Debate ‘a boost’ for Guernesiais

I write as someone who has been researching and recording Guernesiais (defined by linguists as a variety of Norman, not a dialect of ‘Modern’ French as some people mistakenly believe) for over 25 years. During this time I have had the pleasure of meeting so many Guernesiais speakers, who are always happy to take part in recorded interviews and share their knowledge of the language. Often speakers are delighted that a ‘young’ person is interested in a language so dear to their hearts which, sadly, like many of the world’s 7,000 or so languages is categorised by Unesco as ‘severely endangered’. Over the years I have also had the pleasure of working alongside academics, and at times their ‘language documentation’ students, and thanks to financial grants from foundations and academic institutions (concerned about large-scale language loss), and funding from the Guernsey Museums Service, we now have an audio archive of some 80 hours of authentic usage of Guernesiais.

One of the many questions I have asked interviewees over the years is, ‘Tchi qu’vou disaï quaend vou véyaï quiqu’eun?’ (‘What do you say when you see/meet someone?’). The reply may seem puzzling to a non-native speaker as often people simply say something like, ‘‘Lo, sh’est té!’ (Oh, it’s you!). The highly regarded Marie De Garis’ MBE Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernésiais has entries for words to use in this situation, ‘Baon-n-jour’ (Good day) being one to use in ‘formal’ situations (although very few speakers I have spoken to report actually using this greeting). Another entry in the ‘Dictiounnaire’ is ‘Ouâroh!’ (an alternative spelling of which is ‘Warro!’), a less formal one (Hello!, Hie!). While not used by every Guernesiais speaker, some speakers claim to say ‘Warro!’; furthermore we have recorded usage of it – yet this is being questioned as it seems perceptions are believed more than recorded data. As well as recording and researching Guernesiais, I teach it to adults who are keen to learn for a variety of reasons, in the main cultural heritage and identity. It is also enjoyable and can give students an insight into Guernsey culture and heritage when, for example, Guernesiais place names start to reveal their secrets. A resource that educators and language course designers use when preparing learning materials is linguistic data of authentic usage. I am fortunate to be able to draw from Guernesiais description (audio recordings), and refer to this when preparing materials for lessons, and language content for innovations such as the Digital Greenhouse/Cherry Godfrey Warro! language phone app.

Whether the teaching of Guernesiais should be made part of the school curriculum is a moot point. My personal view is that as resources are currently limited, language teaching efforts should focus on ‘young adults’. However, I think that it is important to teach an awareness of Guernesiais to school pupils, and I applaud the efforts of volunteers who have been going into primary schools for many years to teach Guernesiais. It is important for them to have a taste of their island language, and if they choose, to go on to learn Guernesiais and many other languages too. There is evidence to suggest that multilingual pupils achieve better results than monolingual peers.

Returning to ‘Warro!’, it may derive from the English ‘What ho’ (one comment on Facebook suggests that ‘Warro!’ may equally derive from, ‘Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, similar has been said about “Haro” in the Clameur de Haro.’), but as I am quoted as saying in the Guernsey Press article, ‘I have spoken to people myself who have used it and have heard it fairly often. But the key to this is the fact that a language which is alive evolves and is influenced to do its own thing...’ Living languages are enriched by ‘borrowing’ words from other languages, besides the possible 7,000 Norman words that enriched English during the medieval period, that language continues to borrow words ‘par excellence!’ It has been suggested that the legitimacy of ‘Warro!’ is a matter which touches on gender, it being used mainly amongst men. Whatever the case may be, there is evidence to support the fact that ‘Warro!’ has been, and is, used by Guernesiais speakers. Interestingly, another comment on Facebook suggests that, ‘This sounds more like a class issue than a linguistic one and sadly the purists are more likely to kill than save the language’.

As for ‘pushang’, I don’t think anyone is suggesting that ‘pushang’ (push bike?) is a Guernesiais word? But why not? ‘Moto’ is a well-integrated Guernesiais word for ‘car’, which seems to derive from ‘motor car’.

JAN MARQUIS, (Yan),

La Haoteur,

Rue de Laitte,

Torteval, GY8 0PD.