| Sercquiais | |
|---|---|
| Sarkese, Sark-French | |
| sercquiais,lé sèrtchais | |
| Native to | Sark |
Native speakers | 3 (2022)[1] |
Early forms | |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
| IETF | nrf-CQ[4] |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Sercquiais (French pronunciation:[sɛʁkjɛ]), also known aslé Sèrtchais,Sarkese orSark-French, is theNorman dialect of theChannel Island ofSark (Bailiwick of Guernsey).
Sercquiais is a descendant of the 16th centuryJèrriais used by the original colonists;[5] 40 families, mostly fromSaint Ouen,Jersey[1], who settled the then uninhabited island, although influenced in the interim byGuernésiais (the dialect ofGuernsey). It is also closely related to the now-extinctAuregnais (Alderney) dialect, as well as to Continental Norman. It is still spoken by older inhabitants of the island and most of the local placenames are in Sercquiais.
In former times, there may have been two subdialects of Sercquiais, but today the dialect is relatively homogeneous.[5] Thephonology of the language retains features lost in Jèrriais since the 16th century.
Relatively little Sercquiais has been transcribed, and as there is no widely accepted form, it has received a certain amount of stigma as a result. A notable ruler ofSark,Sibyl Hathaway, who was a speaker herself, proclaimed that it could "never be written down", and this perception has continued in the years since.
The earliest published text in Sercquiais so far identified is theParable of the Sower (Parabol du smeaux) from theGospel of Matthew. PrinceLouis Lucien Bonaparte, linguist, visited the Channel Islands in September 1862 in order to transcribe samples of the insular language varieties, which he subsequently published in 1863:
Which in theNIV is translated as:
As of 2022, Sercquiais had three native speakers.[6] The Czech linguistMartin Neudörfl has been trying to preserve the language by teaching it to children.[6][7] He has also conducted many tests, and created hundreds of hours of recordings, so that audio of pronunciation and rhythm — how the language sounds — is preserved.[6] Since 2019, the language has been taught in schools.[6]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar/ uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | kʲ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | ɡʲ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ||
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ʁ | ||
| Rhotic | r | |||||
| Lateral | l | ʎ | ||||
| Approximant | plain | j | ||||
| labial | ɥ | w | ||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sercquiais does not have thevoiced dental fricative which is such a distinctive characteristic ofSt. Ouen in Jersey where most of the colonists came from.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | English | French |
|---|---|---|---|
| lyer | liéthe | to read | lire |
| kuoradj | couothage | courage | courage |
| fere | féther | to iron | repasser (ferrer: to clad in iron) |
Palatalisation ofvelars/k/ and/ɡ/ (seeJoret line) is less fully developed in Sercquiais than inJèrriais. Palatalisation in Jèrriais of/k/ to[tʃ] and/ɡ/ to[dʒ] has the equivalent in Sercquiais of/kj/ and/ɡj/. For example,hiccup ishitchet in Jèrriais andhekyet in Sercquiais;war is respectivelydgèrre andgyer.
Palatalisation of/tj/ in Jèrriais leads to[tʃ], but in Sercquiais/t/ is generally retained:profession, trade in Sercquiais ismeeti, whereas Jèrriais has palatalised tomêtchi.
[dʒ] is retained in Sercquiais where Jèrriais has reduced to[ʒ], as into eat:mãdji (Sercquiais) –mangi (Jèrriais).
Final consonants of masculine nouns in the singular are in free variation with null in all positions except inliaison. Final consonants are usually pronounced at ends of phrases. Final consonants are always lost in plural forms of masculine nouns. Acat may therefore bekat orka in Sercquiais, butcats arekaa. For comparison, Jèrriaiscat is usually pronounced/ka/, and the plural has the long vowel as in Sercquiais. It can also therefore be seen that length isphonemic and may denote plurality.
Sercquiais has also retained final consonants that have been entirely lost in Jèrriais, such as final/t/ inpret (meadow –pré in Jèrriais as in French).
Metathesis of/r/ is uncommon in Sercquiais, and in Jèrriais, by comparison with Guernésiais.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | Guernésiais | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| krwee | crouaix | kérouaïe | cross |
| mekrëdi | Mêcrédi | méquerdi | Wednesday |
The palatalised l, which in Jèrriais has been generally palatalised to/j/ in initial position and following a consonant, is maintained in Sercquiais.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais (li representing/j/) | English |
|---|---|---|
| blyakyĩ | bliatchîn | shoe polish (blacking) |
| klyüt | cliu | patch |
| plyechi | pliaichi | to place |
| lyef | lief | roof |
Gemination occurs regularly in verb conjugations andgerunds, as in Jèrriais but in distinction to Guernésiais.
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | Guernésiais | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| machunnii | machonn'nie | machounn'rie | masonry |
| dje dmãdde | jé d'mand'dai | je d'mànd'rai | I'll ask |
However, Sercquiais does not geminate palatal fricatives, unlike Jèrriais:
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais | English |
|---|---|---|
| brachii | brach'chie | brewery |
| brachii | brachie | armful |
| mãdji | mangi | to eat |
| mãdji | mang'gie | eating |
In the second half of the 19th century the language changed considerably. We can observe this in the 40idiolects that can be heard today. An important part of the language is the usage ofdiphthongs, which affects the pronunciation. It is unclear how words are pronounced because there are many possible ways to pronounce them depending on where they are in the phrase. It is important to codify the language since not even the native speakers follow all the rules.[9]
The St. Ouennais origins of Sercquiais can be seen in the 2nd and 3rd person plural forms of thepreterite. Sercquiais uses an ending-dr which is typical of the St. Ouennais dialect of Jèrriais, but generally not used elsewhere in Jersey (nor nowadays by younger speakers in St. Ouen).
| Sercquiais | Jèrriais (St. Ouennais) | standard Jèrriais | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| i vuliidr | i' voulîdrent | i' voulîtent | they wanted |
| uu paaliidr | ou pâlîdres | ou pâlîtes | you spoke |
| i füüdr | i' fûdrent | i' fûtent | they were |
| uu prẽẽdr | ou prîndres | ou prîntes | you took |
Type: language Subtag: nrf Description: Jèrriais Description: Guernésiais Description: Sercquiais Added: 2015-02-12 / Type: region Subtag: CQ Description: Sark Added: 2023-02-07