Linguist preserves ancient British dialect with help of last three native speakers
One of Britain’s oldest languages has been recorded for posterity by a Czech linguist who has spent eight years working with its last three native speakers.
Sarkese is the Norman dialect of Sark, a Channel Island roughly 3.5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide with a population of around 500, located close to the coast of Normandy, France.
But with just three native speakers remaining – Margaret Toms and Joyce Southern, both in their 80s, and 95-year-old Esther Perrée – it seemed inevitable that the Gallo-Romance language would soon be forgotten.
That was until Martin Neudörfl, a Czech linguist who first heard of the island while studying in the UK, decided to make it his mission to preserve Sarkese – also referred to as “patois” locally – for future generations.
He was invited to the island in 2016 after getting in touch with the late Dr Richard Axton MBE, the former leader of La Société Sercquaise, which works to preserve and enhance Sark’s natural environment and cultural heritage.
Mr Neudörfl was soon persuaded to undertake a project to protect the language, working with the native speakers to document and codify Sarkese.
“The main thing I did was language documentation, so I spent hours and hours with native speakers giving them questions and tests – it was very difficult and demanding but they prevailed,” he said.
“We just continued and have been doing so now for the past eight years.”
‘Hundreds of hours of audio’
Mr Neudörfl’s time and effort has produced an archive of “hundreds of hours” of audio recordings of the language, which could be used to revive the language long after the remaining native speakers are gone.
He said it was “all thanks” to the native speakers that the dialect has been saved. “They invested hundreds of hours or their time and energy despite their age,” he said.
Sarkese is an archaic variety of the Norman language that arrived in 1565, brought by settlers from nearby Jersey.
Almost all Sark locals speak English, but this is a relatively recent development. At the end of the 18th century, it was reported that there was not a single English-speaking family on the island.
Mr Neudörfl began working with the island’s only school in 2019 to teach children Sarkese, while he also provides weekly online classes for adults.
He is teaching students a song in the native language, some basic phrases, and they are also rehearsing a play in the language.
“It’s a mixture of English and Sarkese as it would be too difficult for the young children to do it completely through Sarkese,” said Mr Neudörfl.
However, part of the problem with trying to teach the language to younger generations is that children on the Isle of Sark leave at 13 to go to school in Guernsey or on the UK mainland.
“When they come back they tend to have lost their touch with the language,” Mr Neudörfl explained.
‘A vessel for any culture’
The linguist now visits the island once or twice a year for a month at a time, continuing to work with the native speakers and to teach his classes at the primary school.
Mr Neudörfl said it is important for communities to retain their native language so as not to lose their connection with their ancestors.
“A language is like a vessel for any culture and it’s the heart of the community, because you communicate through that language.
“It forms you, it forms your identity so for any community if there is a native language it’s important to preserve it so the people don’t lose their connection with the past,” he said.
He added: “At the same time, because Sarkese is a very archaic language, there are some features that we’ve lost in the other Gallo-Romance languages that we’ve retained in Sarkese.
“It also helps us to understand how similar languages worked – like old Norman and old French – and how they sounded.”
