Friday 6 June 2008

History with forked tongue

 
"The Assembly of the States of Jersey is one of the oldest legislatures of the English speaking world. It came into existence in the sixteenth century but its origins are to be found in earlier times and need to be explained in the context of Jersey's constitutional history."
 
This is attempting to put the States of Jersey in historical context, but it is extremely misleading. For a good many centuries of its existence, and certainly when it began in the 16th century, it was a legislature in the French speaking world, albeit part of the British Isles.
 
The language of the court (and in fact until very recently, the language into which laws were given official status) was French and not English.
 
If I was born French, French speaking, and changed to use English from age 10, would I say that I had been an English speaker from birth?
 
 
 

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