Auregnais

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Auregnais
Spoken in:	Alderney
Language extinction:	by mid-20th century
Language family:	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian Oïl Norman Auregnais
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`roa`
ISO 639-3:	—
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Auregnais, Aoeur'gnaeux or Aurignais was the Norman dialect of the Channel Island of Alderney (French: Aurigny, Auregnais: Aoeur'gny/Auregny).

Very little Auregnais survives in written form. It was closely related to the Dgèrnésiais (Guernsey), Jèrriais (Jersey), Sercquiais (Sark) dialects of the neighbouring islands, as well as Continental Norman on the European mainland.

Although extinct, traces of the language still exist in many, if not most, local placenames. One or two words linger on in the local English, e.g. vraic (seaweed fertiliser), and the pronunciation of certain local surnames, e.g. Dupont and Simon as (IPA) /dipõ/ and /symõ/ rather than the standard Parisian way.

One reason for the demise of the language was movement of the population. In particular, the influx of labourers from the United Kingdom employed by the British Government in the construction of the abortive harbour project and other fortifications, as well as the stationing of a sizable British garrison among the small population, served to relegate Auregnais to a lesser status for communication. It is thought that the evacuation of nearly all indigenous Aurignais to the British mainland during World War II (the island was occupied by the Germans, and heavily fortified) was a major factor in the final loss of the spoken language. The language suffered greatly in later years due to a large influx of tax "exiles" from England who have moved to the island, as well as official neglect, as Alderney is a tax haven.

Another reason for the language's demise was neglect, especially in the education sector where it was not taught at all. This led to a situation in which, as was noted by the Guernsey newspaper Le Bailliage in 1880, children had ceased to speak the language among themselves.

Along with the decline in Auregnais went the decile in the use of French. French ceased to be an official language in 1966 in Alderney. It should be noted that the official French used in the Channel Islands differs slightly from Metropolitan French and greatly from the vernacular Norman.