Counting in Jèrriais
Language overview
Jèrriais, also known as Jersey French or Jersey Norman French, is a Norman dialect spoken on Jersey, the British Crown Dependency island off the coast of Normandy (France), where it has the status of regional language. This is an Oïl language belonging to the Indo-European language family, and more specifically to the gallo-romance one. Jèrriais counts about 2,600 speakers.
Due to lack of data, we can only count accurately up to 1,000 in Jèrriais. Please contact me if you can help me counting up from that limit.
Jèrriais numbers list
- 1 – ieune
- 2 – deux
- 3 – trais
- 4 – quat’
- 5 – chîn
- 6 – six
- 7 – sept
- 8 – huit
- 9 – neuf
- 10 – dgix
- 11 – onze
- 12 – douze
- 13 – treize
- 14 – quatorze
- 15 – tchînze
- 16 – seize
- 17 – dgiêx-sept
- 18 – dgiêx-huit
- 19 – dgiêx-neuf
- 20 – vîngt
- 30 – trente
- 40 – quarante
- 50 – chînquante
- 60 – souaixante
- 70 – septante
- 80 – quatre-vîngts
- 90 – nénante
- 100 – chent
- 1,000 – mille
- one million – un million
Jèrriais numbering rules
Now that you’ve had a gist of the most useful numbers, let’s move to the writing rules for the tens, the compound numbers, and why not the hundreds, the thousands and beyond (if possible).
- Digits and numbers from one to sixteen are specific words, namely ieune (un in masculine, as Jèrriais counts in the feminine form) [1], deux [2], trais [3], quat’ (or quatre) [4], chîn (or chînq) [5], six [6], sept [7], huit [8], neuf [9], dgix [10], onze [11], douze [12], treize [13], quatorze [14], tchînze [15], and seize [16]. Seventeen to nineteen are regular numbers, i.e. named after a form of the word for ten (dgix becomes dgiêx), followed by a hyphen and the unit: dgiêx-sept [10+7], dgiêx-huit [10+8], dgiêx-neuf [10+9].
- The tens are specific words too: dgix [10], vîngt [20], trente [30], quarante [40], chînquante [50], souaixante [60], septante [70], quatre-vîngts (or huiptante) [80], and nonante [90]. Eighty has two different forms: one based on the decimal system (huiptante), and the other (quatre-vîngts, or 4*20) on a vigesimal system which seems to be an inheritance from Celtic languages.
- Tens and units are joined with a hyphen (e.g.: chînquante-trais [53]), unless the unit is one. In that case, the coordinator ’tch’ or tch’ is inserted between the ten and the unit (e.g.: vîngt’tch’ieune [21], souaixante tch’ieune [61]). When compound, the word for eighty loses its final s (e.g.: quatre-vîngt-ieune [81], quatre-vîngt-deux [82]).
- Hundreds are formed by saying the (sometimes altered) multiplier digit before the word for hundred (chent in singular, chents in plural), except for one hundred itself: chent [100], deux chents [200], trais chents [300], quat’ chents [400], chîn chents (and not chînq chents) [500], siêx chents (and not six chents) [600], sept chents [700], huit chents [800], and neu chents (and not neuf chents) [900].
- Thousands are formed by saying the (sometimes altered) multiplier digit before the word for thousand (mille), except for one thousand itself: mille [1,000], deux mille [2,000], trais mille [3,000], quat’ mille [4,000], chîn mille (and not chînq mille) [5,000], siêx mille (and not six mille) [6,000], sept mille [7,000], huit mille [8,000], and neu mille (and not neuf mille) [9,000].
- The word for million is million (millions in plural).
Write a number in full in Jèrriais
Let’s move now to the practice of the numbering rules in Jèrriais. Will you guess how to write a number in full? Enter a number and try to write it down in your head, or maybe on a piece of paper, before displaying the result.
Books
Jersey (Landmark Visitors Guides)
by Sonia Hilsdon, editors Landmark Visitors Guides (2010)
[ Amazon.com]
Vocabulary Builder Jerriais
editors Topics Entertainment (2007)
[ Amazon.com]
Jersey Norman French: A Linguistic Study of an Obsolescent Dialect
by Mari Catrin Jones, editors Wiley-Blackwell (2002)
[ Amazon.com]
Source
- The Jèrriais pages (in Jèrriais)
Links
- L’Office du Jèrriais (in English and Jèrriais)
Romance languages
Asturian, Catalan, Corsican, Eonavian, French, Friulian, Galician, Gallo, Italian, Jèrriais, Ladin, Latin, Lombard (Milanese), Occitan, Picard, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Proto-Indo-European, Romanian, Romansh, Sardinian, Spanish, and Venetian.
Other supported languages
As the other currently supported languages are too numerous to list extensively here, please select a language from the full list of supported languages.