Synopses & Reviews
In the early nineteenth century, despite 600 years of allegiance to the English Crown, a majority of Guernseymen still spoke a Franco-Norman dialect and retained cultural affinities with France. By the eve of World War I, however, insular society had turned predominantly anglophone and was culturally orientated towards England. In examining this sea-change, the author focuses particularly on the role of migration, since the Island experienced both substantial outflows (to North America and the Antipodes), and substantial inflows (from Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Hampshire and Cornwall; the Irish province of Munster, and the French departements of La Manche and Les Cotes-du-Nord). The author investigates push- and pull-factors influencing the various migrant cohorts, and evaluates the reception they met from the insular authorities and population at large. Whilst showing that both British and French migrants, in their different ways, advanced the process of anglicisation, she sets their contribution in its proper perspective against the host of less tangible forces which had first initiated anglicisation and were hastening it on irrespective of the migrant presence.
Synopsis
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite 600 years of allegiance to the English Crown, a majority of Guernseymen still spoke the language and retained aspects of the culture of France, the Island's closest neighbour, but England's hereditary foe. However, by 1914 Guernsey had been transformed from an essentially francophone to anglophone community. In this first comprehensive academic study of nineteenth-century Guernsey, the author analyses this huge sea-change. She devotes particular attention to the role of migration in this transition, since Guernsey experienced both substantial outflows (to North America and the Antipodes), and substantial inflows (from Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Hampshire and Cornwall; the Irish province of Munster, and the French dpartements of La Manche and Les Ctes-du-Nord). She investigates the various factors influencing the various migrant contingents, analyses their differing settlement patterns and their propensity to integrate and evaluates the less than welcoming reception they met with from insular poor law authorities. Overall, the book argues that while migration boosted the Anglicisation of the island, it must be viewed in the context of other causes and effects.
Synopsis
First scholarly study devoted to Guernsey in the nineteenth century, as it changed from a francophone to an anglophone society.
In the early nineteenth century, despite 600 years of allegiance to the English Crown, a majority of Guernseymen still spoke a Franco-Norman dialect and retained cultural affinities with France. By the eve of World War I, however, insular society had turned predominantly anglophone and was culturally orientated towards England.
In examining this sea-change, the author focuses particularly on the role of migration, since the Island experienced both substantial outflows to North America and the Antipodes], and substantial inflows from Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Hampshire and Cornwall; the Irish province of Munster, and the French d partements of La Manche and Les C tes-du-Nord]. The author investigates push- and pull-factors influencing the various migrant cohorts, and evaluates the reception they met from the insular authorities and population at large. Whilst showing that both British and Frenchmigrants, in their different ways, advanced the process of anglicisation, she sets their contribution in its proper perspective against the host of less tangible forces which had first initiated anglicisation and were hastening it on irrespective of the migrant presence.