George Métivier (29 January 1790 – 23 March 1881) was a

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

poet dubbed the "Guernsey Burns", and sometimes considered the island's

national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...

. He wrote in

Guernésiais Guernésiais, also known as ''Dgèrnésiais'', Guernsey French, and Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island simply as "patois". As one of the langues d'oïl, it has it ...

, which is the indigenous language of the island. Among his poetical works are ''Rimes Guernesiaises'' published in 1831. Métivier blended together local place-names, bird and animal names, traditional sayings and orally transmitted fragments of medieval poetry to create themes. :''Que l'lingo seit bouan ou mauvais / J'pâlron coum'nou pâlait autefais'' (whether the "lingo" be good or bad, I’m going to speak the way we spoke back then), wrote Métivier. He was born in Rue de la Fontaine,

St Peter Port St. Peter Port (french: Saint-Pierre Port) is a town and one of the ten parishes on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is the capital of the Bailiwick of Guernsey as well as the main port. The population in 2019 was 18,958. St. P ...

, Guernsey, in the night of 28–29 January 1790. He used the

pen-name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

''Un Câtelain'', as his grandfather, a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

by origin, had settled in Castel. As a young man, Métivier had studied in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

for a career in medicine, but had abandoned the idea of becoming a doctor to devote himself to linguistics and literature. His poems were published in Guernsey newspapers from 1813 until his death and since. George Métivier corresponded publicly in verse form with

Robert Pipon Marett Sir Robert Pipon Marett (20 November 1820 – 10 November 1884, pseudonym ''Laelius'') was a lawyer, journalist, poet, politician, and Bailiff of Jersey from 1880 until his death. Life and career He was born in St. Peter on 20 November 1820 an ...

("Laelius"), the

Jèrriais (french: Jersiais, also known as the Jersey Language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an island i ...

poet. He translated the Gospel according to Matthew into Guernésiais for publication by Prince

Louis-Lucien Bonaparte Louis Lucien Bonaparte (4 January 1813 – 3 November 1891) was a French philologist. The third son of Napoleon's second surviving brother, Lucien Bonaparte, he spent much of his life outside France for political reasons. After a brief politica ...

, who visited him in 1862.''La Gazette Officielle de Guernesey'' 13 September 1862 Métivier's close friend and protégé was

Denys Corbet Denys Corbet (22 May 1826 – 21 April 1909) was a Guernsey poet, naïve painter, and schoolmaster, the second son of Pierre Corbet, a seafarer, and Susanne (''née'' de Beaucamp). He was born at La Turquie, Vale, Guernsey, Channel Islands ...

1826-1909, born in Vale, Guernsey.

Influence

The first to produce a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologie ...

of the Norman language in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

, Métivier's ''Dictionnaire Franco-Normand'' (1870) established the first standard

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

- later modified and modernised. At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century a new movement arose in the

, led by writers such as Métivier and writers from

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the ...

. The independent governments, lack of censorship and diverse social and political milieu of the Islands enabled a growth in the publication of

vernacular literature Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people". In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin nor Koine Greek. In this context, vernacular literature appeared ...

— often satirical and political. Most literature was published in the large number of competing newspapers, which also circulated in the neighbouring

Cotentin peninsula The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...

, sparking a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland.

''La Victime''

Patois Poems of the Channel Islands 1883

:''Veis-tu l’s écllaers, os-tu l’tounère?'' :''Lé vent érage et la née a tché!'' :''Les douits saont g’laïs, la gnièt est nère -'' :''Ah, s’tu m’ôimes ouvre l’hus - ch’est mé!'' :(Do you see the lightning, do you hear the thunder? :The wind is raging and the snow has fallen! :The brooks are frozen, the night is dark - :Ah, if you love me open the door - it’s me!)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metivier, George Guernsey poets Norman-language poets 1790 births 1881 deaths Guernsey writers 19th-century poets People from Saint Peter Port