Jèrriais recording project

Hopefully many of our Jèrriais-speaking parishioners will be reading this! Some of you will be aware of the recent news that Dr. Mari Jones from Cambridge University, who is Reader in French Linguistics and Language Change (to give her formal title) is leading a project to record Jèrriais this spring/summer onwards. She has been a longstanding friend to Jersey with her great interest in Jèrriais, our native language, now only spoken by less than 5% of Jersey’s population. Such has been her interest that she has learnt to speak Jèrriais, really quite fluently!

Starting in April, a team of recorders who themselves speak Jèrriais, want to hear from as many Jèrriais speakers as possible in order to record accent and vocabulary. There are  words and phrases used  in some parishes which are not  used in other parishes! This may not sound very important, but if not recorded by native speakers, they are lost to the printed word only, nowhere nearly as valuable as the spoken word!

So, if you would be willing to have your Jèrriais recorded – it can be speaking to a friend who also speaks Jèrriais or just yourself – please contact Colin Ireson at L’Office du Jèrriais on 449290 or home 726871 to register your interest. Recording can last 10 minutes or half an hour, it’s up to you!

Mèrcie bein des fais,

Colin R. Ireson,

Maît’ du Jèrriais / Jèrriais Teacher,

L’Office du Jèrriais

Tel. 449290