Minority languages need to be represented within the media so that they are not forgotten. Producing content in a minority language displays it’s maintained relevance and importance within a society. Jèrriais is the traditional language of my island home Jersey, it is endangered and in need of much more media visibility in order to survive.

Jersey is an Island in the English Channel with a rich cultural heritage, but few people know that it has its own language. Photo: Barnes de la Cloche (@apexiso / Apexiso.photo)

Where is Jersey and what is Jèrriais?

Explaining to people where I am from has never been simple. As soon as I say that I’m from Jersey, eyebrows are raised. Do you mean New Jersey? No, I mean Jersey, an Island in the English Channel. So is that a part of the United Kingdom or France? Neither. Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy. While it is a Dependency of the British Crown, it maintains its own financial and legal system.

Jèrriais, otherwise known as Norman-French, is our island’s traditional language originating from our proximity to France (just 22km). Jersey was historically linked to the Duchy of Normandy and with the Norman conquest of England in 1066 the Island remained loyal to the Duke of Normandy. This led to a decline in connections between Jersey, Normandy and the rest of mainland France. The island’s language therefore became isolated from the evolving French language. With the passing of time, the French language changed considerably, making the language of Jersey its very own. The language would be known as Jèrriais deriving from the island’s name Jèrri.

Jèrriais was widely spoken on the Island, within the home, among the farmers and the fishermen. French was adopted as the language of Jersey law, the church, the government and English later arrived as the language of commerce.

Up until the Second World War Jèrriais was still thriving but on July 1st 1940, the German forces invaded the island. Prior to their arrival many islanders fled to the United Kingdom and stayed there throughout the occupation. Following the Liberation in 1945 the use of Jèrriais started to decline as people returned from being off the island for 5 years. The 1950s and 60s were defined by a rise in tourism and immigration for Jersey which further led to the decline of the traditional language’s presence. The first real warning of Jèrriais endangerment appeared in the Island’s 1989 population consensus. It showed that there were only an approximate 5,720 Jèrriais speakers out of Jersey’s total population of 82,000. In 2001, approximately 3,18% of the population could speak Jèrriais (Scott Warren A., Jennings G., 2014).

Neighbouring Islands, Guernesey and Sark have their own traditional languages too. Photo: Barnes de la Cloche (@apexiso / Apexiso.photo)

Efforts towards language revival: What role does media play?

In the past couple of decades there have been strengthened efforts to prevent the disappearance of Jèrriais. As more people have come to realise that it would lead to an important loss for Jersey’s cultural identity. The government of Jersey released “The Jèrriais’ Language Strategy 2022-2025” following up from the previous “2017-2019 Jèrriais Plan”, a strategy proposing a list of aims and efforts that will help guide the language’s revival. This includes ensuring that children get the opportunity to learn it at school, working towards Jèrriais’ integration into the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and much more.

In this text I would like to take a closer look at the efforts enabling Jèrriais visibility within the island’s various traditional and digital media. The relation between preserving minority languages and the media is inseparable. Imagine learning a language without being able to read it anywhere, without being able to hear it in music, or it never popping up on your social media feed.

In a quest to find out more about the relation between Jèrriais and media I reached out to Jersey’s Minister of Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Kirsten Morel. One of my first questions to him was regarding the goal of current Jèrriais preservation efforts.

What is the main goal with Jèrriais preservation now? Do you see it becoming an active language within the community and media again?

- In order to survive and thrive again, Jèrriais must be used as widely as possible. It is still a living language, albeit an endangered one. Our efforts should aim to ensure that we create new speakers of Jèrriais who go on to pass the language down to their children.

Language visibility is indeed essential. The presence of it within the media does not only remind people of the language’s existence but it plays as an incentive for people to learn it. It gains a place within people’s daily lives and within society. I also contacted Geraint Jennings, a native Jèrriais speaker and Jèrriais Promotion Officer at Jersey Heritage, I asked him: Do you think that the current amount of Jèrriais visibility with media, publications and schools is sufficient to reach the goal of securing the language’s future?

- No. Visibility is much better than it was, but it’s patchy and nowhere near as standard as the strategy proposes.

Jèrriais needs to be made visible across the entire island and especially in Jersey’s different media outlets. Photo: Barnes de la Cloche (@apexiso / Apexiso.photo)

Newspapers and magazines

The visibility of Jèrriais within the island community is certainly nothing short of patchy. I asked Geraint Jennings: Can Jèrriais be found in the Island’s biggest newspapers and magazines? Do you think that Jersey could benefit from language policies that would require a certain percentage of the texts be written in Jèrriais?

- Currently, there are occasional articles in the Jersey Evening Post as well as some in Parish Magazines. There’s a general problem with publication in general in Jersey, with no publishing strategy or support. The quarterly magazine in Jèrriais which used to be published ceased in 2014.

To the same two questions, Deputy Kirsten Morel responded:

- Jèrriais articles appear in the Jersey Evening Post, Rural Magazine and the various Jersey parish magazines on a monthly basis. A policy such as that could certainly be explored, however we must ensure anything in policy is deliverable and manageable.

We need the younger generation to learn the language and pass it on, but this is a challenge faced by all minority languages. Photo: Barnes de la Cloche (@apexiso / Apexiso.photo)

The power of social media shouldn’t be underestimated

The survival of minority languages relies heavily on younger generations who will hopefully pass on the language to future generations, but this is also a difficult task. I asked Deputy Kirsten Morel: How can we try and reach people who never got the chance to learn Jèrriais at school if the language is not made visibile within most social media platforms?

- Reaching a younger demographic is one of the most significant challenges faced by all minority languages. An increase in online content is being developed and people can now learn Jèrriais for free using the uTalk app. We also work closely with other minority language groups to develop initiatives that aim to increase language use.

One of the aims with the Jèrriais Preservation Strategy intends to “Increase and develop the use of Jerriais on social media platforms” (Aim 2.2). However this aim needs much more development and attention. If a goal is to reach younger generations, the influence of social media should not be overlooked. It's how young people communicate today, it is how they are inspired. Though there are a handful of Jèrriais social media accounts, the majority of their activity seems to take place on Facebook and Twitter - perhaps not the most likely platforms to reach the younger demographic who spend most of their time on Instagram and TikTok.

While there is a “Learn Jèrriais” Instagram account run by the Jèrriais Teaching Service, the posts seem to revolve around information about events and how to learn the language rather than producing content within the language itself. But it seems that the amount of time needed to run social media accounts is too difficult due to a lack of personnel. I asked Geraint Jennings: I cannot find many social media accounts dedicated to Jèrriais at all. Can an active Instagram or TikTok page be something that we will see soon?

- L’Office du Jèrriais has an active social media presence, with a blog, X (Twitter) and Facebook, interacting with other accounts and answering questions. It’s very difficult to persuade people that being on social media even just to support existing Jèrriais activity is a worthwhile use of their time, but it’s useful for the visibility among journalists, officials and other influential people. Running an online corpus, sound archive, dictionary database, Youtube, X (Twitter) and Facebook with updates and content takes a lot of time (arguably too much).

I then asked Deputy Kirtsen Morel: How are young people being encouraged to use Jèrriais on social media? Has there been a rise in the amount of young people using Jèrriais online?

- This is an ongoing objective in the Jèrriais strategy but requires significant input from an already stretched team. We don’t currently have any stats on Jèrriais usage online but would hope to see in increase in the coming years, A Jèrriais TikTok account is coming soon and, hopefully in the future, personnel could be tasked with increasing engagement with Jèrriais on social media.

It seems then, that if Jèrriais is going to gain its much needed visibility on social media platforms - it is in need of much more support than it is currently getting. Namely from the Government of Jersey who does not seem to publish much content in the Jèrriais themselves, so I asked Deputy Kirsten Morel: Do you believe that the Jersey Governement should post more information in Jèrriais on their social media accounts and website?

- The Government accounts regularly promote Jèrriais but could certainly do more in that respect.

Film, Television and Music

A similar lack of visibility seems to be found within television and music. Finding Jèrriais music is no easy task. There are recordings by a few bands but they cannot be found on popular streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music - with the exception of black metal band “Heads of Helier” that can be found on both. Jèrriais can again occasionally be heard on the island’s radio stations, but again this is very patchy. This also concerns the news reports on Television - I asked Geraint Jennings: Are private and public companies being encouraged to use Jèrriais within the workplace? Even just by encouraging people to say “Bouônjour” or other simple phrases? Could News presenters do this for instance to help create visibility?

- Yes, this is being done, but encouragement and offering advice and translation is not enough.

Losing Jèrriais would be a tragedy for Jersey’s identity, but we must not lose hope. Photo: Barnes de la Cloche (@apexiso / Apexiso.photo)

J’n’ai pon pèrdu l’espé - I haven’t lost hope

Jèrriais is the foundation of the island’s unique culture. To deny the importance of preserving the language, would be to give up entirely on the island’s individual identity. More importantly yet, it would be contributing to the island’s lost sense of community, an issue it has been struggling with for some time. I asked Geraint Jennings: What would the disappearance of Jèrriais mean to you personally? What would it mean for Jersey and its cultural identity?

- It would be a loss of part of me and my expression. Jersey’s unique language and literature is a repository of Jersey’s history which is not fully recorded otherwise in English or in French. Jèrriais is one of the most beautiful things about Jersey.

Deputy Kirsten Morel also replied to the same question:

- The disappearance of Jèrriais would amount to the devastating loss of a fundamental part of Jersey’s cultural heritage and identity. Jèrriais is in the DNA of Jersey. As Professor Paul Birt said: “There are few languages I know with such a richness of expression, some of her idioms are poetry… Jèrriais belongs to Jersey and without it Jersey would, I believe, stop being Jersey.” It’s that important!

I have not lost hope for my island home’s cultural identity. The actions undertaken by the personnel at Jersey Heritage, L’Office du Jèrriais and La Société Jersiaise are remarkable. But the Jèrriais mission still needs much more support, guidelines and efforts to secure the language’s survival. One should not be afraid of developing visibility within the numerous media outlets that Jersey has at its disposal.

Literature:

Scott Warren, A., & Jennings, G. (2014). ‘Allantcontre vent et mathée’: Jèrriais in the twenty-first century1. In M. Jones (Ed.), Endangered Languages and New Technologies (pp. 127-140). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jèrriais: An endangered Island language in desperate need of more media visibility