JERSEY’S historic language, Jèrriais, has been given a further boost with the publication of a new set of postage stamps exploring words and phrases once used in everyday exchanges between Islanders.
Illustrated by local artist Ron Mills – who was responsible for an earlier Jèrriais set released in 2022 – the latest set of six stamps, souvenir sheetlet and miniature sheet all feature words familiar to native speakers and students of the language alike.
For the 60p stamp, the artist has depicted a woman waving to a ship to illustrate the Jèrriais expression bouan viage, signifying the wish of a good journey, more often rendered in English by borrowing the French bon voyage.
The Jèrriais for a fishing boat has been illustrated in the first of two 98p stamps as un baté pêtcheux, the illustration helpfully including a phonetic transcription for those unfamiliar with the language.
A second 98p stamp includes the expression un pithot coêffi, literally a goose with a headdress, used to refer to someone who is hoity-toity.
For the £1.65 stamp, the Jèrriais un mouc à mie translates as a honey bee, reminiscent of the French mouche de miel, an alternative to the more familiar abeille.
One of the most well-known Jèrriais words crapaud (or toad) was used to ridicule Islanders but, as Jersey Post points out, locals took an ironic pride in the name to the point that today the Charing Cross stone crapaud stands impressively on its pillar.
Translated to mean “to plough”, eune tchéthue features on the £2.95 stamp, rendered with a farmer ploughing a field ahead of planting.
For the miniature sheet, a woman can be seen holding up her petticoat.
Prior to the 17th century when an order was placed to ensure roads were paved, many of the streets in town were narrow and difficult to navigate.
Without paving, there were no clear paths for pedestrians, which meant that, during the winter months, traversing the streets was difficult.
This led to a street, which was known to be particularly muddy, being named La Rue Trousse Cotillon, which literally translates as “holding up petticoats road”.
