Jersey children could get Jerriais book

Campaigners for Jersey's native language, Jerriais, are hoping to produce a new children's book.

Tony Scott Warren, Jerriais language officer, attended the annual conference of MAGA, the Cornish Language Partnership in Cornwall.

He said a colourful new children's book in the series about a Cornish village "may provide a pattern for a similar publication in Jerriais".

There are about 200 children learning Jerriais in island schools.

Mr Scott Warren said: "Unlike Cornish, there isn't a debate about how to write Jerriais.

"In recent years, L'Office du Jerriais and the Societe Jersiaise have published English-Jerriais and Jerriais-English dictionaries which have enabled the introduction of a GCSE-equivalent."

According to the 2001 census there were 2,874 people who spoke Jerriais, about 3% of the population, but about 15% have some understanding of the language.