34 GUERNSEY DIALECT AND PJ.AXT NAMES. 



present this evening may remember that at a meeting of our 

 Society held in December, 1903, I atlvocated the ado[)tion of 

 precisely the same method, for the y)reservation of records in 

 the Guernsey dialect. 



Every native is aware that the vernacular of each island 

 in the Channel group differs considerably in accent, idiom, 

 and pronunciation from that of the other islands. An 

 experienced ear can distinguish at once the dialect of Sark, 

 Alderney, Jersey or Guernsey. But even in so small an area 

 as our own island, local variations occur. On this point 

 Metivier observes in the introductory pages of his Dictioaaaire 

 Franco-Norinand : *' II est a remarcpier (pie la prononciition 

 du guernesiais n'est pas precisement la meme dans toutes les 

 parties de Tile. II existe une difference bien appreciable 

 entre la prononciation des habitants de ce qu'on appelle les 

 basses paroisses, situees au nord de File, et celle des habitants 

 des hautes paroisses, situees au sud. Cette difference est 

 tellement prononcee qu'elle pourrait servir de bases a des 

 questions ethnologiques. II est aussi a remarquer que des dix 

 paroisses que renferme I'ile, il n'en est pas deux qui prononcent 

 le guernesiais absolument de la meme maniere ; mais il serait 

 bien difficile de donner une idee, meme approximative, des 

 nuances qui les distinguent." 



When these words were penned, thirty-five years ago, 

 the phonograph had not been invented. If the author 

 were alive to-day, loyal Guernseyman as he was, he would 

 plead, in far more eloquent terms than I can command, for 

 the employment of this marvellous instrument, in order to 

 preserve the quaint characteristics of the language he loved 

 so well. 



Possibly in years to come far more weight will be 

 attached to local pronunciation than at present : it may be 

 that those trivial nuances which we now disregard, may help 

 in settling knotty points undreamt of by students of to-day. 

 But, be this as it may, it would certainly not be either very 

 difficult, or very costly, to procure a series of carefully chosen 

 phonographic records of all the variations of our insular 

 dialect, together with those of the other islands in the 

 Bailiwick, and preserve them for the benefit of posterity. It 

 would then, I think, be found advisable that such records 

 should be sealed up, and deposited somewhere^ to remain 

 unopened for a fixed period —say, perhaps, seventy years. 

 And I would venture to suggest that the most competent and 

 fitting body to undertake and carry out this work, would be 

 the Koyal Court of Guernsey. 



