Guernésiais, also known as Dgèrnésiais, Guernsey French, Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island, by the semi-disparaging name "patois". As one of the Oïl languages, it has its roots in the Latin language, but has had strong influence from both Norse and English at different points in its history.
There is intercomprehension (with some difficulty) with Jèrriais-speakers from Jersey and Norman-speakers from mainland Normandy. Guernésiais most closely resembles the Norman dialect of La Hague in the Cotentin Peninsula (Cotentinais).
Guernésiais has been influenced less by French than has Jèrriais, but conversely has been influenced to a greater extent by English. New words have been imported for modern phenomena "le bike", "le gas-cooker".
There is a rich tradition of poetry in the Guernsey language. Guernsey songs were inspired by the sea, by colourful figures of speech, by traditional folk-lore, as well as by the natural beauty of the island. The island's greatest poet was Georges Métivier (1790-1881), a contemporary of Victor Hugo, who influenced and inspired local poets to print and publish their traditional poetry. Métivier blended together local place-names, bird and animal names, traditional sayings and orally transmitted fragements of medieval poetry to create his Rimes Guernesiaises (1831).
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.

Current status

Guernsey poet, George Métivier (1790-1881) - nicknamed the Guernsey Burns, was the first to produce a dictionary of the Norman language in the Channel Islands, the Dictionnaire Franco-Normand (1870). This established the first standard orthography - later modified and modernised. Among his poetical works are Rimes Guernesiaises published in 1831.
Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte published a translation of the Parable of the Sower in Dgèrnésiais in 1863 as part of his philological research.
Like Métivier, Tam Lenfestey (1818-1885) published poetry in Guernsey newspapers and in book form.
Denys Corbet (1826-1910) described himself as the Draïn Rimeux (last poet), but literary production continued. Corbet is best known for his poems, especially the epic L'Touar de Guernesy, a picaresque tour of the parishes of Guernsey. As editor of the French-language newspaper Le Bailliage, he also wrote prose columns in Dgèrnésiais under the pen name Badlagoule ("chatterbox").
Thomas Henry Mahy (1862-21 April 1936) wrote Dires et Pensées du Courtil Poussin, a regular column in La Gazette Officielle de Guernesey, from 1916. A collection was published in booklet form in 1922. He was still publishing occasional pieces of poetry and prose by the start of the 1930s.
Thomas Alfred Grut (1852-1933) published Des lures guernesiaises in 1927, once again a collection of newspaper columns. He also translated some of the Jèrriais stories of Philippe Le Sueur Mourant into Dgèrnésiais.
Marjorie Ozanne (1897-1973) wrote stories, published in the Guernsey Evening Press between 1949 and 1965. Some earlier pieces can be found in La Gazette de Guernesey in the 1920s.
Métivier's dictionary was superseded by Marie de Garis' (born 1910) Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernésiais; first edition published in 1967.
When the Channel Islands were invaded by Germany in World War II, Dgèrnésiais experienced a minor revival. Many locals did not always wish the occupying forces to understand what they were saying, especially as some of the soldiers had some knowledge of English.
Victor Hugo includes the odd word of Dgèrnésiais in some of his Channel Island novels. Phonology
aver - have (auxiliary verb)
oimaïr - to love (regular conjugation)

Examples

Dictiounnaire Angllais-Guernésiais (most recent edition 1982) ISBN 0-85033-462-4