Jerriais: A Few Comments

Jèrriais was not an official legislative or administrative language for most of its history; it was officially adopted as an official language of the States Assembly alongside English and French only recently, in 2019

What, exactly, makes Jersey Jersey? Some had said Jerriais. But it is surely not just language. If you look at the broad sweep of history, distinctively Jersey aspects have changed over the centuries. Some things have vanished completely. Pre-Norman Jersey probably was more aligned to Breton, and had the Brythonic language.

Before the 933 AD annexation of the Channel Islands by William Longsword, Duke of Normandy, Jersey’s linguistic landscape was a complex, evolving layer of Celtic, Roman, and Germanic influences.

During the 9th century, the Channel Islands fell explicitly under the political sphere and hegemony of the Kingdom of Brittany under leaders like Erispoe and Salomon. The Brythonic language and the Latin names of the Islands (the Antonine Maritime Itinerary) was lost. St Brelade is one of the few legacy saints of the Celtic times.

What truly sets the island apart is that because it is a tidal island. So Jèrriais didn't just differ from the mainland Normandy, it fractured into micro-dialects from parish to parish. Historically, a speaker from the western parish of St. Ouen pronounced vowels entirely differently, used different vocabulary, and could be immediately distinguished from a speaker living just a few miles east in Faldouet or St. Martin.

But the decline means that just one dialect is taught. The modern revival of Jèrriais has been intentionally standardized around the St Ouen dialect. The distinct phonetic markers of eastern parishes like St Martin or Trinity have mostly faded from active daily speech as the last generation of those native speakers passes away.

The 12th-century Jersey-born poet Wace wrote in Anglo-Norman/Old Norman (Roman de Brut, Roman de Rou). While this represents the historical root of the Romance dialect family on the island, Wace's medieval Norman is linguistically distant from modern spoken Jèrriais. To say he was the first person to write in Jerriais is really to stretch historical credibility too far.

Before the 1780s, Jèrriais was purely an oral tongue. If islanders wrote, they used standard "lé bouôn français" (good French) for legal documents, court proceedings, and church services. By the mid-1800s, Jèrriais writing shifted from casual newspaper columns into serious literature. Inspired by the global success of Robert Burns writing in local Scots, Jersey writers decided to deliberately preserve their spoken tongue in print.

The written system used today is entirely modern and completely different from Wace’s medieval text. The script, orthography, and visual style of modern Jèrriais were forged in the 19th and 20th centuries to capture sounds that Wace never would have recognized.

When 19th-century writers began writing Jèrriais down systematically, they didn't have an unbroken spelling tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. They had to invent an orthography on the spot, using Standard French spelling as their anchor. Because Jèrriais contains sounds that do not exist in Standard French, they had to invent completely new visual system

So to focus alone on Jerriais as distinctly Jersey is I think flawed: (a) it was not the main language until after Norman annexation (b) Jerriais comes from roots in the Norman French of the time (as with Wace) but modern Jerriais is linguistically very different because it evolved since then (c) it has many dialects and what we have now is just one variation (d) the modern written form dates mainly from the 18th century, not exactly ancient!

I'm not saying it is not worth keeping in some form or other, but I do want to dispel the idea that we are preserving something very ancient which had not changed.

Proofs and Refutations in Historical Jesus Research – Part 2

Part 1 at: http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2026/10/proofs-and-refutations-in-historical.html

Proofs and Refutations in Historical Jesus Research – Part 2

When we map Imre Lakatos’s four strategies onto the high-stakes battlefield of Gospel scholarship, we can see exactly why NT scholars and historical-Jesus researchers rarely change their minds.

Because the text of the Gospels is ancient, complex, and open to interpretation, it provides the perfect raw material for academics to build a "Protective Belt" around their core theories.

In these posts, I will illustrate how historians deploy the four basic Lakatosian strategies to defend their views against troublesome textual data:

Because the text of the Gospels is ancient, complex, and open to interpretation, it provides the perfect raw material for academics to build a "Protective Belt" around their core theories.

The Ultra-Literary Camp: Robyn Faith Walsh and Ian Mills

• The Hard Core: The Gospels are not folk products born out of oral tradition or religious "communities"; they are deliberate, highly sophisticated Greco-Roman literary compositions crafted by educated elite desk-editors.

• The Anomaly: The clunky, unpolished, non-literary Aramaic linguistic "gems" embedded in the Greek text of Mark (e.g., Talitha koum, Ephphatha, Abba), alongside seemingly raw, disjointed narrative segments (pericopes). These look exactly like fragments of oral storytelling caught mid-stream.

The Lakatosian Defence (Monster-Adjusting / Exception-Barring):

Robyn Faith Walsh utilizes monster-adjusting. She argues that these Aramaic phrases are not passive carryovers from an oral community. Instead, they are highly intentional literary devices called mimesis or "local colour". Elite Roman authors frequently dropped foreign, exotic words into their text to make the setting feel authentic to the reader.

Ian Mills handles the disjointed narrative variations by framing them through the Hellenistic concept of a "hypothesis"—arguing that ancient readers and writers expected stories to be multi-layered riffs on a common plot core, completely detaching the variations from any alleged oral folk tradition.

An example:

When an outsider reads a Gospel text and encounters a raw Aramaic phrase like Talitha koum ("Little girl, get up") or Abba, or notices that a story reads like a choppy, disjointed anecdote, our natural intuition screams oral history. It looks exactly like a fragment of spoken memory that was caught mid-stream and awkwardly translated into Greek.

When Walsh and Mills counter this by arguing that these phrases are actually highly sophisticated literary devices (mimesis) designed by elite desk editors to create "local colour," it feels like an academic parlour trick. It sounds like they are saying: "Yes, it looks exactly like oral tradition, but that's just because the elite writers were so brilliant at faking it." To an outsider, that feels like a classic, un-falsifiable case of special pleading.

Over-Reliance on Ad-Hoc Adjustments

A Lakatosian critic would point out that Walsh and Mills have chosen a "Hard Core" thesis that is incredibly rigid: The Gospels are purely the products of elite literary culture, completely detached from communal oral folk memory.

Because that hard core is so absolute, any trace of oral texture becomes a lethal threat. To save their theory, they are forced to use "Monster-Adjusting" on a massive scale. They have to redefine raw, clumsy, bilingual blunders as high-brow literary art. A Lakatosian critic would warn that when your protective belt requires you to constantly explain away the most obvious, natural reading of the data by inventing hyper-intellectualized, invisible motives for the authors, your research program is losing its explanatory power.

Lakatos argued that a good theory should possess "heuristic power"—it should naturally explain the data without straining.

To a Lakatosian critic, the oral-memory model (championed by James D.G. Dunn) has a much more highly progressive heuristic: it easily explains why the Gospels are messy, why they contradict each other on minor details, and why they contain raw Aramaic. The data fits the model like a glove. Although as we will see, that also has its problems.

By contrast, the Walsh/Mills model requires an immense amount of intellectual heavy lifting just to get back to the starting line. It fails to elegantly predict the raw, unpolished nature of the text. If the authors were truly elite Greco-Roman literary masters operating at the level of Plutarch or Virgil, why is their Greek often so clunky and stylistically mediocre? Having to argue that elite writers deliberately wrote in awkward, localized styles to trick their audience is a classic sign of a Lakatosian protective belt that has grown too bloated to be believable.

A Lakatosian critic wouldn't necessarily say Walsh and Mills are wrong, after all, Lakatos proved that even degenerating theories can sometimes experience a sudden breakthrough and become progressive again.

However, the critic would say that their current defences feel like poor special pleading because the burden of proof has crushed them. By refusing to allow even a fraction of oral folk memory into their model, they have trapped themselves in a corner where they must continually claim that what looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck is actually a highly sophisticated mechanical robot built by an elite classical engineer to simulate a duck.

Next blog on the subject – N.T. Wright

This will be published next Monday

Proofs and Refutations in Historical Jesus Research – Part 1

Proofs and Refutations in Historical Jesus Research – Part 1

In “Proofs and Refutations”, the philosopher Imre Lakatos (pictured above) demonstrates how mathematicians and scientists deal with counterexamples that threaten their core theories. Instead of abandoning the theory (as Popper said they should), they use brilliant rhetorical and structural manoeuvres to protect the status quo. As I was reading mathematics at Exeter University, I came across both Popper and Lakatos as part of my set books.

I find Lakatos more compelling than Popper, as his “Proofs and Refutations” is actually both an interpretation and commentary on actual developments in parts of mathematical history.

I shall be using the model given in “Proofs and Refutations” to examine some current trends in historical Jesus and New Testament origins research. But first, let us start with a basic explanation of how this all works.

 

In Lakatos’s dialogue, a mathematician proposes a "proof" (a global conjecture), someone else hurls a "refutation" (a counterexample) at it, and instead of throwing the proof away, the community stretches, refines, and redefines their terms to accommodate the new reality.

Here are the four basic, foundational Lakatosian strategies people use to defend the status quo:

Monster-Barring (Excluding the Data)

This is the most aggressive defence. When faced with a counterexample that breaks your theory, you simply declare that the counterexample is a "monster" (a freak anomaly or invalid data point) that doesn't belong in the discussion. You don't change your theory; you just shrink the definition of what counts as real data.

• The Mathematics Example: A student defines a polyhedron as a solid bounded by plane faces. Someone presents a "cylinder" as a counterexample. The student responds: "A cylinder is a freak monster, not a real polyhedron! Real polyhedra must have straight edges. Therefore, my theory is still safe."

• The Real-World Equivalent: High-level political ideologues use this constantly. When shown a historical collapse of their preferred economic system, they will say: "Well, that wasn't real capitalism/socialism."

Exception-Barring (Ghettoizing the Data)

In this strategy, you acknowledge that the counterexample is real and valid, but you argue it is a minor, bizarre exception that doesn't impact your macro-theory. You draw a neat little boundary fence around the troublesome data, label it a "special case," and pass a law forbidding it from modifying your main rule.

• The Mathematics Example: A student states a rule that works for all shapes, but someone points out it fails for a star-shaped polygon. The student says: "Fine, my rule works for all normal shapes, except star-shaped ones. We will just ignore star-shaped ones for now."

• The Real-World Equivalent: A medical researcher has a theory that a drug is 100% effective. When a patient gets sick anyway, the researcher says: "The theory holds true for everyone, except patients with this one specific, rare genetic marker."

Monster-Adjusting (Reinterpreting the Meaning)

This is a highly sophisticated, linguistic magic trick. You do not change the words of your theory, and you do not throw away the counterexample. Instead, you redefine the words inside your theory so that the troublesome counterexample is magically transformed into proof that you were right all along.

• The Mathematics Example: If your theory requires a shape to have "edges," and a counterexample has a curved line, you simply broaden the definition of an "edge" to include curved lines. The monster is "adjusted" until it fits.

• The Real-World Equivalent: An astrologer predicts a client will have a "massively successful financial day." The client actually loses £50. The astrologer deploys monster-adjusting: "Ah, but losing that money taught you a valuable spiritual lesson about greed. True 'wealth' is spiritual, so my prediction came true!"

Lemma-Incorporation (Fixing the Blueprint)

This is the most constructive Lakatosian strategy and the one that actually drives human progress. Instead of flatly denying the counterexample, you use the counterexample to find a hidden, unstated assumption (a lemma) in your original proof. You then carefully modify your theory to absorb the shock of the counterexample, making the overall theory much more complex, nuanced, and resilient.

• The Mathematics Example: A student realizes their rule failed because they forgot to specify that the shape must be perfectly flat. They update the theory: "My rule works for all polyhedra, provided they are convex." The theory changes, but it grows stronger.

• The Real-World Equivalent: This is how actual scientific progress works. When Newton’s laws couldn't perfectly explain the weird orbit of Mercury, physicists didn't throw out Newtonian physics; they used Einsteinian relativity to incorporate the extreme exceptions of high-gravity environments into a larger, more robust blueprint of physics.

When we map Imre Lakatos’s four strategies onto the high-stakes battlefield of Gospel scholarship, we can see exactly why NT scholars and historical-Jesus researchers rarely change their minds.

Because the text of the Gospels is ancient, complex, and open to interpretation, it provides the perfect raw material for academics to build a "Protective Belt" around their core theories.

In my next posts, I will illustrate how biblical historians of the New Testament deploy the four basic Lakatosian strategies to defend their views against troublesome textual data.

Religion, History and G. R Balleine – Part 3

Religion, History and G. R Balleine – Part 3
(The Reformation in Jersey)
By Jason St John Nicolle
From "The Pilot", 1991

Part III Discontented Catholics?

AND SO, after an adjournment of a month, the court of Jersey history reconvenes; the issue to be decided, the cause and nature of the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, better known as the Reformation. The jury are ushered to their seats. The black-suited, white-stocked lawyers stop whispering to each other; they turn once again to the files and authorities which lie opened in front of them, and a self-conscious, expectant silence fills the air.

The prosecution, led by the familiar and respected figure of George Reginald Balleine, has already stated its case. It has argued that the Protestant faith was established rapidly on Jersey, and with widespread popular support: "The victory of Protestantism was complete" by 1553 — the year which saw the death of Edward VI, and the accession of his sister Mary. It was yet another example of the inevitable triumph of the Evangelical faith.

But that was at last month's hearing; the jury has now to hear the arguments of the other side. Will Advocate Balleine's version of events be challenged? Whose version will the jury find the more convincing? All eyes are now on the defence, as their counsel rises to address the court.

“ Members of the jury, Advocate Balleine has argued that the Reformation on Jersey was imposed rapidly and with widespread popular support — he would like us to believe that this was a revolution 'from below.' The defence will argue that this is a view which has no foundation in historical fact. It will seek to establish that the faith of the Reformers took some fifty years to seize the hearts and minds of Islanders. Its eventual triumph owed nothing to the alleged superiority of its Evangelical doctrine, and everything to the capricious realities of power politics. This was no Reformation 'from below'; it was a Reformation 'from above.”

"The prosecution's case consists of several arguments; but a single assumption has provided the foundation for the whole edifice, and I shall deal with this assumption first. The assumption is simply this: we can take it for granted that there was widespread dissatisfaction with the beliefs and practices of Catholicism in the 1520's, 30's and 40's. Having started with this assumption, it is natural for the prosecution to picture discontented Catholics embracing the new Protestant faith at the earliest opportunity; it has to have been a Reformation 'from below.' But if we remove the necessity for supposing widespread discontent, we also remove the necessity for supposing that Protestantism was widely welcomed.”

"Unfortunately, we will never know for sure what most Islanders really thought of the Catholic Church on the eve of the Reformation; the surviving evidence is simply too limited. But one thing is certain: we cannot assume that Islanders were necessarily dissatisfied with the faith of their forefathers.”

"Take, for instance, the case of Brelade Alexandre, Constable of St Brelade. When he was on his deathbed in 1537, he made a will; and among his bequests was one wheat rente to endow an annual mass, to be said on the anniversary of the day of his burial, for the health of his own soul and the souls of his ancestors. There would have been no point making the bequest if Alexandre had not genuinely believed in the spiritual efficacy of the Catholic Mass.”

"We can be fairly certain that a good number of Alexandre's fellow Jerseymen would have shared the Constable's belief in the sacramental framework of late mediaeval catholicism. Several would have belonged to religious clubs, known as Confraternities, which organised annual anniversary masses to mark the death of benefactors. There seem to have been about two dozen separate confraternities on Jersey during the 1530's and 1540's; two-thirds of them survived until 1550, when they were wound-up by a Royal Commission. It is impossible to say how many members belonged to each club, and their functions were not solely religious; but their very existence presupposes widespread confidence in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

"We know that ensuring the provision of a mass could be a matter of the utmost seriousness. In 1529, the parishioners of St Martin complained about a wheat rente which had not been paid for twenty years. They were annoyed because it has formed the endowment for a weekly mass; they had been denied the spiritual benefit of 1,040 masses, 'to the prejudice both of the living and the dead.' The precision of their calculation reveals the depth of their concern.

"We will never know whether these examples give a representative picture of attitudes towards Catholicism on the eve of the Reformation; but they are sufficient to show that it would be wrong to assume that Jerseymen of the 1530's and 40's were necessarily discontented with the faith of their forefathers. This was the assumption on which the prosecution's case was based; and it has been shown to be untenable. It is now time to consider the prosecution's second proposition: that Jerseymen and women were quickly won over to the new faith. The arguments ... 

But the counsel for the defence is not allowed to finish his sentence: the Judge has granted another adjournment.

Elegy for Autumn

I wanted a sonnet as a "mood poem" to capture autumnal mood with strong natural imagery.

Elegy for Autumn

Brown leaves fall softly to the ground
And berries adorn the trees with red
Crows portend with autumn’s sound
The coming of the storms with dread

Dogs are frisky running on the sand
And sandcastles washed away by sea
North wind stretches out her hand
Before storms that ships must flee

Owls swoop to catch prey by night
Clouds brush across a harvest moon
Caressing the earth, a tender light
Before storm clouds gather soon

An Indian summer, enjoy a final day,
Before colder winds come this way

1986 - 40 years ago - October Part 1

1986 - 40 years ago - October Part 1

October 6-12

THE dispute over Sealink's closure of Channel Island ferry routes and the redundancies caused by the move finally hits roll-on roll-off freight when union action stops lorries boarding British Channel Island Ferries' vessel, Corbière. National Union of Seamen pickets block the ferry ramp in St Helier Harbour to protest against the loss of 492 jobs.

Judgment is reserved in the action brought by suspended St Helier Centenier Peter Pearce. Centenier Pearce says that he was unlawfully suspended and the Royal Court hears that no grounds have been found to press charges against him concerning his conduct during a Police Court case. It is revealed, however, that he breached Court procedure and misled the Magistrate.

The foul smell of sewerage around Bellozanne has returned, much to the annoyance of residents of the area. The problem is said to be worse late at night and early in the morning.

 

Jambo, the gorilla who stood guard after five-year-old Levan Merritt fell into the Zoo's gorilla enclosure, is named "Individual Animal of the Year" by BBC's Wildlife magazine.

The Jersey Football Association promises to "fight to the bitter end" to save Springfield as the base of Jersey football. The Island Development Committee are currently negotiating with the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society to purchase the site for housing.

The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt. Rev. Colin James, pays a brief visit to the Island and "drops in" on an assembly at St Michael's School,

October 13-19

A ROYAL Court murder trial is postponed because it is not possible to find the required 24 jurors to hear evidence against 20-year-old Jose Nelio Izilio de Azevedo, the Portuguese waiter accused of killing his countryman and colleague, Mr Joao Sapeta.

 

La Folie Inn, one of Jersey's few remaining independent pubs, could be taken over by one of the big three local brewery groups. The tenancy of the pub is up for renewal, but if it goes to Ann Street Brewery, Randalls Vautier or Bass Charrington it is likely that the matter will be taken up in the States.

A report into the future of Methodism in Jersey says that at least five churches should close. The report, which is expected to upset some local Methodists, is described as a discussion document and its authors say that they are not trying to force closures.

Jersey's former Army Careers Officer, Mr Vic Bourgoise, succeeds Mr Keith Hutton as chief traffic warden. Mr Hutton becomes the Island's car parks manager.

There is still uncertainty about the future of ferry services to the mainland. As the Sealink dispute continues, there is no indication when the full service proposed by British Channel Island Ferries will restore shipping links with the UK.

Hundreds of people — including the Bailiff, Mr Peter Crill, the Lieut.-Governor, Admiral Sir William Pillar, and the Dean, the Very Rev. Basil O'Ferrall, attend a peace service in the Royal Square.

Guernsey in 1974 – Part 2

Guernsey in 1974 – Part 2

This is an extract from Peter Haining’s guide book of 1974, which is as much interest today for the historian as to the tourist, as many of the places and industries described in his book have long vanished. Please do not take it as a current guide. I have added changes in italics.

More of the Introduction

The island is a bustling place most of the time—Sunday being the exception as has been mentioned earlier—but it is still possible to “get away from it all’”’ walking through the pleasant valleys in the interior or on the more exposed (though definitely more bracing) northern commons. Trying to suggest routes for walks is an almost impossible task for Guernsey. The only answer is to go where you please—and because of the size of the island you will never be far from a bus stop (the island’s bus service is certainly one of the most regular, efficient and well organised in the British Isles) and in any case it is never very difficult to find the coast.

There are more activities being provided for the younger visitors to Guernsey—though the authorities are still very wary about allowing any entertainment that might attract “hippies and layabouts”’, to quote one State official. The gradual change of attitude may have come about because of a visit by The Beatles in 1964. The four Liverpool lads were impressed with the island but said not enough was being done for teenagers. Obviously any attempts to over-commercialise the island will be resisted, but the climate of change is growing. This is particularly noticeable through the number of folk and beat clubs springing up, plus the “‘pop” music boat trips and increased facilities for water ski-ing, surfing, underwater swimming and sports of all kinds.

 Incorrect Year. The Beatles actually played their historic Guernsey concerts on 8 August 1963. They performed two shows in a single night at the Candie Gardens Pavilion in St. Peter Port before returning to Jersey. They never returned to perform in 1964. However, the quote about their impression is highly consistent with 1960s British youth culture commentary.

 In the early 1970s, Guernsey's conservative government (the States of Guernsey) was deeply protective of its image as a respectable, family-friendly, upper-middle-class holiday resort. The influx of long-haired youth, "beatniks," and hitchhikers across Europe terrified local hoteliers and officials, who actively used local vagrancy and housing laws to discourage bohemian "layabouts" from loitering around St. Peter Port.

The late 1960s and 1970s saw a massive boom in Guernsey's youth-centric nightlife. Venues like The Savoy Hotel (hosting rock gigs) and the Fermain Tavern became legendary local hubs. This era also birthed Guernsey's modern surfing and scuba diving scenes along the west coast.

Today, rather than banning youth entertainment, Guernsey hosts major annual events like the Vale Earth Fair (the longest-running music festival in the Channel Islands) and SarkFest on the neighboring island, specifically designed to draw alternative crowds, artists, and live music fans.

Shopping facilities always play an important part on any female visitor’s agenda and Guernsey (St. Peter Port in particular) can boast some extremely good shops, stocking goods from the United Kingdom (most of them cheaper) and from the Continent (many of them unobtainable in Britain). Half day closing on the island is Thursday, by the way.

In 1974, Guernsey legally enforced "half-day closing" on Thursdays, shutting down St. Peter Port to give shop workers time off. Today, this practice is a thing of the past. High street retailers, local boutiques, and major supermarkets keep regular hours all week long, with many offering late-night shopping on Thursdays or opening on Sundays.

As far as traditional foods are concerned the only surviving morsel on Guernsey is the ‘‘Gache’’, a fruit cake which is still sold in certain small tea shops.

Guernsey Gâche (a rich fruit bread baked with raisins, sultanas, and mixed peel) was never limited to a few tea shops. Today, it is widely mass-produced, sold in every local supermarket, and heavily exported to tourists.

The island waters also produce a particularly large breed of crab which are served at many restaurants with local lobsters, crawfish and prawns as an alternative. Fish of all kinds are common, and even tropical species like the torpedo ray and sun fish find their way into the Channel Islands area. Small octopi are not unknown, either, and local fishermen can frequently be seen hunting for them in the rock pools at low tide. They may not be to everybody’s taste, but some Guernsey men and women consider them the finest of all sea foods!

Recently local commercial fishing fleets reported an unprecedented "octopus bloom". Warming sea temperatures caused a massive explosion of common octopuses in local waters.The Culinary War: Far from being a niche taste like in 1974, local chefs at Le Nautique and other island restaurants adapted their menus to showcase local octopus. This boom is actually a double-edged sword: the booming octopus population is so hungry that they are raiding local pots and eating the island's famous crabs and lobsters before fishermen can harvest them!

Finally, a word about going to live on Guernsey. Because of the demand for land and houses, the States of Guernsey have put into operation a system which safeguards a reasonable amount of priority for islanders. The Cadastre Office of the States judge the amenities of every house and then put a rateable value on it from £1 to £100. All properties with a figure of under £80 are then declared “‘for islanders only”. Anyone seeking a house, however, will find that Guernsey estate agents invariably advertise houses for sale whether or not they are open to mainland buyers. The average price of a house open to outsiders is around £20,000. If this sounds particularly high it should be measured against the amenities of the island which have already been mentioned. Further information about settling on the island can be obtained from the Tourist Office,

Guernsey's two-tier housing market, originally established by the 1974 Housing Control Law to prioritize islanders through rateable value thresholds, remains strictly enforced today. While a 1974 guidebook estimated open-market property prices at £20,000, modern valuations have surged significantly alongside updated population management and tax frameworks.