘There are more useful things to teach our children’ about art, literature and even history.

Guernesiais is not currently part of the school curriculum, but it is important for all children to at least be made aware of it, so that they can choose whether they want to reclaim it in the future. For this, it is important that Guernesiais continues to grow and evolve, to enable them to talk about their own everyday lives.

DR JULIA SALLABANK

Reader in Language Policy and Revitalisation, Linguistics Department Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching (Masters) Faculty of Languages and Cultures SOAS,

University of London,

London, WC1H 0XG.