Sercquiais

Sercquiais (), also known as , Sarkese or Sark-French, is the Norman dialect of the Channel Island of Sark (Bailiwick of Guernsey).

Sercquiais is a descendant of the 16th century Jèrriais used by the original colonists; 40 families mostly from Saint Ouen, Jersey^[1] who settled the then uninhabited island, although influenced in the interim by Guernésiais (the dialect of Guernsey). It is also closely related to the now-extinct Auregnais (Alderney) dialect, as well as to Continental Norman. It is still spoken by older inhabitants of the island and most of the local placenames are in Sercquiais.

In former times, there may have been two subdialects of Sercquiais, but today the dialect is relatively homogeneous. The phonology of the language retains features lost in Jèrriais since the 16th century.

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. A notable ruler of Sark, Sibyl Hathaway, who was a speaker herself, proclaimed that it could "never be written down", and this perception has continued in the years since.

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: Which in the NIV is translated as:

(3) "[...] A farmer went out to sow his seed.

(4) As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

(5) Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.

(6) But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

(7) Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

(8) Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop — a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

(9) He who has ears, let him hear."

Present

As of 2022, Sercquiais had three native speakers. The Czech linguist Martin Neudörfl has been trying to preserve the language by teaching it to children. He has also conducted many tests, and created hundreds of hours of recordings, so that audio of pronunciation and rhythm Template:Mdash how the language sounds Template:Mdash is preserved. Since 2019, the language has been taught in schools.

Phonology

Sercquiais Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar/ uvular
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Rhotic			Template:IPA link
Lateral			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Approximant	plain				Template:IPA link
	labial				Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

Sercquiais Oral Vowels   Front Back unrounded rounded Close Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Open-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Open Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Diphthong

Nasal Vowels Front Back unrounded rounded Close-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Open-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Open Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

(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	French
		to read
		courage
		to iron	(: to clad in iron)

Palatalisation of velars and (see Joret line) is less fully developed in Sercquiais than in Jèrriais. Palatalisation in Jèrriais of to and to has the equivalent in Sercquiais of and . For example, hiccup is in Jèrriais and in Sercquiais; war is respectively and .

Palatalisation of in Jèrriais leads to , but in Sercquiais is generally retained: profession, trade in Sercquiais is , whereas Jèrriais has palatalised to .

is retained in Sercquiais where Jèrriais has reduced to , as in to eat: (Sercquiais) – (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 or in Sercquiais, but cats are . For comparison, Jèrriais is usually pronounced , 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 in (meadow – in Jèrriais as in French).

Metathesis of is uncommon in Sercquiais, and in Jèrriais, by comparison with Guernésiais.

Sercquiais	Jèrriais	Guernésiais	English
			cross
			Wednesday

The palatalised l, which in Jèrriais has been generally palatalised to in initial position and following a consonant, is maintained in Sercquiais.

Sercquiais	Jèrriais (li representing )	English
		shoe polish (blacking)
		patch
		to place
		roof

Gemination occurs regularly in verb conjugations and gerunds, as in Jèrriais but in distinction to Guernésiais.

Sercquiais	Jèrriais	Guernésiais	English
			masonry
			I'll ask

However, Sercquiais does not geminate palatal fricatives, unlike Jèrriais:

Sercquiais	Jèrriais	English
		brewery
		armful
		to eat
		eating

In the second half of the 19th century the language changed considerably. We can observe this in the 40 idiolects that can be heard today. An important part of the language is the usage of diphthongs, which affects the pronunciation. It is unclear how words are pronounced because there are many possible ways to pronounce them depending on where they are in the phrase. It is important to codify the language since not even the native speakers follow all the rules.

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
			they wanted
			you spoke
			they were
			you took

See also

• Norman language

References

• ^ Société Jersiaise
• Bailiwick Express. (2021). Unlikely hero saving the language of Sark.
• Mgr. Martin Neudörfl (2017), Spelling standardization of Sark-French, Prague

External links

• Lé Sèrtchais (including comparative glossary)
• Jèrriais and Sercquiais today by Dr Mari C. Jones – from the BBC