Channel Island English

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Channel Island English
RegionChannel Islands
EthnicityChannel Islanders
Dialects
  • Alderney
  • Guernsey
  • Jersey
Latin (English alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
GlottologNoneCategory:Languages without Glottolog code
Category:Language articles without speaker estimateCategory:Dialects of languages with ISO 639-3 code

Channel Island English refers to Alderney English, Guernsey English, and Jersey English and similar dialects of English found in the other Channel Islands.

Variations

Alderney English

Alderney English is the variety of English spoken by some residents of Alderney. It is questionable whether this is a separate dialect: due to Alderney's small size and high rate of immigration and emigration, particularly to/from nearby Guernsey and the UK, a high proportion of the population speaks the English of their place of origin, while many people who have been educated in Guernsey in their youth have acquired a way of speaking that is close to Guernsey English.Category:All articles with unsourced statementsCategory:Articles with unsourced statements from August 2025[citation needed]

Thus Alderney English currently corresponds quite closely to standard English, with a tendency towards mild archaism due to the population demographic in which the over-50s are the largest group.Category:All articles with unsourced statementsCategory:Articles with unsourced statements from August 2025[citation needed]

Its distinguishing feature is a small but significant number of loan words from Guernésiais (the variety of Norman spoken on the neighbouring island of Guernsey), Legal French (which was the language of legislation before the Second World War) and a very much smaller number of words that have come down from Auregnais (now a dead language, it is no longer certain whether there are any rememberers still alive).Category:All articles with unsourced statementsCategory:Articles with unsourced statements from August 2025[citation needed]

An example of a word used in Alderney that appears neither in standard English nor in Guernsey English is "Impôt" (meaning 'rubbish tip/recycling centre' and not 'tax/imposition' as elsewhere). In addition there is an idiosyncratic pronunciation of certain local surnames, "Dupont" as French pronunciation: [dipõ]Category:Pages with French IPA and "Simon" as [symõ]Category:Pages with plain IPA, rather than the standard Parisian pronunciation. Any remainder of the historic influence of Auregnais on Alderney English is very hard to discern, since Guernésiais and Auregnais differed only slightly.

Guernsey English

Guernsey English is the dialect of English spoken in Guernsey, distinguished by having considerable influence from Guernésiais, the variety of Norman indigenous to Guernsey.

The dialect contains terms such as buncho (from Dgèrnésiais: bond d'tchu) for the English "somersault"; "it picks" instead of "it stings", from the Guernsey equivalent of the French "ça pique"; "chirry" for "goodbye"; and "Budlo Night" instead of Bonfire Night on 5 November.

Often Guernsey people will add the word "Eh" to the end of a sentence, inferring a general agreement that something is held to be true or correct. It can also be used in the context of asking a question or seeking reassurance that what was said is correct if it is believed to be a contentious issue.

Jersey English

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Jersey English is a dialect of English spoken in Jersey, Channel Islands, the accent of which has been likened to that of South African English.[1] It is influenced by the use of Jèrriais and Jersey Legal French.

Jersey English has imported a number of Jersey Legal French titles and terminology. Many of these, in turn, derive from Jèrriais. The following are examples likely to be encountered in daily life and in news reports in Jersey:

  • rapporteur
  • en défaut (in default, i.e. late for a meeting)[2]
  • en désastre
  • au greffe
  • greffier (clerk-of-Court or the States)
  • bâtonnier (lawyer in charge of Bar, particularly for legal aid)
  • mandataire
  • autorisé (returning officer at elections, or other functions)
  • projet (parliamentary bill)
  • vraic
  • côtil
  • temps passé (time past)
  • vin d'honneur (municipal or official reception)
  • centenier
  • vingtenier
  • chef de police (senior centenier)
  • branchage (pronounced in English as the Jèrriais cognate even though spelt in the French manner - trimming hedges and verges on property border; also used jocularly for a haircut)
  • seigneur (feudal lord of the manor)

Phonology

Vowels

Channel Islands English vowels[3]
Lexical setChannel Islands EnglishExamples
KIT[i ~ ï]Category:Pages with plain IPAbid, pit
DRESS ~ ɛ̈]Category:Pages with plain IPAbed, pet
TRAP[æ]Category:Pages with plain IPAbad, pat
LOT[ɒ~ɒ̈]Category:Pages with plain IPAcot, bother, off
CLOTH
STRUT[ɔ~ʌ]Category:Pages with plain IPAbud, putt
FOOT[ʊ]Category:Pages with plain IPAgood, foot, put
BATH[ɑː~ɑ̟ː]Category:Pages with plain IPAgrass, father, farm
PALM
START
NURSE[ɜː~əː]Category:Pages with plain IPAbird, herd, furry
FLEECE[iː~ɪi]Category:Pages with plain IPAbead, peat
FACE[eɪ~e̞ɪ]Category:Pages with plain IPAbay, hey, fate
THOUGHT[ɔː~oː]Category:Pages with plain IPAcaught, born, more
NORTH
FORCE
GOAT[ɔʊ~əʊ]Category:Pages with plain IPAroad, stone, toe
GOOSE[uː~ʉː]Category:Pages with plain IPAbooed, food
PRICE[ɒɪ~ɑɪ~ʌɪ]Category:Pages with plain IPAbuy, write
CHOICE[ɔɪ~oɪ]Category:Pages with plain IPAboy, voice
MOUTH[aʊ]Category:Pages with plain IPA
how, mouse
NEAR[ɪə~iə]Category:Pages with plain IPAbeer, fear
SQUARE[ɛə~ɛː]Category:Pages with plain IPAbear, hair
CURE[ʊə]Category:Pages with plain IPAfury, pure, rural
Reduced vowels
LETTER[ə~œ]Category:Pages with plain IPArunner, butter
COMMA[ə]Category:Pages with plain IPARosa, cuppa

Consonants

Morphosyntax

"I love Guernsey, me" - this slogan on a cup demonstrates the typical use of the emphatic pronoun
  • The Norman Influence is more clearly demonstrable in Channel Island English morphosyntax than in its phonology.

Examples of structures used by people in the Channel Islands are:

  • “There's ten years I am a farmer” for “I've been a farmer for ten years.”
  • “Me, I don't want to go” or “I don't want to go, me.”
  • “That's the one, eh?” Eh for “isn't it?”, “aren't they?”, “don't you think?”, or else.
  • “There's two castles there” for “There are two castles there.”
  • “... and the teacher, she was angry, eh.” (use of emphatic personal pronoun.)

See also

References

  1. 'Guernsey Accent', Guernsey Press and Star, April 6, 2015 Archived April 11, 2015, at the Wayback MachineCategory:Webarchive template wayback links
  2. Members of the States, States of Jersey
  3. Ramisch, Heinrich (2004). Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). A Handbook of Varieties of English Volume 1: Phonology. De Gruyter. p. 209. ISBN 3-11-017532-0.

Further reading

Category:English-language dialects Category:Culture of Guernsey Category:Culture of Jersey Category:Languages of the Channel Islands
Category:All articles needing additional references Category:All articles to be expanded Category:All articles with unsourced statements Category:Articles needing additional references from August 2025 Category:Articles to be expanded from October 2011 Category:Articles with short description Category:Articles with unsourced statements from August 2025 Category:Culture of Guernsey Category:Culture of Jersey Category:Dialects of languages with ISO 639-3 code Category:English-language dialects Category:Language articles without speaker estimate Category:Languages of the Channel Islands Category:Languages without Glottolog code Category:Pages with French IPA Category:Pages with plain IPA Category:Short description is different from Wikidata Category:Webarchive template wayback links