Draft:Frank Le Maistre

Frank Le Maistre (Jèrriais: Fraînque Le Maistre), born 19 May 1910 in Saint Ouen (Jersey), died 13 August 2002. , was an author, journalist and linguist of the Norman languages, and especially the Jèrriais language of Jersey. He was also a major advocate of the use of the French language in Jersey. His most significant contribution was the compiling and publication of the first Jèrriais dictionary, the Dictionnaire Jersiais-Français. The orthography which he devised for this dictionary has since been adopted as the written standard for the language.

Biography
Coming from an old Saint Ouennais family, Frank le Maistre spoke and wrote in his native Jèrriais all his life. He was the editor of the Bulletîn d'Quart d'An de l’Assembliée d'Jèrriais (Quarterly Bulletin of the Jèrriais Assembly) from 1952 to 1973.

After leaving school, he worked in a lawyer's office, and subsequently for the Department of Agriculture at the States of Jersey Farm. This job led him throughout Jersey, providing the opportunity to speak with and question many old Jèrriais speakers over more than four decades, during which period he collected hundreds of words and phrases in the language from all parishes. He also produced many literary works and historical texts during this time.

During the 1930s and then during the German Occupation, he produced many articles for the Chroniques de Jersey under the pen-name Marie la Pie.

The knowledge of linguistics, as well as his exposure to a variety of Jèrriais dialects, enabled him to compose his Dictionnaire Jersiais-Français, which was published in 1966 as the first academic work documenting the Jèrriais language. He also composed many poems and prose pieces, published in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Jèrriais Assembly. He also wrote reviews of the work of many other authors, and served as editor of several reviews and publications. In recognition of these efforts he was awarded the Prix littéraire du Cotentin in 1967. He produced a Jèrriais partial translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

In 2013, La Bouaissie was set to music by the Jersey folk music group Les Badlabecques . The group also set to music the song Man Bieau P'tit Jèrri (My Beautiful Little Jersey) according to Le Maistre's Jèrriais lyrics.

Jersey Anthem
One of Jersey's two official national anthems is Man Bieau P'tit Jèrri, featuring the Jèrriais lyrics penned by Frank Le Maistre.

Y'a un coin d'terre que j'aime, que j'n'oubliéthai janmais -
 * Lyrics to Man Bieau P'tit Jèrri (My Beautiful Little Jersey)

Dans mes pensées tréjous preunmyi -

Car jé n'vai rein à compather à ses bieautés

Dans touos mes viages à l'êtrangi.

Jèrri, man paradis, pus belle taque souos l'solé -

Qué j'aime la paix dé chu Jèrri!

L'amour lé veurt, j'ai si envie dé m'en r'aller

Èrvaie man chièr pétit pays,

Man bieau p'tit Jèrri, la reine des îles -

Lieu dé ma naissance, tu m'pâsses bein près du tchoeu;

Ô, tchi doux souv'nîn du bouon temps qu' j'ai ieu

Quand j'pense a Jèrri, la reine des îles!

Jé connais touos tes charmes; et combein qu' j'en ai joui

Auve eun-é chiéthe anmie, aut' fais!

Quand méme qué pouor a ch't heu jé n sais pon tout près d'lyi,

N'y' a rein qu' Jèrri dans mes pensées.

Et pis, comme tout bouon Jèrriais, dans l'fond d'man tchoeu

J'ai grand envie dé m'en r'aller

Dans l'île tchi m'a donné tant d'amour et d'bonheu ,

Èrvaie ma chiéthe et man siez-mé.

Man bieau p'tit Jèrri, la reine des îles -

Lieu dé ma naissance, tu m'pâsses bein près du tchoeu;

Ô, tchi doux souv'nîn du bouon temps qu' j'ai ieu

Quand j'pense a Jèrri, la reine des îles!

Works

 * Dictionnaire jersiais-français ; le parler Normand à Jersey, avec Albert Lucien Carré, Gorey, Don Balleine Trust, 1966
 * English-Jersey language vocabulary, avec Albert Lucien Carré et Philip M. De Veulle, Gorey, Don Balleine Trust, 1972
 * Jersey place names : a corpus of Jersey toponymy, avec Charles Stevens, Jean Arthur, Joan Stevens, et al., Saint-Hélier, Société jersiaise, 1986, ISBN 978-0-901897-17-6
 * Who's who in the Channel Islands, Jersey, Channel Islands Pub. Co. Ltd., 1967