The First and The Last

Phil Bridgieaux a bliodgi:

“I have always spoken it from the cradle,” she says. “When I first started speaking, it was in Jèrriais, and my maternal grandfather — who was a great speaker — he was a Renouf, and he spoke nothing else but Jèrriais all his life. He wasn’t interested in English. Even though he was a good churchman, and went and read lessons at church, when he was speaking to anyone he always spoke in Jèrriais. My father, my grandfather, my mother and my grandmother, they were all Jèrriais people. Therefore we spoke Jèrriais all the time. My father-in-law spoke very good Jèrriais, but it was Jèrriais from La Rocque. And it wasn’t the same as the Jèrriais that we used to speak at St. John’s.”