OUK INSULAR DIALECT. 191 



of the Town Parish. Anyone reading his works must 

 study his system first, while anyone reading MM. Lenfestey's 

 or Guilbert's writings will find them more easy, as they are 

 more free from accents and the words are composed of sounds 

 known to French scholars, while they retain the orthoepy of 

 the locality. 



Our Norman dialect, like English, is a compound of 

 several languages, but differs from the latter inasmuch as it 

 has undergone but little change for 1,000 years, and anyone 

 understanding and reading it now can understand Wace 

 Benoit or Froissart after a little study. 



Frequently we are accused of using English words when 

 conversing, and this elicits the ridicule of our hearers. 



I do not hesitate to admit that we use many words which 

 were unknown 800 years ago, for necessity, invention and 

 science having thrust upon us new words, we, like every other 

 nation or community, have been compelled to adopt them. 



Take either an English or a French dictionary and note 

 the hundreds of words that are there taken from other languages 

 without change in their orthography, yet these are called, as 

 the case may be, English or French. Are not we Normans 

 justified in doing the same ! 



The adoption of these new words into our dialect or 

 patois shows that the language is not dead, but is a living 

 tongue able to assimilate new terms necessary for expressing 

 new ideas. 



Many of its words have been and are being introduced 

 into French dictionaries. 



The Norman language often appears harsh and rude 

 when spoken argumentatively or hurriedly, and to a stranger 

 it presents a peculiar jumble of words, but it wears a very 

 different aspect when Pierre et Marie sont a leu coin (Patre a 

 badina'ir, or when fond parents are calling for their offspring 

 in such words as ma Charlotte, ma poulette, ma chiere petite, or 

 mon p tit canard de soie, men petit chier. 



Very few islanders under thirty years of age, unless from 

 the interior, can speak the ancient dialect or patois, for from 

 their daily intercourse with English people, with whom they 

 must converse for business purposes, they find it necessary to 

 acquire English. 



As a patriot who has endeavoured to trace the history of 

 his native tongue, and who regrets that it, with our constitu- 

 tion, is being so rudely dealt with by the thoughtless, uncul- 

 tured and unpatriotic, may I impress upon you the fact that 

 it is not a corrupt or bad form of French, but the relic of an 



