Can music save a language from extinction?

Jersey and Jèrriais Feature on Major Educational YouTube Channel by Simon Clark

Jersey and Jèrriais Feature on Major Educational YouTube Channel by Simon Clark

One of the largest and most well-known educational YouTube channels - that of Dr. Simon Clark - is launching a new video today which takes Jersey, and the language of Jèrriais as its focus.

Dr. Clark is a full-time professional YouTuber and his channel currently has over 250,000 subscribers, with videos gaining over 20 million views so far. His work has featured in the national and international press, with New Scientist magazine rating the channel as number one for educational science content. Until now most of the videos have either been about Dr. Clark's journey to achieving his PhD, or about the subject of his doctorate - climate science.

Today marks the beginning of a new series of videos looking at the PhD research of various academics, and Dr. Clark has begun with the work of Jersey musician and Jèrriais activist Kit Ashton.

Kit says:

"I met Simon a while back through a mutual friend and we soon got talking about YouTube, as I've just started my own channel. When the idea of collaborating came up of course I jumped at the chance! It was a real blast making this video, and I'm so grateful to him for featuring our beautiful island and language."

Kit Ashton is a PhD Candidate at Goldsmiths College, London, and his doctoral research is investigating the ways in which music can help revitalise endangered languages like Jèrriais. In the video (which will be live at noon), Dr. Clark visits Jersey, attends a Jèrriais session in a pub, and follows Kit's band Badlabecques as they perform at Vale Earth Fair in Guernsey.

Dr. Clark says:

"It was a real privilege to showcase the language and culture of Jèrriais in this new series. I have long loved Jersey and had a fantastic time learning more about the language, and even attempting to speak some myself! I am no linguist and even I was able to have a basic conversation after a pub session - it's a fascinating language that is worth celebrating."

The making of the video was supported by ArtHouse Jersey and CHASE (the Consortium of the Humanities and the Arts South-east England).

La Séthée d'Burns - Burns Night

Bouanne Séthée d'Burns ès anmîns Êcôssais!
Happy Burns Night to our Scottish friends!

Né v'chîn d's articl'yes et des poésies:
Here are some articles and poems:

• L'înspithâtion du haggis à Burns? - Inspired by Burns' haggis?
• Bouanne Séthée d'Burns! - Happy Burns Night!
• Adréchie au Hadgîn - Address to a Haggis (Robert Burns)
• Eune Raide Rouoge Rose - A Red, Red Rose
• Tanme Lé Tchauteux - Tam o' Shanter
• Man soudard, man hardé - My soger laddie
• Jé n'sis dgéthe heûthi, mé - Up in the Morning Early
• Robert Burns: Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon

tunmb'ser - to tip up

tunmb'ser

Présent



j'tunmb'se

tu tunmb'se

i' tunmb'se

ou tunmb'se

j'tunmb'sons

ou tunmb'sez

i' tunmb'sent



Prétérite



j'tunmb'sis

tu tunmb'sis

i' tunmb'sit

ou tunmb'sit

j'tunmb'sînmes

ou tunmb'sîtes / ou tunmb'sîdres

i' tunmb'sîtent / i' tunmb'sîdrent

British Library requests Badlabecques albums

British Library Requests Badlabecques Albums

for National Collection

Jèrriais-singing pop-folk band Badlabecques have donated two albums that were requested for inclusion in the British Library Sound Archive (formerly the National Sound Archive).

The British Library in London are now cataloguing the first two studio albums from Badlabecques (‘Hèque Badlabecques!’ and ‘Cocolîncheux!’), which will become a permanent part of the nation’s audio and cultural archive in the Sound & Moving Image collection. Lead singer Kit Ashton says:

“I was really excited to receive an email from James Tugwell, the British Library’s Record Label Liason, asking to include our music in the collection. It’s great that the value of our local heritage is being recognised beyond Jersey, and it’s a real honour and privilege that our music would be seen as a worthwhile contribution.”

The Head Of Helier

Tommy Girard a bliodgi:

"...there is one other aspect that sets The Head Of Helier apart from any other heavy music I’ve heard from any of the Channel Islands. If some of the song titles didn’t make it obvious enough it really hits home during La Tueûthie as the lyrics suddenly switch from English to Jersey’s own Norman French language, Jèrriais. Other bands have dabbled with this before, notably pop-folksters Badlabecques, but to hear it used so confidently and without fanfare in this style is something else entirely and elevates the songs tremendously."

Poems from the Edge of Extinction

An anthology of poetry in endangered languages "Poems from the Edge of Extinction" has recently been published. Since the book includes a poem by one of our Jèrriais poets, we're collaborating with the Jersey Library on an event celebrating Jèrriais and some of the other languages in the book. The event is planned for 24th January 2020 at 6pm and we're inviting speakers of other languages living in Jersey to join us in reading poems from the book. Speakers willing to read a poem wouldn't have to be fluent, just confident enough to represent their language community whether it be a language from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Australasia or Europe.

Here is a list of languages represented in the book and for which we're looking for potential readers (we already have Jèrriais, Cornish, Welsh & Irish)

• Ahtna
• Ainu
• Alsatian
• Assyrian
• Basque
• Bathari
• Belarusian
• Breton
• Bubi
• Chamorro
• Chimiini
• Faroese
• Gen
• Gondi
• Gorwaa
• Hawaiian
• Hobyot
• Inuktitut
• Iwaidja
• Kaike
• Krahô
• Kristang
• Livonian
• Manx
• Maori
• Mapudungun
• Mvskoke
• Occitan
• Pashto
• Patuá
• Rohingya
• Rotuman
• Saami
• Saqwaré
• Sardinian
• Scots
• Scottish Gaelic
• Shetlandic
• Shughni
• Soqotri
• Tamajaght
• Torwali
• Veps
• Western Armenian
• Yiddish
• Zoque