Tuesday 27 July 2010

In Jersey, in the Island


191/365 Punch
Chèrgi preunmiéthement
par Chase Lester Photography
(Ch'est eune tournéoualipe!)
The post about being lost and discussion siez Languagehat have brought up the question of expressing location.

As is well-known, we talk about being in Jersey and in the Island (in English), just as we say en Jèrri and dans l'Île. En means "in" with lots of places: en Dgèrnésy (in Guernsey), en Sèr (in Sark), en Êcrého (in the Écréhou(s)), en Angliétèrre (in England) and en France (in France). Other places take en too: en Vînde, en Icho, en Ville....

We can use dans with the Parishes: dans Grouville, for example, although à Grouville, à La Trinneté, à Saint Ouën etc are very common. And we can say dans La Mouaie (at La Moye), dans Rôsé (at Rozel), etc.

If we're visiting our continental cousins, we're either en Nouormandie (in Normandy) or dans la Grand' Tèrre (in the Norman mainland).

And anyone who translates hors l'Île (out of the Island) by "off Island" deserves a tournéoualipe!

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