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 l ...

( , ; nrf, label= Jèrriais, Jèrri ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey), is a British crown dependency.

Historic mentions

* ''Andium'' (?) 4th century * ''insula Gersoi'' 1022/1026. * ''insula Gerseii'', var. ''Gersey'', ''Gersei'', ''Gersoii'' 1042. * ''Gersus'' ~1070. * ''insula de Gerzoi'' 1080/~1082. * ''insula de Gersoi'' 1066/1083. * ''insula Gersoi'' 1066/1083. * ''l'isle de Gersui'' 1160/1174. * ''in Gersoio'' 1223/1236. * ''Gersuy'' 1339. * ''Gersui'' 1339. * ''insula de Jersey'' 1372. * ''insula de Jereseye'' 1372. * ''insula de Gersey'' 1386. * ''insula ��de Jersey'' 1419. * ''Iarsay'' ead ''Jarsay''1585. * ''Jarsey'' 1693. * ''Jerzey'' 1753. * ''Isle de Gersey'' 1753/1785. * ''Jerry'' 1829. * ''Ile de Jersey'' 1854. 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, ...

are mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary as the following: ''Sarnia'', ''Caesarea'', ''Barsa'', ''Silia'' and ''Andium'', but Jersey cannot be identified specifically because none corresponds directly to the present names. Furthermore, later records evoke ''Angia'' (also spelled ''Agna'' ). ''Andium'' is a Latinized version of the Gaulish (Celtic) ''*Andion'', with ''and-'' the Gaulish intensive prefix meaning "very", "much", "big". ''Andium'' roughly translates as "big Island", Jersey being the largest of the Channel Islands. The spelling ''Angia'' could be an ultimate development of ''*Andia''. Some others identify it as ''Caesarea'', a late recorded Roman name influenced by the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

suffix ''-ey'' for "island"; this is plausible if, in the regional

pronunciation of Latin Latin phonology continually evolved over the centuries, making it difficult for speakers in one era to know how Latin was spoken before then. A given phoneme may be represented by different letters in different periods. This article deals primar ...

, ''Caesarea'' was not but . Another theory is that the variation of the "J" sound today could be connected with phonetical cousins "g" and "k" (

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...

) through variable pronunciations based on similar spelling. Theoretically, if Caesarea was originally pronounced with a "k", that may have naturally developed into a "g" sound for locals (or foreigners), making Gersei, Gersoi, or the other spellings relatable. Because "g" is pronounced as both a hard guttural "g" as in "go" and a soft "j" as in "gym" or "gem", the spelling of Jersey could be a result of the variance in its pronunciation. The name ''Caesarea'' has been used as the Latin name for Jersey (also in its French version ''Césarée'') since

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

's ''Britannia'' (published in 1586), and is used in titles of associations and institutions today. The Latin name ''Caesarea'' was also applied to the colony of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

as ''Nova Caesarea''. ''Angia'' could be a misspelling for ''*Augia'', that is the Latinized form of Germanic ''*aujō'' (> Old English ''ī(e)ġ'' > is-land), that could have extended before the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germ ...

along the coast of France, as for

île d'Yeu Île d'Yeu () or L'Île-d'Yeu, is an island and commune just off the Vendée coast of western France. The island's two harbors, Port-Joinville in the north and Port de la Meule to the south, in a rocky inlet of the southern granite coast, are fam ...

(''Augia'', ''Insula Oya'') or Oye-Plage (''Ogia'' 7th century) and constitutes the suffix ''-ey'' in Jersey, Guernsey (''Greneroi''), Alderney (''Alneroi'') and

Chausey Chausey () is a group of small islands, islets and rocks off the coast of Normandy, in the English Channel. It lies from Granville and forms a ''quartier'' of the Granville commune in the Manche ''département''. Chausey forms part of the Chan ...

(''Calsoi''). Chausey can be compared with

Cholsey Cholsey is a village and civil parish south of Wallingford in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded Cho ...

(GB, Berkshire, ''Ċeolesiġ'' 891), interpreted by Eilert Ekwall as "''Ċeola'' 's island". The ending ''-ey'' denotes an island. These ''-ey'' names could have been reinforced by the Viking heritage, because ''-ey'' is similar, so that it is possible to interpret the first part of the toponym as an

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

element. The source of it is unclear. Scholars surmise it derives from ''hjörr'' (Old Norse for "sword") or ''

jarl Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the petty k ...

'' (earl), or perhaps a personal name, ''Geirr'' ("Geirr's Island"). The personal name explanation is accepted by Richard Coates, who also discusses the names of the other Channel Islands.''The ancient and modern names of the Channel Islands: a linguistic history''.

Richard Coates Richard Coates (born 16 April 1949, in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and educated at Wintringham School) is an English linguist. He was Professor of Linguistics (alternatively Professor of Onomastics) at the University of the West of England, Bristo ...

. Paul Watkins 1991

/ref>

References

{{Jersey topics History of Jersey

Historic mentions

See also

References