Can you speak/understand Louisiana French?
Let's start with a listening exercise. Good luck!
An interview : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPs_KSdRcnY with transcription 9 minutes...take a quick look.
Another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTqI7rF2ys 8 minutes ...very interesting also.
More difficult: Cajun French with ENGLISH subtitles!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvPqifZqjM4
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-assayer = to try
-asteur = now
-autrement que = unless
-une barbue = a catfish
-un brème = eggplant (British = aubergine)
-une bête à Bon Dieu = a ladybug (British= ladybird)
-un cocodri (cocodril, cocodrie) = alligator
-cogner = knock (Quelqu'un est après cogner à la porte. Someone is knocking at the door.)
-dîner = to have lunch, to have a noon meal
-la drigaille = rubbish, trash (or trashy people)
-échapper = to drop Il a échappé sa boisson par terre.
-étouffée = a style of cooking in which the food is smothered by being cooked while covered.
-Ca fait chaud. = The weather is hot.
-faraud = well-dressed
-une fromi = an ant
-prendre la galerie = to go out on the porch
-une grègue = a coffeepot
-hormis que = unless
-icitte = here
-itou = also, too (Moi itou, je veux partir.)
-joliment = very (Ca va joliment bien aujourd'hui.)
-lagniappe = something extra given at no cost, from Spanish "la napa" meaning "something extra"
-boutique de linge = a clothing store
-une machine à herbes = a lawnmower
-la mangeaille = food
-mouiller = to rain
-nous autres = us (Venez avec nous-autres.)
-propter = to clean
-qualité = kind (Quelle qualité de crème tu veux?)
-quoi faire = why
-radoter = to talk incessantly
-le souper = the evening meal
-du tactac = popcorn
-le voisinage = neighborhood
-zirable = disgusting
-une z'oie = a goose
For the curious, here you have a French-English glossary and you can listen to the pronunciation of some of the words. Click on the underlined words for pronunciation. From LSU (Louisiana State University) Department of French Languages: http://uiswcmsweb.prod.lsu.edu/hss/french/Undergraduate%20Program/Cajun%20French/item49567.html
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In 1915 it became compulsory (obligatoire) for the Cajuns to speak English. (The Americanization Movement) Children were punished in school for using French; they were called names like "swamp rat" and "bougalie", forced to write lines ("I will not speak French in school"), made to kneel on kernels of corn and slapped with rulers.
In 1968, a Lafayette native James Domengeaux, a US Congressman and State Representative, created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), whose mission was to promote and develop the use of the French language in Louisiana. His objective was to make all Louisianans bilingual in International French and English. He worked with political leaders in Canada and France, even former French President Georges Pompidou. He found Louisiana French too limiting so he imported Francophone teachers from Europe, Canada and the Caribbean to teach normative French in the schools. He lost support because many Louisianans wanted Louisiana French, not "Parisian French"!
Thank you Jacques for giving me this article from Le Figaro March 20, 2015. To read it on the internet, a subscription to the newspaper is necessary. Here is just the beginning of the article: (http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2015/03/20/01003-20150320ARTFIG00183-la-miraculeuse-survie-des-francophones-de-louisiane.php
Jane
A long blog entry today! It's still vacation...you have a lot of free time!!!!????
And if you are interested in statistics (just take a quick look): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Louisiana_parishes_by_French-speaking_population
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