ALMOST 100 Islanders, the vast majority of them Jèrriais speakers, attended a ‘Eune Arlévée d’Fanne’ at St Ouen’s Parish Hall recently – an annual gathering to celebrate Jersey’s native language.
The event included cake and scones, a sing-along of songs in Jèrriais, a raffle, and lots of conversations in Jersey’s ancient patois.
Organiser Jean Le Maistre said it had achieved its simple aim of being a ‘Fanne’, or ‘fun’, afternoon.
He said: “The purpose was to bring people together from anywhere in the Island. We do have three groups who meet weekly, but there are a lot of folk who don’t manage to get to those. So, we started this quite a few years ago, because these people were not meeting anybody who spoke Jèrriais for virtually the whole year.”
Musical entertainment was provided by Mêli-Mêlo, which means ‘Mish-Mash’, a group comprising Stacey Harvey, Charlie Le Maistre, Ben Spink and Montfort Tadier.
Their songs included ‘Man Bouonhomme Est Bein Malade’, ‘Man Bieau P’tit Jèrri’ and ‘Vive la Compangnie’
Photos: Stacey Harvey.
