Reviving Sark Norman ****************************************************************************************** * Sark Norman: A Language Spoken by Only Four People Worldwide ****************************************************************************************** The Channel Islands are located in the English Channel and what is special about them is t retained their original Norman language. The island of Sark has one of the islands’ four v the language, Sark Norman or Sarkese, which is still spoken by just four people. Martin Ne student from the town of Český Krumlov, has embarked on documenting this exotic language a it. He even plans to teach the language in a local elementary school. Do you remember when you first heard about the island of Sark? I was 16 and at the time I was studying at a middle school in England. My history teacher Channel Islands and the language – which after the Norman conquest of England influenced t development of English. Since even at that time I could speak English and French, I was at idea of studying Norman. I went to university with the aim of specialising in this but my covered a different theme about spoken French. My thesis offered me the opportunity. I sen to the Channel Islands administrations saying that I would like to take part in the docume revitalisation of Norman. The first to reply the next day was the island of Sark, saying t very interested in my project (Editor’s note: the other islands are Guernsey, Jersey, and was settled. The island of Sark was in the biggest need for the language to be revitalised, having the people speaking the original Norman out of all the islands… That’s apart from Alderney, where the fourth local version of Norman – Auregnais – died ou half of the 19th century. Out of the approximately 400 permanent residents of Sark, four n now speak Sark Norman, plus myself. Besides these, there are many so-called “semi speakers speakers”, who can understand and can grasp most of what’s being talked about. Then there met who can say at least a few words or phrases. Practically everyone, though, is able to What was involved in documenting Sark Norman? Probably the most basic problem for me was coming to terms with the fact that I was a sort was deciding how a word should normally be pronounced. French today has a big influence on of the native speakers due to the period when the language was intensively propagated. But Sark Norman the words sounded different. And so it fell to me whether I codified the pronu according to the latest variation or opted for the second possibility of how the word woul was no French influence. I have not personally fully resolved the question for myself. You can’t speak Sark Norman or just understand it, are more attracted to the old pronunciation speakers understandably want to retain the pronunciation they are used to. It has been nec their engagement in my research, to respect their wishes. But in the future both possibili taken into consideration. Where did you yourself learn Norman? I had the basics from specialist literature and eventually taught myself on the island dur consultations. If you have been taught languages and have a feeling for foreign languages to the problems of spoken language, then it’s not too difficult. Looking back, it helped a spent a lot of time on historical spoken French. French and Sark Norman belong to the same though Sark Norman has retained a lot more of what French has gradually lost over the last particularly with regards to pronunciation. Did you understand the people you consulted without any problems? Yes. It was important to know how to work with people and to empathise with them. And the was being able to approach this foreign community through an intermediary who was respecte community. The people I talked to on Sark were elderly people. I spoke to them initially i time I did not have that much information and was pleased to get anything that they could second occasion, in 2018, I had to go into more detail and discuss with them, for example, and declension of words. They eventually told me everything I needed to know. But the proc exhausting for them, given their advanced years. What is life like on the island? Originally, they were mostly fishermen and farmers. After the Second World War many new in from England and there was a reorientation towards tourism, which is now the biggest mains Central European perspective, they earn quite a lot of money. But the tourist season on Sa a few months and the cost of living is very high. The islanders have to survive for the wh earnings from the summer tourist season and the period when they can catch lobsters. In su they cannot save much at all. To go into details, my three-week stay there cost around 70‚ and I certainly was not a big spender. In this respect, I am very grateful to Charles Univ agency because without support I would not have been able to continue with my research. Were the local people surprised when a Czech came along and spoke Sark Norman better than them? I was very fortunate in the fact that everybody was very helpful towards me. However, in t were suspicious. They were not certain that the time they gave me would amount to anything with previous research carried out. The people I consulted were willing to pass on part of heritage primarily because they believed in trying to save their native language that was by a handful of people. And that’s the reason you decided to teach Sark Norman at a local elementary school? Exactly. I’d like to prepare the structure of the lessons this year and then begin teachin by Skype. It’s likely to be a few hours a week. The goal is for Sark Norman to become the after English that’s taught, and for it then to become the gateway to French. A big plus i the children but also their families and school managers are in favour. During your second stay on the island you gave an hour-long lesson. How did the children r I was very nervous because I was aware that Sark Norman had last been heard in a school en start of the 1970s. Back then, the children rehearsed a piece for the theatre in Sark Norm that now I would be happy at the end of the hour if they could just say “Good Day”. But I astounded by them because after a while they were able to perfectly pronounce and repeat e said. One young girl was eventually able to put together four sentences on her own, one of “Can you pass me a piece of bread?” which she remembered from her grandfather because that asked her as part of their daily routine. Weren’t the adults sad that it took a Czech student to come and teach their children the l ancestors? They were mainly disappointed that their parents had not taught them Sark Norman. At first remaining speakers would not admit it but later when I spoke to them at length I started t what had happened. It was a classic situation that has occurred in similar circumstances e described in books: when the children started to go to school they were laughed at by the they did not know normal English and had a “bad accent”. After that experience they just s their children to spare them embarrassment. Fortunately, they still spoke Norman with the and their own age group so that the following generation at least heard it. These people a 50s and 60s – the “half speakers”. You have succeeded in the Norman language on Sark and as part of your Doctoral thesis you Sark Norman grammar. What comes next? Thanks to the university grant I am planning two additional research visits so that I will data to publish a normative-grammar and from which modern exercise books and dictionaries Before that, of course, the codification of written Sark Norman should be completed, which biggest remaining tasks. I have uncovered one surprising connection between Sark Norman an Every one of the Channel Islands has a nickname for its inhabitants. For Jersey, it’s the Guernsey the donkeys, and for Alderney the cows. For Sark it was originally the ravens – a birds that robbed grain from the cultivated fields. But after the war, the fields were fal by rabbits, which is the new nickname. I come from Český Krumlov and we also had our own n would be jackdaws in English – but that has disappeared now. And we also had our own origi Šumava Bavarian. I know of three people who are able to speak it fluently. I would also li the language of my own ancestors that is disappearing practically in front of my nose. Tha business for me. Martin Neudörfl was born in 1991 in Český Krumlov. Until the age of 18 he divided his time currently a postgraduate student at the Department of Romance Studies. His research has fo education society, La Société Serquaise, and is now a joint manager of its language sectio