The history of Guernesiais

Many Guernsey people are proud that the island was on the winning side in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Norman became the language of the elite in England, and was spoken as far away as Italy and Palestine. But it gradually declined after mainland Normandy was conquered by the French in 1204 (the Channel Islands remained allied to England). Varieties of Norman are still spoken in Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and mainland Normandy. The Alderney variety has not been spoken since the 19th century. The Sark variety is more closely related to Jersey Norman French, but speakers of all the varieties can understand each other fairly well.

There are many misconceptions about Guernesiais. It is often seen as 'corrupted French', or a mixture of French and English. Neither of these are, in fact, true. Norman is not a dialect of French but another branch of the same language family. Norman had a huge influence on English after 1066, and many English words were originally Norman, e.g. 'cup', 'coat', 'garden'. However, over the last couple of hundred years English has had considerable influence on Guernesiais, especially modern terms such as 'refrigerator' and 'lorry'.

Guernesiais is only one of many languages in danger of dying out. Linguists estimate that of the 6,000 or so languages in the world, between 50% and 90% will disappear this century. Reasons vary, but a common factor, which applies to Guernsey, is that people learn a powerful language such as English, which offers more economic and educational opportunities.

In Guernsey this process was speeded up by islanders' experience during World War Two. The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to be occupied by the Germans. About half of the Guernsey population, including practically all the children, was evacuated to the UK just beforehand. The evacuees had no idea when, if ever, they would return home, and many abandoned Guernesiais. After the war Guernesiais was seen as an old-fashioned peasant dialect which 'held people back'.