Excerpt and photo from languagemagazine.com
On the island of Guernsey in the English Channel, UK the language commission chair has announced that the native language of the island should be taught in schools.
Sir Richard Collas, chair of the Guernsey Language Commission said Guernesiais (also known as Dgèrnésiais or Guernsey French) is “an integral part of our history and culture”
A form of Norman French, the language was commonly used by islanders from the Norman conquest, right up until its decline in the 1800s.
Sir Richard said “One can’t understand so much of our past without understanding our Norman origins and so it is something that I think should be an essential part of the school curriculum along with other local subjects.”
In 2020, a grant of £300,000 was agreed for the purpose of revitalizing Guernesiais. At that time, the language had an estimated number of native speakers between 50 and 200, down from more than 1,800 in the April 2001 census.