List of nationalities in Sarkese

In Sarkese, names of “nationalities” always correspond to the respective standard demonyms of a given place, an island or a country.

If you know what corresponding adjectival forms derived from the name of a place or country are, you can easily form names of nationalities or languages etc. by simply adding a suitable article in the right context.

The only important thing is to choose the correct gender ending. In Sarkese, most demonyms related to the Channel Islands end in the regular -ê/-éze ending. The -ê is for masculine and the -éze for feminine. And good news is that in plural such forms remain the same 😉

For example, the derived adjectival form for “Sark”, /Sérc/ in Sarkese, is /Sérčê/ (notice that the silent “c” changes to the soft “č”). This demonym can stand for “Sarkese” in the sense of “Sarkman”, “Sarkmen” or “Sarkese language”, depedning on what article it comes with and in what context. /Sérčéze/, on the other hand, can stand for only for feminines, so “Sarkwoman” or “Sarkwomen” in English.

If used as regular adjectives, you can combine these forms with nouns of the same grammatical gendre, for example for masculine /un pêčeuř sérčê/, a Sarkese fisherman, or /dê pêčeur sérčê/, Sarkese fishermen, and for feminine /une chanson sérčéze/, a Sarkese song, or /dê chansôn sérčéze/, Sarkese songs.

As for how to combine these adjectives with nouns, as you can see in the examples above, demonyms in Sarkese represent one of the few adjectives that come only after nouns, never in front, so in Sarkese, for “a Sarkese boat” we can say only /un batě sérčê/, never /un sérčê batě/.

The only irregularity there is, is how we pronounce the masculine ending -ê in one particular case. Even though we pronounce -ê in all demonyms in final positions, as we are used to, therefore as the English “eye”, and as a long /e/ like in the English “Berber”, in all other positions, there is one important exception, and that is the word “Sarkese”, /Sérčê/. In final positions, the final -ê in this word is always pronounced as “oye”, not “eye”.

The feminine ending “-éze” is however pronounced regularly, no matter what positions it occupies in a sentence, close to how the Americans pronounce “as” in “brass”, “grass” etc., just a little bit longer, again like in “Berber” in British English.

-ê/éze nationalities:

*The other known forms, possibly more authentic, are /Òrinê/, /`Òrinéze/ and /Òrni/ (not Òrini). These forms represent a result of the typical ni-n transition in Old Sarkese, from “ni” to “ny”, then to “ň”(gn) and finally to a simple “n”. They have been, however, recorded only in one of the last idiolects (to learn more see this link here).

* A variant with the first /é/ short, so /Écose/, /Écosê/ and /Écoséze/, is used by more of our speakers. It may be a result of the simple fact, that the name for Scotland was not a common word in the daily life of the Sarkese, so it may have been influenced by French, or may be actually a French loanword in the first place (if it never existed in the tongue of the Old Sarkese), although we do find a long variant in Jersey. In the future, we might switch to /Écos-/ only.

-an/ane nationalities:

In Modern Sarkese, the ending -and/-ande, typical for Standard French, is not natural and it is unclear whether it ever existed in the language. Concerned denonyms are usually formed following the čhan/čhane (dog/bitch) pattern: for singular -an/-ane, for plural -ân/-ane, so only the masculine forms are different (long -ân in plural vs short -an in singular), but there is only one invariable for feminine (-ane). The distinction between short -an and long -ân for masculine is, like with the word čhan/čhân, or moňuman/moňumân etc. crucial for understanding.

Those who speak French should remember that forms such as “Almande”, German woman, or “Nǒrmande”, Norman woman, would be considered as gallicisms.

* In Sarkese, unlike in English or French, we distinguish between the people of Continetal Normandy (lê Nǒrmandê) and the Norman peoples of All the Old Normandy, including the Channel Islands, and beyond (lê Nǒrmân). To learn more see the link here.

List of -ien/iéne nationalities:

The demonyms formed from names ending in a long /-ì/, have the -ien/-iéne ending. The Sarkese pronunciation of the ending is a little bit closer to English rather than French. Those who speak French should be aware that the binding of “i-en”, as if there was “y-en”, like it is pronounced in French, f.e. in the French word “australien”, is unnatural in Sarkese. The pronunciation of /-ien/ the Sarkese /òstralien/ is much closer to how it is pronounced in the English “Australian”, as two separate sylables, with no y-glide: ò_stra_li_en, not ò_stra_lyen.

List of -en/éne nationalities:

-el/-éle nationalities:

Currently we know of one single case in Spoken Sarkese and that is “Spaňél”, for Spanish. The origin of this intriguing form wich may be an ancient term sharing the same origin with the English “spaniel”, or actually a later loan or a modification under the influence of English, remains a mystery.

-e nationalities:

These names and forms are usually French loan words, such as Čhéke from Tchèque, for Czech, Turke from Turque, for Turkish, or Ruse from “Russe”, for Russian,