The Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey are not part of the UK, but are closely associated with it, being British Crown Dependencies.
For the insular forms of English, see Manx English (Anglo-Manx), Guernsey English and Jersey English. Forms of French are, or have been, used as an official language in the Channel Islands, e.g. Jersey Legal French.
The indigenous languages of the Crown dependencies are recognised as regional languages by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British-Irish Council.
Guernsey
Guernésiais, a form of French spoken on Guernsey, is related to Norman, and Oïl languages. 14% of the population claim some understanding of the language.
There is intercomprehension (with some difficulty) with Jèrriais-speakers from Jersey and Norman-speakers from mainland Normandy. Guernésiais most closely resembles the Norman dialect of La Hague in the Cotentin Peninsula (Cotentinais). The creation of a Guernsey Language Commission was announced on 7 February 2013[78] as an initiative by government to preserve the linguistic culture. The Commission has operated since Liberation Day, 9 May 2013.
Jersey
Jèrriais, a form of French spoken on Jersey, is related to Norman, Oïl) languages.
Although Jèrriais is now the first language of a very small minority, until the 19th century it was the everyday language of the majority of the population, and even until the Second World War up to half the population could communicate in the language. The use of Jèrriais is also to be noted during the German occupation of the Channel Islands during the Second World War; the local population used Jèrriais among themselves as a language neither the occupying Germans, nor their French interpreters, could understand. However, the social and economic upheaval of the War meant that use of English increased dramatically after the Liberation. It is considered that the last monolingual adult speakers probably died in the 1950s, although monolingual speaking children were being received into schools in St. Ouen as late as the late 1970s.
The Sercquiais dialect of Sark is descended from Jèrriais, but is not recognised under this framework and the last native speaker died in 2004.[ citation needed ] Auregnais, the Norman dialect of Alderney, is now extinct.
Isle of Man
The Manx began to diverge from Early Modern Irish in around the 13th century and from Scottish Gaelic in the 15th. The language sharply declined during the 19th century and was supplanted by English. The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on behalf of the Manx government.
Although only a small minority of the Isle of Man's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it. Manx is widely considered to be an important part of the island's culture and heritage. Although the last surviving native speaker of the Manx language, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, the language has never fallen completely out of use. Manx has been the subject of language revival efforts, so that despite the small number of speakers, Manx has become more visible on the island, with increased signage, radio broadcasts and a bi-lingual Primary School. The revival of Manx has been aided by the fact that the language was well recorded; for example, the Bible was translated into Manx, and audio recordings were made of native speakers. In the 2011 census, 1,823 out of 80,398, or 2.27% of the population, claimed to have knowledge of Manx.[79] This is an increase of 134 people from the 2001 census.[80]
|
|
|
Extinct British languages
Norn
Main article: Norn language
A North Germanic once spoken in Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands & Caithness. The last reports of Norn speakers are claimed to be from the 19th century, but it is more likely that the language was dying out in the late 18th century.[81] The isolated islands of Foula and Unst are variously claimed as the last refuges of the language in Shetland, where there were people "who could repeat sentences in Norn, probably passages from folk songs or poems, as late as 1893.[82] Walter Sutherland from Skaw in Unst, who died about 1850, has been cited as the last native speaker of the Norn language. However, fragments of vocabulary survived the death of the main language and remain to this day, mainly in place-names and terms referring to plants, animals, weather, mood, and fishing vocabulary.
Pictish
Main article: Pictish language
Pictish was probably a Brittonic language, or dialect, spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland in the Early Middle Ages, which became extinct c.900 AD. There is virtually no direct attestation of Pictish, short of a limited number of geographical and personal names found on monuments and the contemporary records in the area controlled by the Kingdom of the Picts. Such evidence, however, points to the language being closely related to the Brittonic language spoken prior to Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now southern Scotland, England and Wales. A minority view held by a few scholars claims that Pictish was at least partially non-Indo-European or that a non-Indo-European and Brittonic language coexisted.
Cumbric
Main article: Cumbric
Cumbric' was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" in what is now Northern England and southern Lowland Scotland.[83] It was closely related to Old Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. Place name evidence suggests Cumbric speakers may have carried it into other parts of northern England as migrants from its core area further north.[84] It may also have been spoken as far south as Pendle and the Yorkshire Dales. Most linguists think that it became extinct in the 12th century, after the incorporation of the semi-independent Kingdom of Strathclyde into the Kingdom of Scotland.
