Yesterday evening’s meeting of the Section at Pier Road went well, and members enjoyed having a go at the new project of trying to translate the story of the dragon into Jèrriais. There were discussions of different ways of asking questions, what would be the difference between using the imperfect tense and souler, different words for “scales” and related vocab, the word for “claws” and related words for scratches and scratching, expressions for describing sizes and so on. The next installment of the story was distributed for members to think about in advance of next month’s meeting when there’ll be some more grammar practice as well as other discussions and activities.

Né v’chîn la deuxième partie d’l’histouaithe qué nou s’en va traduithe pouor d’la pratique granmaticale Mêcrédi au sé à la rêunnion d’la Section de la langue Jèrriaise, à La Société Jersiaise dans la Rue d’la Caûchie à 8 heuthes du sé lé 4 dé Mar.

Here’s the second part of the story that’s for translation and grammar practice at 8pm on Wednesday evening, 4th March, at the Section meeting in Pier Road. (Don’t worry about coming along if you haven’t done any of the translation, it’s not as though it’s homework or a test or anything – just a basis for practising some questions, answers, different ways of saying things, synonyms and so on: something to get us talking!)

A brave lord came from Normandy. He crossed the sea to deal with the dragon.
He’d packed his sharpest sword and his shiniest shield.
What was he going to do?
He was going to kill the dragon.
If he beat the dragon, he’d cut off its head.
It wouldn’t be easy, but the dragon’s head would make a nice ornament for his castle.
His lady would dust it every day and polish its horns and fangs.
Wouldn’t the neighbours be jealous!
But would the dragon agree to become a household decoration?
How fiercely would it fight?
How skilful a fighter was the lord?
We’ll soon see!
The lord arrived in Saint Lawrence but nobody came out to welcome him.
The people had locked all their doors and run away.
They wouldn’t have stayed even if a dozen lords had turned up.
But they ought to have left a note for the lord. It would have been a good thing to do.
The lord knocked at all the doors, but nobody was at home.
It wasn’t surprising as many of the doors had been scorched and there were huge dragon footprints all over the place.
The lord followed the footprints and very soon ended up in the marsh.
The marsh wasn’t very wet, because the dragon’s breath had dried it up quite a lot.
Suddenly, the lord spotted the dragon in the middle of what had once been a patch of marsh.
The dragon was sleeping soundly when the lord approached it.
He drew his sword, but the dragon didn’t wake up.
He shouted, but the dragon wouldn’t wake up.
He banged his shield with all his might, but he couldn’t wake the dragon up.
“I ought to have brought a dragon alarm-clock!” thought the lord.