Jersey Legal French, also known as Jersey French, is the official dialect of French used administratively in Jersey. Since the anglicisation of the island, it survives as a written language for some laws, contracts, and other documents. Jersey's parliament, the States of Jersey, is part of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. The English language has been allowed in parliamentary debates since February 2, 1900; the current use of French in the parliament is generally restricted to formalities (prayers, ceremonies, formulæ).
Jersey's two official languages are French and English.
Jersey Legal French is not to be confused with Jèrriais, a variety of the Norman language also called Jersey Norman-French, spoken in the island.
The French of Jersey differs little from that of France. It is characterised by several terms particular to Jersey administration and a few expressions imported from Norman.
Read more about Jersey Legal French: List of Distinguishing Features
Famous quotes containing the words jersey, legal and/or french:
“To motorists bound to or from the Jersey shore, Perth Amboy consists of five traffic lights that sometimes tie up week-end traffic for miles. While cars creep along or come to a prolonged halt, drivers lean out to discuss with each other this red menace to freedom of the road.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they let you in, it is because you are black. That’s progress?”
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