Reviving Jerriais - 17th November 2021

The inhabitants of the small island of Jersey in the English Channel are fighting to revive the local language - Jerriais.

With just 800 native speakers left on the island the language is at risk of extinction. Brothers Jean and François Le Maistre have spoken Jerriais all their lives.

François Le Maistre: "We're the last generation. My brother, all my colleagues, we’re the last generation to speak it naturally. That's the sad part."

Jerriais was once seen as a peasant language and children were disciplined for using it, this combined with the increasing dominance of English saw it fall into disuse. However, in 2019, Jersey declared Jerriais as one of its official languages, alongside English and French, and now supports its teaching in schools. Susan Parker teaches the language in a primary school.

Susan Parker: "There's no textbooks, so my colleagues had to learn in kind of a ad hoc way. Now, the new teachers have a more structured program to follow. It's very similar to French, its heritage is Norman French, but it has its own unique spellings and words and grammar and it's not that easy to learn, so it takes a while."

The island of Jersey is a British Crown dependency which lies just 22 kilometres from the coast of France. However, it has a separate and distinct culture which student, Atticus Mawby, feels is reflected through its unique language.

Atticus Mawby: "No culture is complete without its language, and there's no way you can really understand the spirit of Jersey without understanding its language. And if Jerriais does die, then Jersey will just become another part of Britain and it will be incredibly sad."

The race is on to encourage the people of Jersey to learn Jerriais before it dies out. Geraint Jennings is in charge of the promotion of Jerriais language in Jersey Heritage.

Geraint Jennings: "The aim of revitalization is to bring back Jerriais as an everyday, living language. Not replace English, not to replace French, but to ensure that people can, if possible, live their lives with Jerriais."