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