Sercquiais
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sercquiais | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Sark | |
| Total speakers: | approx. 15, with several dozen more understanding it | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian Oïl Norman Sercquiais |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | roa | |
| ISO 639-3: | — | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Sercquiais also known as Sarkese or Sark-French is the Norman dialect of the Channel Island of Sark. In the island, it is sometimes known, slightly disparagingly as the "patois", a French term meaning "regional language".
Sarkese is in fact a descendant of the 16th century Jèrriais used by the original colonists, 40 families from Saint Ouen, Jersey, who settled the then uninhabited island, although influenced in the interim by Dgèrnésiais (Guernsey dialect). It is still spoken by older inhabitants of the island. Although the lexis is heavily anglicised, the phonology retains features lost in Jèrriais since the 16th century. Most of the local placenames are in Sarkese.
It has suffered greatly in recent years due to a large influx of tax exiles from England who have moved to the island, as well as official neglect.
It is also closely related to the extinct Auregnais (Alderney) dialect, as well as Continental Norman.
Contents |
[edit] Written Sercquiais
Relatively little Sercquiais has been transcribed, and as there is no widely accepted form, it has received a certain amount of stigma as a result. Dame Sybil Hathaway, who was a speaker herself, claimed that it could "never be written down", and this myth has continued in the years since then.
The earliest published text in Sercquiais so far identified is the parable of the sower from the Gospel of Matthew. Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, linguist, visited the Channel Islands in September 1862 in order to transcribe samples of the insular language varieties, which he subsequently published in 1863.
[edit] Phonology
- (Note: Sercquiais not possessing a standard orthography, examples are given according to Liddicoat's Lexicon of Sark Norman French, Munich 2001)
Sercquiais does not have the voiced dental fricative which is such a distinctive characteristic of St. Ouen in Jersey where most of the colonists came from.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | English |
|---|---|---|
| lyer | liéthe | to read |
| kuoradj | couothage | courage |
| fere | féther | to iron |
Palatalisation of velars /k/ and /g/ is less fully developed in Sercquiais than in Jèrriais. Palatalisation in Jèrriais of /k/ to [tʃ] and /g/ to [dʒ] has the equivalent in Sercquiais of /kj/ and /gj/. For example hiccup is hitchet in Jèrriais and hekyet in Sercquiais; war is respectively dgèrre and gyer.
Palatalisation of /tj/ in Jèrriais leads to [tʃ], but in Sercquiais /t/ is generally retained: profession, trade in Sercquiais is meeti, whereas Jèrriais has palatalised to mêtchi.
[dʒ] is retained in Sercquiais where Jèrriais has reduced to [ʒ], as in to eat: mãdji (Sercquiais) - mangi (Jèrriais).
Final consonants of masculine nouns in the singular are in free variation with null in all positions except in liaison. Final consonants are usually pronounced at ends of phrases. Final consonants are always lost in plural forms of masculine nouns. A cat may therefore be kat or ka in Sercquiais, but cats are kaa. For comparison, Jèrriais cat is usually pronounced /ka/, and the plural has the long vowel as in Sercquiais. It can also therefore be seen that length is phonemic and may denote plurality.
Sercquiais has also retained final consonants that have been entirely lost in Jèrriais, such as final /t/ in pret (meadow - pré in Jèrriais as in French).
Metathesis of /r/ is uncommon in Sercquiais, and in Jèrriais, by comparison with Dgèrnésiais.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | Dgèrnésiais | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| krwee | crouaix | kérouaïe | cross |
| mekrëdi | Mêcrédi | méquerdi | Wednesday |
The palatalised l, which in Jèrriais has been generally palatalised to /j/ in initial position and following a consonant, is maintained in Sercquiais.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais (li representing /j/) |
English |
|---|---|---|
| blyakyĩ | bliatchîn | shoe polish (blacking) |
| klyüt | cliu | patch |
| plyechi | pliaichi | to place |
| lyef | lief | roof |
Gemination occurs regularly in verb conjugations and gerunds, as in Jèrriais but in distinction to Dgèrnésiais.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | Dgèrnésiais | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| machunnii | machonn'nie | machounn'rie | masonry |
| dje dmãdde | jé d'mand'dai | je d'mànd'rai | I'll ask |
However, Sercquiais does not geminate palatal fricatives, unlike Jèrriais:
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | English |
|---|---|---|
| brachii | brach'chie | brewery |
| brachii | brachie | armful |
| mãdji | mangi | to eat |
| mãdji | mang'gie | eating |
[edit] Conjugation of verbs
The St. Ouennais origins of Sercquiais can be seen in the 2nd and 3rd person plural forms of the preterite. Sercquiais uses an ending -dr which is typical of the St. Ouennais dialect of Jèrriais, but generally not used elsewhere in Jersey (nor nowadays by younger speakers in St. Ouen).
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais (St. Ouennais) |
standard Jèrriais | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| i vuliidr | i' voulîdrent | i' voulîtent | they wanted |
| uu paaliidr | ou pâlîdres | ou pâlîtes | you spoke |
| i füüdr | i' fûdrent | i' fûtent | they were |
| uu prẽẽdr | ou prîndres | ou prîntes | you took |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Lexicon of Sark Norman French, Anthony J. Liddicoat, Munich 2001
- A Grammar of the Norman French of the Channel Islands, Anthony Liddicoat, Berlin 1994
- ^ Société Jersiaise
[edit] External links
- Lé Sèrtchais (including comparative glossary)
- Jèrriais and Sercquiais today by Dr Mari C. Jones - from the BBC
