Comments on: Commission to save Guernsey French is ‘last chance saloon’

By: Oh Dear

Oh Dear — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:42:06 +0000

In that case I’m all for it.

Since the tourists would have no idea, perhaps it would be just as easy to make stuff up.

“Ampiglu le gratchet avirot de jumbun?”

“Would you like to stroke my face?”

Report abuse

By: The Man

The Man — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:49:08 +0000

I succesfully chatted a girl up in Klingon.

True story.

Although my translataions were wrong, when I told her I had said “your hair looks lovely” in Klingon, what I had actually said was “Today is a good day to die”

Still, she was none the wiser.

Maybe we should teach Patois to our young, so they can sucessfully use it to chat up tourists, or when they are away! Or just buy a Klingon dictionary, worked for me!!

Report abuse

By: pb falla

pb falla — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:12:59 +0000

Anothersia guernsia enshamlesia compost corner

Report abuse

By: Delp

Delp — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:28:29 +0000

No I agree that the idea that it could be the first language of the island again is pretty much impossible, that ship sailed a long time ago. I think the most viable option to preserve the language would be too make it more accessible rather than any attempt to force it back into common usage.

I’m not 100% sure of the source any more, but I do remember hearing that although some dialects of Guernsey French could be read with a degree of understanding by some of our more linguistically adept French cousins, the spoken variants are obviously much less easier to understand due to regional accents etc. I believe that the relationship Guernesiais has to French is similar to our own understanding of late Middle English.

I think that it is good to see, even on a discussion thread that people still have plenty of opinions on the language, good or bad.

Report abuse

By: Colimachon

Colimachon — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:20:06 +0000

I agree, but I think any notion of Guernesais ever being anyone’s first language is doomed to failure. Frankly, the language has foundered upon a sea of local indifference.

Also, with reference to the idea that it would help our trading links with France, I recall that my Guernsey-French-speaking grandfather was pretty much unintelligible to French people, except for those who spoke the now-dying Gallo dialect.

Report abuse

By: Delp

Delp — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:32:54 +0000

Regardless of how many useful/real/alive languages you speak, you can’t deny that it would be huge cultural loss for the island to see the language truly die. As a student of linguistics, I understand that efforts to save the language would be for academic and cultural purposes rather than for practical use. Is that really a bad thing? This isn’t a new idea at all, many languages with a small base of native speakers are making attempts to preserve their languages across the world.

Report abuse

By: A.J.

A.J. — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:58:57 +0000

First of all we should be teaching our children to speak English, and only when they have accomplished this to a high standard,encourage them to move on to other languages which may be of use to them in their future life.
Guernsey Patois is little more than Slang.Fine as a hobby, but of no practical use anywhere else in the world.Much better the time spent on teaching other subjects such as Maths,French,Spanish,or life skills subjects such as ‘Budgeting’and’Cooking.’

Report abuse

By: Realist

Realist — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:57:33 +0000

Good that people want to keep our native language alive but I am not optimistic. Patois was my grandparents first language – these days my kids don’t even have much of a Guernsey accent.

Patois was dying out before the war and made a resurgence during the occupation (because the Germans couldn’t understand it). Whe the evacuees (like my parents) returned to the island after 5 years they had lost their native language and many considered patois to be provincial and “a bit common”.

Since then it has been in steady decline and is now so rarely heard that I cannot see it being of any practical use to anyone (unlike Welsh, for example, where enough people actively used the language to allow it to be revitalised).

I applaud the people dedicated to keeping the language alive but I cannot see it ever becoming commonly used again and I suspect it will disappear altogether in the next generation. It will be a very sad day when it does.

Report abuse

By: Bobster

Bobster — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:50:24 +0000

Face it, Guernsey French is dead. It is (was) a language for a gentler, more rural Guernsey. As for its similarity to French, that would be like me talking in Chaucerian Old English and expecting you to understand me. What’s Guernsey French for computer, fibreglass, plasma screen, any number of modern day items that are traded? Or do you want to stick to buying and selling root vegetables?

Report abuse

By: Gsyman

Gsyman — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:10:04 +0000

Seems to me to be flogging a dead horse. I speak French and Italian like Martino, and can get by in Guernsey-French having heard it from my Grandparents, but there’s few people left to speak it to. The language is consigned to being a hobby or of academic interest now. I rarely hear it spoken these days, it has been eclipsed by Polish, Latvian and Portugese in the shops and on the streets.

Report abuse

By: stonedecroze

stonedecroze — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:12:20 +0000

Cor damme la…. and there was me thinking I’d made a tongue in cheek quip……another one over the head eh?

Report abuse

By: I am Deer

I am Deer — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:13:11 +0000

So which local language is to be saved?

There were variations depending on the Parish you lived in.

It’s all well and good wanting to preserve this language but English is a far more useful language in this day and age.

There is little point in spending loads of money on this. If people want to learn it, they can. I could learn it from my Grandmother but that would get me no extra job prospects or qualifications.

It’s the equivalent of speaking Klingon.

Report abuse

By: Mon Vier

Mon Vier — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:30:40 +0000

looks like some people would rather be living in Guernseyshire then here!
Cor damme la, they spends enough on these consultants to tell us how we should live but when it comes to our language its all, oh no who wants that.

Let me tell you, I do! I would rather my taxes went to my heritage than to the usual rubbish it gets spent on.

This should have been done years ago after the war, then we would still have our language.

Report abuse

By: guern

guern — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:12:56 +0000

Stonedecroze – Le Clameur est en Francais, pas Guernsiais

Report abuse

By: Sarnia cherie, my heart longs for thee

Sarnia cherie, my heart longs for thee — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:12:16 +0000

Pb, how do you say another Guernsey shambles in patois?!

Report abuse