Guernsey expressions and words
30th October 2021
"From a small dictionary of the late Revd M Bernel, Rector of St Sauveur."
Guernsey French
Guernsey French lesson No. XII
9th June 2021
Le verbe 'finir', to finish. Clothes.
Guernsey patois lesson No. XIII
14th May 2021
Guernsey Press 1950. The verb mettre = to put. Vocabulary: buildings and rooms. Lessons by Walter Brehaut of Le Planel, Torteval.
Guernsey patois lesson no. XIV: Le Meuble=the furniture
13th May 2021
Guernsey Press, 1950. Lessons by Walter Brehaut of Le Planel, Torteval.
Guernsey Patois lesson
29th April 2021
24 November 1949.This is the first of a series of lessons on Guernsey Patois by Walter Brehaut.
Patois of nearly 80 years ago
29th April 2021
11 January 1950.By 'Guernesiais'. This newspaper article predates the publication of Marie de Garis' Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernesiais.
Le bouan tique
12th April 2017
A lucky ticket, From the Gazette de Guernesey, 6 April 1822. A parody of a piece of puff for the Guernsey Lottery, the poem may be the work of Dr James Tupper - 'Monsieur Toupar' - who is known to have written light-hearted poems in Guernsey French.
A letter from Quebec, 1817
25th August 2016
'Report from the missions: a letter from Monsieur de Putron, to the Editor. Quebec, January 1, 1817.' From the Magasin Méthodiste, 1818, p. 91, addressed to Jean de Queteville, Methodist pioneer and founder and editor of the magazine. Guernsey began very early to export French-speaking missionaries all over the world; poor Jean de Putron, however, felt let down by his Guernsey accent and inferior French, as spoken in Guernsey.
Guernsey patois and its preservation, 1905
7th July 2016
The introduction to 'The Guernsey dialect and its plant names,' by E D Marquand, Associate of the Linnean Society of London, and Membre Correspondant de la Société des Sciences Naturelles et Mathématiques de Cherbourg. 'The old Norman language which is still spoken in the Channel Islands deserves more study than it has yet received, because in all its main features it is the same that was used by the cultured classes of England as far back as eight centuries ago.' From the Transactions of the Guernsey Society of Natural History and Local Research, V (1905-1908), pp. 32 ff. The illustration is of the Haye du Puits, Castel, by Celia Montgomery, c. 1832.
The Tchico
7th October 2015
A translation of George Métivier's dictionary entry for Guernsey's dread black dog, or Tchîco, p. 461. [By Dinah Bott]