F is for Cajun French

[muckefuck]

Cajun French I. Faulk, James Donald. Crowley, La. : Cajun Press, c1977.

Long ago it occurred to me that the truly ironic thing about my dislike of French is if it were some freakish marginalised Romance variety instead of an elabourated literary language with 100 million or so native-speakers, I'd be all over it. I mean, what's not to love about a phonology that turns [akwa] into [o] or [insula] into [il] or verb complex that's got more in common with Swahili or Basque than anything Romance? But, unfortunately, French is associated with France and--even worse--pretentious American Francophiles. I've had to spend my whole life hearing people babble on about how "beautiful" it is while they condemn American English for its "nasality" and German for its "gutteralness", even though French is more nasal and gutteral than the two of them put together.

What I needed, I realised, was a freakish marginalised variety of French, one without any snob appeal or fawning devotees. I thought Québécois would fit the bill but the Québécois are, if anything, more annoying about their language than the French. I got excited when I found out that there were vestiges of colonial French in Missouri, but finding anything on this dialect turned out to be harder than impossible. So when e. and bunj asked me what I wanted from New Orleans, I told them, "Find me a book on Cajun French."

And they did--but not this one. All they could find was a recent reprint of a turn-of-the-century French work that failed to turn my crank much. Cajun French I (AFAICT, Cajun French II never saw the light of day) came from a fellow language geek at my previous job. (It's to him I'm also grateful for the only grammar of Latin I've ever owned. It's in Welsh.) In its own way, it's leaves as much to be desired as the aforementioned reprint, but it's got more charm.

How much more? Bumloads more. For one thing, it looks exactly like what you'd expect something cobbled together in a teacher's spare time to look; browsing the typescript pages, you can almost smell the mimeograph ink. For another, the concerns are unabashedly parochial. Don't expect to come away from it able to discuss the latest Caro and Jeunet film, but you'll be able to talk about fence-mending, critter-hunting, and going down to the Lucky Seven for milk with practiced ease.

The transcription system used is the kind of "phonetic English" that would normally have me pulling my hair out by the roots, but somehow it works here. And I love the long lists of vocabulary terms; makes up for the lack of a glossary. Besides, if I want some prettified documents, there's always the slick pages on the Tulane University site that I've discovered in the meanwhile. (Plus it's nice to have collaboration for some of the more unusual grammatical features identified by Mr Faulk, like the loss of the subject pronoun elles or the pronunciation of elle as [al].)

I just can't wait to use some of it on a snooty poseur francophone and have him tell me how atrocious my French is.

Comments

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

"...the Québécois are, if anything, more annoying about their language than the French."

By far, yes.


I've seen that book you've got. It was a product, I suppose, of that 'American folk revival' of the 60s/70s - along with CODOFIL, and Cajun self-awareness/commercialization in general.

Sadly, Creoles had no such "pride boom", otherwise I could refer you to some killer sources for Colonial French and/or Creole. I mean, other than Valdman's work at Indiana University.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I love this entry. Reminds me of the Russian recitation in A Fish Called Wanda. You could also get all gyppy about Occitan, and choose on the spur of the moment whether to snipe at others' snobbery with your inversion or with a sort of rootsier-than-thou, ultra-nationalist medievalism.

OT: I guess there's a whole argot for breaking down the elements of accents, but I have no idea what it is: is this something you've come across?

I'm thinking about habits of speech which may not come under the rubric of accent at all: voice pitch, speed, cadence, where in the mouth the sounds are held, or made, or whatever (such as: what category would "nasal" come under?). The reason it's on my mind is that I'm in Holland and some of the locals sound just like they're from London - until I pay attention and realise they're speaking Dutch. There seems to be some stratum in Holland that has the same pitch, cadence and tics you find in the Thames estuary. So I'm cashing in my "ask a linguist" coupon to ask: does anyone discuss this stuff? What's the current thinking on these aspects of speech?

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

I'll never get it why so many people dislike France, French or French people. Sure, they're smug about their language, but in a sense, a lot of nations are, and I've yet to meet a snooty Frenchman. If I were to abandon a European country, it'd more likely be Italy, but I've never been there anyway.

What's notable about English vs. French is that from my experiences, hardly any native speaker gets the other language's pronunciation the least bit right. Frenchmen speaking English mostly sound horrible, and vice versa.

Frenchmen speaking English

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

This past Tuesday I was at Átame for their Happy Hour and merienda. A tourist came up to the bar next to where I was seated and ordered "one beer". His English sounded very formal, but it wasn't typically State-side or British sounding. When he was served his beer, he walked toward the back of the bar, without paying. I asked the camarero if the beer was gratis. He laughed and shook his head.

The tourist came back where I was sitting and I asked where he was from. He said "France". So I told him that at a bar here in Spain it is customary to pay when you are served. He seemed a little surprised. Later I told the camarero that the tourist was from la republica de Sarkozy.

As you know there can be a lot of animosity between different national/ethnic groups in Europe. The Spanish don't seem to care so much, just as long as they spend money.

Chuck

[pne.livejournal.com]

Plus it's nice to have collaboration for some of the more unusual grammatical features identified by Mr Faulk

Did you mean corroboration?

[exentric.livejournal.com]

They're French isn't THAT different from the variety I speak. :S:S Except for that "aupres de" thing.

[zompist.livejournal.com]

I have a 600-page book on Louisiana creole French:

http://www.amazon.com/Could-Turn-Tongue-Like-That/dp/0807127795

I don't think I'll ever really use it, so you're welcome to have it...