Norman language
Categories: Oïl languages | Languages of France | Normandy | Normans | Channel Islands
The Norman language is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. The name Norman-French is sometimes used to describe not only the modern Norman language, but also the administrative languages of Anglo-Norman and Law French used in England.
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Geographical range
Norman is spoken in mainland Normandy in France where it has no official status, but is classed as a regional language.
In the Channel Islands, the Norman language has developed separately, but not in isolation, to form what are recognised as Jèrriais (in Jersey), Dgèrnésiais or Guernsey French (in Guernsey) and Sercquiais (or Sarkese, in Sark). Jèrriais and Dgèrnésiais are recognised as regional languages by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British-Irish Council.
Sercquiais is in fact a descendant of the 16th century Jèrriais used by the original colonists from Jersey who settled the then uninhabited island.
The last native speakers of Auregnais, the Norman language of Alderney, died in the 20th century.
An isogloss called the ligne Joret separates the northern and southern dialects of the Norman language. There are also dialectal differences between western and eastern dialects.
Three different standardised spellings are used: continental Norman, Jèrriais, and Dgèrnésiais. These represent the different developments and particular literary histories of the varieties of Norman. Norman may therefore be described as a pluricentric language.
Today, the Norman language is strongest in the less accessible areas of the former Duchy of Normandy: the Channel Islands and the Cotentin peninsula in the West, and the Pays de Caux in the East. Ease of access from Paris and the popularity of the coastal resorts of central Normandy, such as Deauville, in the 19th century led to a significant loss of distinctive Norman culture.
The Anglo-Norman dialect of Norman was a language of administration in England following the Norman Conquest. This left a legacy of Law French in the language of the courts.
Literature
Among representative writers of the early Anglo-Norman literary tradition, the Jersey-born poet and chronicler Wace is considered as the founding figure of literature in Jèrriais.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the parler purin. La Fricassée crotestyllonnée of 1552 and La Farce des Quiolards of 1735 are notable texts.
David Ferrand (1590? - 1660) published La Muse normande, an anthology of writings in the dialect of the Pays de Caux. Pierre Genty (1706 - 1821) represents the Perche dialect. In Calvados, a text entitled L'agréable conférence de deux normands was published around 1650. In 1773 Le Coup d'oeil purin protested against the suppression of the parlement of Rouen.
Surviving vernacular literature after 1650 in Calvados is sparse, with only a few texts appearing around the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century (authors Bernardin Anquetil 1755-1826 from the Bessin, and Nicolas Lalleman 1764-1814 from Vire).
At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century a new movement arose in the Channel Islands, led by writers such as George Métivier (Guernsey, 1790-1881 - dubbed the Guernsey Burns) and writers from Jersey. The independent governments, lack of censorship and diverse social and political milieu of the Islands enabled a growth in the publication of vernacular literature - often satirical and political.
Most literature was published in the large number of competing newspapers, which also circulated in the neighbouring Cotentin peninsula, sparking a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland.
The work of Jersey poet Sir Robert Pipon Marett (1820-1884, Bailiff of Jersey) was highly regarded, being quoted in François-Victor Hugo’s La Normandie inconnue. Marett’s work also advanced the standardisation of Jèrriais orthography according to basic principles of the French writing system.
In exile in Jersey and then Guernsey, Victor Hugo took an interest in the vernacular literature, associating himself with Island writers and introducing Norman expressions to the wider French-speaking readership.
The boom in insular literature in the early 19th century encouraged production especially in La Hague and around Cherbourg, where Alfred Rossel became active.
Literary production revived in Calvados in the late 19th century, under the influence of Arthur Marye.
The typical medium for literary expression in Norman has traditionally been newspaper columns and almanacs - the topicality and satirical nature is typical of the proverbially deadpan Norman character. Poems, songs and tales often appeared in chapbook form between around 1870-1939. Some works have been collected in book form, but the ephemeral nature of the publications in which the bulk of Norman literature appears has led to comparative inaccessibility of much of the oeuvre of important writers.
However, the Norman literary tradition places high value on the written text, as opposed to other cultures (for example, neighbouring Gallo and Breton) which have a livelier tradition of oral performance and spontaneous storytelling. The song tradition is also much less evident than in neighbouring cultures.
An annual festival of the Norman language brings together enthusiasts and performers from insular and continental Normandy. The festival alternates between the islands and the mainland.
Writers
Among significant writers in Norman (and published works) of more recent times are :
- author of songs, including the Cotentin anthem Sus la mé
- author and performer of monologues, published in sheet form and later collected in volumes Les Joyeux Bocains (1917), Hélas qu'c'est drôle (1924), Eiou qui va lés trachi (1912), Bonnes gens de Normandie
- Octave Maillot (1861-1949, from Tinchebray)
- Louis Beuve (1869-1949, from Quettreville-sur-Sienne)
- poet, follower of Roussel and friend of Frédéric Mistral, co-founder of Les Bouais-Jan with Enault, manager of Le Courrier de la Manche, collection published in 1950 Œuvres choisies
- bookseller and publisher of postcards on which he printed Gallicised versions of verses in Norman - Monologues humoristiques en patois normand of which more purely Norman forms also exist, but the more French-influenced texts were considered to have wider commercial appeal.
- active in literary societies, published Les Chansons du Bessin in 1912 in postcard form for commercial sale.
- collection Au Val d'Orne (1922)
- Maurice Le Sieutre (1879-?, from Le Havre)
- poet and sculptor, who also set his own words to music; songs and poems published in Vie normande, Bulletin des parlers normands, Bulletin des parlers populaires.
- Charles Birette (1878-1941)
- Charles Le Boulanger (1880-1929)
- Alfred Noël (1883-1918)
- Gaston Lerévérend (1885-1962, from Calvados)
- collections of poetry include L'hus entrebâyei (1919), Mei-j'vo-l'dis, and L'hus bâyi (1955)
- Vûles gens, vûs métyis (1948), collections Théâtre normand (1972), Poésies et chansons (1974), Contes et récits (1978 and 1980)
- Gabriel Benoist
- Cauchois author of Thanase Pequeu stories of which three volumes were published in the 1930s
- collection Histouères de tchu nous (1968)
- Chroniques normandes (1934 and 1941)
- author of Arseine Toupétit
- Jehan Le Povremoyne (Ernest Coquin 1903-1970, from Le Havre)
- Gires Ganne (Fernand Lechanteur 1910-1971)
- author of La Normandie traditionnelle, a collection of articles on language and traditions, his poetry (Es Set vents du Cotentin, 1972) only became widely known after his death. He worked to unify the orthography of the Norman language, proposing reforms
- wrote regular pieces in Norman for the Lisieux nespaper L'Éveil de Lisieux under the title of Radotages de Maît' Jules (collected for publication 1984)
- priest and fisherman, highly influential poet in La Hague, Rocâles (1951), A Gravage (1965), Raz Bannes (1971), Graund Câté (1980), Les Côtis (1985), Ganache (1987); winner of the Prix littéraire du Cotentin in 1964
- Hippolyte Gancel (born 1920)
- Flleurs et plleurs dé men villâche (1982 and 1986), winner of the Prix littéraire du Cotentin in 1984
- René Saint-Clair (born 1923)
- poet from the Cotentin
- Marcel Dalarun (born 1922)
- poet from the Cotentin has produced poems for children and to be set to music, collection A men leisi (2004)
In 1968, André Dupont (winner of the Prix littéraire du Cotentin in 1970) published L'Épopée cotentine, an epic poem inspired by the models of Wace and other Anglo-Norman poets.
The novel Zabeth which appeared in 1969 by André Louis, winner of the Prix littéraire du Cotentin in 1971, was the first novel published in Norman.
History
When Norse invaders arrived in the then province of Neustria and settled the land which became known as Normandy, they adopted the Gallo-Romance speech of the existing populations — much as Norman rulers later adopted in England the speech of the administered people. However in both cases the elites contributed elements of their own language to the newly-enriched languages that developed in the territories.
In Normandy, the new Norman language inherited vocabulary from Norse. The influence on phonology is more disputed, although it is argued that the retention of aspirated /h/ in Norman is due to Norse influence.
Examples of Norman words of Norse origin:
| Norman | English | Norse |
|---|---|---|
| bel | court, yard | ? |
| bète | bait | beita |
| canne | can (borrowed from Norman) | kanna |
| gardîn | garden | garðr |
| gradile | (black)currant | gaddr |
| graie | prepare | greiða |
| hardelle | girl | hóra |
| hèrnais | cart (cf. harness) | ? |
| hougue | mound | haugr |
| mauve | seagull | mávar |
| mielle | dune | mellr |
| mucre | damp | mygla |
| nez | headland (cf. Sheerness, etc.) | nes |
| pouque | bag (cf. north of England "poke", proverb "pig in a poke") | poki |
| viquet | wicket (borrowed from Norman) | víkjask |
In some cases, Norse words adopted in Norman have been borrowed into French - and more recently some of the English words used in French can be traced back to Norman origins.
Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Norman language (Norman-French) spoken by the new rulers of England left traces of specifically Norman words which can be distinguished from the equivalent lexical items in French:
English < Norman = French
fashion < faichon = façon
cabbage < caboche = chou
castle < castel = château
cauldron < caudron = chaudron
causeway < cauchie = chaussée
catch < cachi = chasser
cater < acater = acheter
mug < mogue/moque = tasse
wicket < viquet = guichet
Other words such as captain, kennel, cattle and canvas introduced from Norman exemplify how Norman retained a /k/ from Latin that was not retained in French.
There is also some influence from the Breton language, perhaps via Gallo.
See also
References
- Essai de grammaire de la langue normande, UPN, 1995, ISBN 2-9509074-0-7
- V'n-ous d'aveu mei? UPN, 1984
- La Normandie dialectale, 1999, ISBN 2-8413307-6-1
- Alain Marie, Les auteurs patoisants du Calvados, 2005, ISBN 2-84706-178-9
- Roger Jean Lebarbenchon, Les Falaise de la Hague, 1991, ISBN 2-950588-0-9
als:Normannisch fr:Normand nds:Normand pl:Normand wa:Normand