‘en été Jêrri ne nos appartcheint pas': Tourism, ‘patois’ and the press in France and Jersey, c.1890–1960

The growth of tourism and the development of cultural regionalism were closely entwined in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Europe. Advocates of the cultivation of regional culture promoted regional dress, architecture, and cuisine, which tourist guidebooks in turn presented as attractive to a region’s would-be visitors. Language, however, could seem a potential sticking point: whilst regionalists favoured the preservation on linguistic diversity, travellers might be expected to view this as a potential barrier to communication. This article thus examines the position of local languages in the age of regionalist tourism. Drawing on a range of examples from tourist literature covering France and the neighbouring island of Jersey, it first examines how such languages could be presented for consumption as part of the authentic cultural experience which tourists sought. It then turns to the local press of Jersey and the Pyrenean spa town of Bagnères-de-Luchon, two highly touristed areas, to consider content written in the local Jèrriais and Occitan languages. This content emerges as a locally marked linguistic space which was understood as excluding tourists, and where the latter’s place in local life could be discussed and negotiated, with differing approaches in each location.