The Portland daily press., 1883-05-23
The Patois of Normandy,

The comparatively speedy disuse of the
Danish tongue on the part of the settlers on
the Seine is supposed to prove conclusively
that their numbers were but small. Taken
by itself, we do not deny the force of the
argument. At the same time we must bear
in mind that the speech of the Teutonic con
querors of Gaul had likewise failed to make
way against the lingua raStied of the Gallo
Romans, yet none can question the existence
of a considerable Teutonic admixtlre in the
populations of France, especially North.eas
tern France. Moreover, when we turn to
the patoiS Of Normandy, and of the Chan
mel Islands In particular-the portion of the
old Norman duchy which has been least
subject to French influences, from its re-
naming under the English sceptre-we
find at least some traces of the survival of
the Scandinavian speech in the use of words
and phrases plainly derivable from the
Morse aud Danish tongues. OF these we
shall give but two instances. referring our
readers who may be curious on the subject
for further information to the Franco-Nor-
man Dictionary of M.. Metivier. a work
which, like Others of its kind, proves that no
little light may be thrown upon the history
Of people by study of their patois. In
the Department of Orne there is a common
sayine. "Des saints du pardis en- hodinent
la tete.H The word 'shodiner, is a deriy-
alive from the Danish shoved,'-heaa. at
Bayeux we meet with the phrase, sss'pour-
iolair, t. e., Sc pourjoler,a which is sup
posed to perpetuate the tradition of the
Scandinavian feast of the ''jol," theld at
our Christmas-tiGe,l and which signifies to
play the fool like those who celebrate this
feast Again, many of the wor Is and
phrases to which we refer are met with un-
der slightly varied forms in the dialects of
the northern districts of our own land in
which, as we have said, Scandinavian colon
les were settled. Nor is the use in common
OF certain words the only link between these
two sets of dialects; we find, besides, traces
OF phonetic resemblance in tendency to
harden sounds. The Cumbrians turn ssch''
into *, and SSH into SIX as in the
words ''kurn" for ''ehurn," and ssskift'' for
shift the Normans pronounce the word
| chfen as II it were written "kien.r NJ Mig
nard, wellknown authority on the arehas-
ology and philology of Burgundy, states that
numerous phonetic affinities exist between
the Burgundian and Norman dialects, which
he accounts for these by the notorious per-
sistency Of afinities of this kind, and by the
fact that the Burgundians had come from
the same Northern regions as those from
which Rolf and his followers issued 400
years later. To pass on to proper names of
places. These attest fairly extensive col
onization of Neustrian sell by the North
men. The names to which we refer, as
bearing upon our subject, have been divided
into six classes, dis tinguished by their re.
spective Examinations, "tot,' s'bee,n Sen"
or "eur," "dal, 7" "beuf,n and s'ville." We
shall lake the last class, which, by the bye,
is the only one with French termination,
as being at once the most numerous and
most instructive for our purpose. With re-
gard to 1t, NJ. Depping, in his Expeditions
Maritimes des Normands,'' lays down the
following rule: la plupart des mons ter
mines en- rifle retirement un mot stranger
qui presque toujours parait ayoir etc le nom
propre on lie surn0m d un Normand qui hab-
itait la terre on possedait le hameau, on lie
village" Now, names formed with the affix
ritie are to be found over the leneth and
breadth of Normandy, though in some parts
more frequently than others. The names of
81 out OF the " communes contained in the
reimbursement of Cherbosrg have been thus
formed. How far NJ. Deppings rule is borne
out in these particular instances we do not
undertake to say; in many, however. we
readily recognize names of Northern origin.
And although the practice of calling lands
after our own names has not been restricted
to any one human family, or one country. it
was at least a very common one in the
North of Europe, as is shown by the names
of numerous villages of ancient date in
Denmark.-LThe British Quarterly Review.