Serendipity is an interesting English word which describes the quality of making fortunate discoveries by accident. We can't think of an exact equivalent for this word, but there are various ways of expressing randomness in Jèrriais:
- à bidgesse
- à la volée
- à Dgi l'adèrt
- au hâsard
The sense of "any old how" (usually disapproving) can be expressed with the following expressions:
- à la frouque
- à la grôsse ieau
- à la mode j'en tchie
- en gambe dé veste
- en gambe dé tchian
And "all over the place" can be:
In these days of music on random shuffle (
la jouêthie à Dgi l'adèrt), it's not surprising that there are serendipitous ways of exploring the riches of Jèrriais writing.
Les Pages Jèrriaises have recently undergone a bit of routine maintenance and updating (now over 4,300 pages), and the randomness gadgets have been lightly dusted down and spruced up. So how can you access some random Jèrriais?
Firstly on the front page of Les Pages Jèrriaises there are random pictures - every time the page is reloaded, a selection of pictures of Jersey landmarks, things, events and people is randomly displayed, and each picture links to a more-or-less appropriate page. For example, a picture of an animal will link to a relevant animal-related page.
There's also a random feature in the front page text: click there on the linked text
"Clyitchiz pouor eune page Jèrriaise au hâsard" and you'll be sent to a random Jèrriais page. There's a different link every time the front page is reloaded.
Alternatively, for a random Jèrriais page, there's
Eune page Jèrriaise au hâsard. That page displays a link to a random Jèrriais page every time that page is reloaded.
For more specialised randomness, there are pages that focus on particular aspects of Jèrriais.
Don't fancy a whole page of Jèrriais at random? How about a random snippet from a curated selection of interesting, unusual, and intriguing texts? Try
Du Jèrriais au hâsard - a random extracted highlight is served up (click on the text to go to the full text for context).
Want a random Bible passage or quote in Jèrriais? Here's
Des vèrsets d'la Bibl'ye en Jèrriais au hâsard (click on the text to go to the page with context).
For shorter snippets, why not try out
Un diton au hâsard? The page displays a diton at random each time the page is reloaded.
Random texts too long? Pressed for time? Play around with
Eune pathole au hâsard! A Jèrriais word with English and French equivalents served up at random each time the page is reloaded.
Finally, since most Pages Jèrriaises have a list of related links at the bottom of the page, a serendipitous journey can be embarked upon from any linked page to another and then to another, and so on.
