Stirring the Linguistic Gumbo
Several varieties of French, Canary Island Spanish, German and adash of English flavor Louisiana’s colorful Cajun English dialect.Megan Melanconserves it up.(The research cited in this essay was first published in 2001.)
The ingredients in the gumbo that is southern Louisiana’s linguisticheritage include several varieties of French (17th century,Cajun, and Creole), Canary Island Spanish, German, and, the most recentaddition to the dish, English. All of these ingredients have flavoredthe speech of French Louisiana, yielding a unique dialect called CajunEnglish.
The dialect is spoken mainly in southern Louisiana, althoughemigrations to southern Texas and southern Mississippi have resulted inpockets of Cajuns living in those areas. The Cajuns have been referredto as a “linguistic curiosity,” and, in fact, their versions of Englishand French differ from American English and the French spoken inFrance. So, who are the Cajuns, and where they come from?
Cajuns are descendants of French settlers who moved intomodern day Nova Scotia
History of the Cajuns
Cajuns are descendants of French settlers who moved into the area ofCanada known as Acadia (modern day Nova Scotia) in the early 1600s. Formany years, the territory was ceded back and forth between France andEngland as the spoils of war, and the settlers were left virtuallyundisturbed. In 1713, however, the treaty of Utrecht permanently sealedthe fate of the small colony — it became a permanent possession of theBritish.
The Acadians were allowed to live in peace for a period of time, butbecause of their friendship with the Native Americans living in thearea, and also because of an influx of British settlers, the Britishcrown decreed that all persons of French ancestry must pledgeallegiance to the British government. Beginning in 1755, those whor*fused to do so were deported and scattered across various coastlinesin the American colonies in what their descendants still refer to as legrand derangement.
There are pockets of French culture and language surviving indiverse areas of the United States as a result of this forcedemigration, including Maine, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi andLouisiana. Some deportees also ended up in the then-French-ruledCaribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti, while otherswent back to Europe.
The Acadians (shortened by English speakers to ’Cadians and then toCajuns) were reviled and feared by their English-speaking Protestantneighbors in the American colonies, so they sought out isolatedcommunities where they could practice their religion and teach theirnative language to their children. This isolation led, to some degree,to a preservation of French as it was spoken in the mid-1700s. In fact,some of the lexical items in Cajun French today are essentiallyunchanged from the French of that era, i.e. le maringouin(mosquito) (modern Friench le moustique).
The English that the Cajuns acquired for trading and economicpurposes has been strongly influenced by their native French. Thedialect has also been affected by the assimilation of the Cajun cultureby various other ethnic groups living in the region: Native Americanstribes, German and Irish immigrants, African and Caribbean slaves, andthe Spanish-speaking Islenos from the Canary Islands. More recently,forced schooling in English pursuant to the 1921 Louisiana constitution(which established English as the official language of the state), andthe intrusion of mass media into even the most isolated bayoucommunities, has led to fewer and fewer people speaking French, with aconsequent rise in the use of English. Today’s reality is that Englishis just as much a part of the culture as French, and English is rapidlyovertaking many of the sociocultural parts of the Cajun heritage.
Characteristics of Cajun English
Although there are many dialectal oddities in Cajun English, fivefeatures strike the listener right away: vowel pronunciation, stresschanges, the lack of the /th/ phonemes, non-aspiration of /p/ , /t/,and /k/, and lexical differences. The use of these features hasresulted in no southern drawl at all in Cajun English. Cajuns talkextremely fast, their vowels are clipped, and French terms abound intheir speech. These variations have been studied by a few linguists,more folklorists, and, in a casual way, many tourists.
The vocal differences of Cajun English are both qualitative andquantitative. The qualitative differences (the difference between thestandard form of an English vowel versus a Cajun English vowel) areeasily identifiable. Quantitative differences means that these changesare across-the-board and non-random in the speech of most Cajuns. Someexamples? Diphthongs (or dual-vowel sounds) change to monophthongs(single vowels) in words such as “high.” Standard American English usesa diphthong - /hai/ - while Cajun English speakers use a singleshortened - /ha/. The word “tape,” pronounced in English as /teyp/, is/tep/ in the mouth of Cajuns. In addition, many Cajun English speakersuse the tense version of English vowels, making words like “hill” and“heel” hom*ophones, or words with different written forms whichhave the same pronunciation—/hil/.
The patterns of French are still imprinted on thedialect
Intonation and stress are so striking in Cajun English that entire jokerepertoires have been based on them. The French spoken by the olderCajuns was passed on to their descendants, who found it necessary tospeak English for socioeconomic reasons, and the syllable final/phrasefinal stress of French persists to this day in the speech of Cajuns.Bilingual stress patterns often exhibit a form of mutual borrowing, andeven though many Cajuns do not speak French at the present time, orspeak it very poorly, the patterns of French are still imprinted on thedialect. As has been found in French Canada, English-like stresspatterns are invading the French of the Cajuns, while thesyllable-final stress pattern of the French has seeped into the Englishof the former Canadians. This leads to words such as “Marksville,”normally pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, beingpronounced with stress on the second syllable (with a shortened andraised final vowel sound).
Voiceless and voiced /th/ replacements occur frequently in thespeech of non-standard speakers, and the Cajuns are no exception. Infact, the replacement of the /th/ sounds with a /t/ or a /d/ sound isanother source of the numerous jokes and imitations of Cajun speechmade by others (and sometimes by Cajuns themselves, as in the “CajunNight Before Christmas” recording made by Jules D’Hemecourt). Althoughmany southern English and African American English speakers use an /f/or a /v/ in place of the /th/ phonemes, both Creole and Cajun Englishspeakers use the voiceless and voiced alveolar stops /t/ and /d/. Manybilingual French-Canadians exhibit this same linguistic behavior withregard to the /th/ phonemes, while standard French speakers tend to usean /s/ or a /z/ in pace of a “th” sound.
In Cajun English, words like “pat” sound much like theword “bat”
Standard English speakers normally aspirate (exhale a breath or air)when pronouncing the stop consonants /p/ , /t// and /k/ in stressed,syllable initial position. Cajun English speakers do not, yieldingwords like “pat” sounding much like the word “bat,” with a shortenedvowel sound. The source of this is probably the French language. Frenchspeakers do not aspirate the voiceless stops. The mystery is why theCajun English speakers in Louisiana, many of whom do not speak French,and who are more than 300 years removed from contact with Frenchspeakers, still retain this aberration in their speech.
Lexical differences are perhaps the most apparent to the causalobserver “Boudin,” “lagniappe,” making groceries,” and “get down” (outof a vehicle) are all unacceptable to modern day spell-checkers, yetare quite normal in southern Louisiana (meaning a “rice and sausagemixture wrapped in an intestinal sack,” a “little something extra,”“going grocery shopping,” and “get out of”). Some (like boudinand lagniappe) are borrowings from French, others are calques,or direct translations from French (i.e. making groceries, from theFrench faire les courses and get down out of the car/truck/busfrom French descendre). In addition, various areas of southernLouisiana have vocabulary items and pronunciations which are specificto the community, such as “zink” for “sink” in the New Orleans area.Also apparent from the French influence is the use of definite andindefinite articles. One has a coffee during a visit (and, given thestrength of the coffee, one is grateful not to have “some!”). Frenchendearments (“cher,” a short form of “cherie”, andpronounced “sha”), curse words, and conjunctions are oftensprinkled into conversations (mais I don’t know, me.)
Current state of the language
Despite being subjected to abuse and stigmatization for many years,Cajun English speakers abound. Why would this be? Why would a dialectwhich was considered a mark of ignorance until very recently be heardon the lips of Cajuns young and old? The explanation most applicable toCajun English is that the language is seen as a marker of being aninsider to the community. This is seen most clearly when the Frenchlanguage ability of Cajuns is assessed: that language is dying, and isnow only used among the older folks in the community. However, CajunEnglish use has been documented among even the youngest Cajundescendants, a fact that is easy to verify simply by going to anycafé in any small town in south Louisiana. To be a Cajun thesedays, the necessary and sufficient condition seems to be that you mustspeak Cajun English.
In many communities, a culture survives long after the languageassociated with it dies. In the case of the Cajuns, the differencesfrom the surrounding Anglophone community are quite marked, making iteasier to resist the encroachment of English culture. The retention ofthe unique music, food, and religion of the Cajuns has been aided by ahistory of endogamous marriages, geographical isolation, andstigmatization by the Anglophone community. Despite the fact that thesethings have changed tremendously in the past 40 years, Cajun peopleyoung and old still retain a distinctive flavor in their speech. So,the culture may survive. As long as Cajun English is used as a dividingline between the Anglophones and the long-exiled French Canadians,Cajun English will continue to proliferate.
Dr. Megan E. Melancon is a Cajunand a linguist. Her research has centered on Cajun and CreoleFrench and English in southern Louisiana. Georgia College andState University should offer her some opportunities to exploredialects and language variations.
Some More Cajun Phrases and Resources
alors pas: of course not
cahbin: bathroom
co faire?: Why?
dit mon la verite!: Tellme the truth!
en colaire: to be angry
fais do-do: go to sleep
he’s got the gumbo: hispants are too big in the seat
hot, hot: very hot
magazin: store
make a bill: buy groceries
mo chagren: I’m sorry
my eye! (or my foot!): noway!
slow the TV: turn downthe volume
speed up the TV: turn upthe volume
sussette: pacifier
une piastre: a dollar
Louisiana: Just the Facts
Abbreviation: LA
Admitted to the Union: April 30, 1812 (18thstate)
Capitol: Baton Rouge
Population: 4,315,000 (1994 Census Bureau estimate)
Climate: Subtropical
Flag: A pelican feeding its young against a field of blue
Federal Delegation: Two U.S. Senators Seven members of theU.S. House of Representatives Nine Electoral votes
Government: State Constitution of 1974 provides for 3branches of government: Executive, Judicial, Legislative. The ExecutiveBranch is headed by the governor who is elected for a four year term.The Judicial branch is headed by the Louisiana Supreme Court. TheLegislative branch consists of 39 State Senators and 105 StateRepresentatives. All are elected for four year terms.
Motto: Union, Justice, Confidence
Nickname: Pelican State
Political Subdivisions: 64 parishes (analogous to countiesin other states)
State Bird: Eastern Brown Pelican
State Dog: Catahoula Leopard Dog
State Flower: Magnolia
State Insect: Honey Bee
State Tree: Cypress
State Seal: A pelican and her nest, surrounded by the statemotto “Union, Justice, Confidence” and the words “State of Louisiana”.
State Songs: Give Me Louisiana, You Are My Sunshine
Reprinted courtesy: LanguageMagazine
Suggested Reading/Additional Resources
- ActionCadienne Action Cadienne was formed in April, 1996 as a non-profitvolunteerassociation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Frenchlanguage and the Cadien (Cajun) culture of Louisiana.
- Kreyol Lwiziyen: The Language of French LouisianaResources and links on the creole of Louisiana.
- Dubois and Horvath, “From Accent to Marker in CajunEnglish: AStudy of Dialect Formation in Progress,” English World-Wide19:2: (1998)161-188.
- Dubois and Melancon, “Cajun is Dead—Long Live Cajun: ShiftingFrom a Linguistic to a Cultural Community,” Journal ofSociolinguistics 1:1 (1997).
- Father Jules O. Daigle, A Dictionary of the Cajun Language (1984).
Megan E.Melancon is a Cajun and a linguist.Her research has centered on Cajun, Creole French and English insouthern Louisiana , and more recently, on Georgia dialects. She iscurrently Assistant Professor of English, Speech, and Journalism atGeorgia College & State University.
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