Jerriais is the language spoken in Jersey; the language was influenced by many languages from Norse Viking to Frankish. According to the BBC Dr Julia Salabank has set out to compare the language policies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Dr Salabank is a research fellow in endangered languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She will be spending the next two weeks in Jersey researching the language. Jerriais has had official support for some time in the form of L’office du Jerriais. The 2001 census statistics showed that 2,874 people speak Jerriais which is about 3% of the population, around 15% have some kind of understanding of the language.In Jersey around 200 children are currently learning Jerriais, which shows Jersey are working hard to keep the language alive.