When I learned I was going to New Orleans for a convention, I got all excited and started learning all about Louisiana French from the LSU and Tulane websites, as well as from Wikipedia. Unfortunately, when I got to NOLA I could only find two guys willing to speak French with me: the lead singer for the Cajun band at Mulate’s, and the Haitian cab driver. The rest of the gens, well, if I told them “Merci beaucoup,” they’d just smile and say “A’right.” Seriously, I have had an easier time finding Irish Gaelic speakers than finding Louisiane-speakers.
Next time, I’ll probably avoid NO and go straight to Lafayette or Terrebonne – I love swamp critters anyway. (Mmmm, gator on a stick!) But other than the general guideline of getting out of Orleans parish, where’s the best place to go to ask for some “chevrette sans huile”? Without wasting time going down cul-de-sacs, where could I ask someone “Ti parles français?” and get an answer in kind? M’plait écouter whatever type of Louisiana French, whether Creole or Cadien – but are there any Creole-speakers still around???
I love endangered languages and will practice and support them at every opportunity. Any advice will be sincerely appreciated. Merci plein, vous-autres!
Former Lafayette resident here, but not French speaker. When we lived there, a bit over 30 years ago, there were dialects galore every few miles. My wife was a manager at Trappey’s, the now defunct vegetable cannery in Lafayette, and the women who worked for her said that people from Abbeville, about 15 miles down the road, spoke different French. Given the better roads now and more radio, I’d suspect the differences are diminishing rapidly.
If you really want to find people speaking Cajun French, I’d go to downtown Lafayette and look for older ladies and gentlemen. Try some old cafes, and, after you do that, try some of the smaller towns around Lafayette. You should also drop in on the University - my alumni magazine has articles about the preservation of the language, and I suspect there are some professors there who could help. Mind the gators - UL has a swamp instead of a quad. Every so often they’d row around it and trap the gators who had gotten too big, and bring them to the swamp.
Oh, I loooove the Cajun music, and the zydeco, which is similar but distinct. Thanks for the music link, looks like there’s a Louisiana radio show on Thursdays coming from Cal State Northridge’s KCSN, right near me. A great find! But, since this is a language thread, do you know if the DJ patter and announcements on these Cajun shows are actually in Cajun French? Guess I’ll find out Thursday. Thanks again!
I am from from Louisiana and hearing someone speak Louisiana French natively is very rare and hard to find unless you know exactly where to look and that isn’t New Orleans. Most Louisiana French was killed out as a first language intentionally decades ago like many other languages. However, it still exists in some forms. There is a lot of French words and phrases mixed in with English in cajun country especially around Lafayette. There is a big language preservation movement however and some younger people are taught enough to speak it these days and there is some programming in it.
As a relevant aside, Louisiana was settled by some very different groups of French speaking people with different dialects of the language. The Cajuns are among the most famous of those these days but they were a fairly obscure group through much of their history. Cajun French is closely studied, spoken some, and attempts are being made to preserve it.
New Orleans is not in the Cajun Triangle of Louisiana and isn’t related to it although it was obviously once French as well but settled by very different groups of French speaking people. The French spoken there was an offshoot of Napoleonic French mixed with some others.
The other major French language dialect spoken was/is Creole French like you find in Hatti and elsewhere in the Caribbean. It still exists as a hybrid but it incorporates elements of French, African languages, Spanish, and English.
You might like this online documentary about cajun Mardi Gras called Dance for a Chicken.
I’m from “the other LA” (Cali) and I can find Irish speakers at least once a week at a certain nonprofit org. I can say Dia Dhuit to my pal Ken O’Malley and hear him answer me in Irish. (He’s a Dublin man.)
There are also lots of ex-Louisiana Creoles living in LA, but I don’t know where to go to hear them speak French.
My aunt is fluent in Cajun French. She raised four daughters that had no interest in learning. She visited France and was able to understand most of what they said. There were a lot of differences. The Acadians left French Canada in the 1750’s. Language evolves and changes over time.
There was a time in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s when speaking Cajun was frowned on. Teachers would punish students caught speaking it at school. It was looked upon the same as a black dialect. A lot of Cajun culture was lost. Things didn’t change until the late 70’s. People today are proud of their cajun heritage. At least my aunt is.
When my mama was my age, back in the 1970s, she ran around with a lot of Cajun friends. She told me that at that time, the pattern was that the grandparents (born c. 1880-1900) spoke only French, the parents (born 1900-1920) spoke both French and English, and their children (born 1930-1960) spoke only English and maybe a smattering of French. The children went to English-language schools and had the language beaten out of them. Being Cajun wasn’t chic back then.
You can find some Cajun and Creole speakers, even ones my age (twenties and younger) but it’s HARD and they probably won’t be fluent.
Sacre bleu, alors! All the Luzianne natives are saying la même chose: that the language is almost extinct! That’s not what I wanted to hear…quelle tragédie…
Looks like I was right about one thing…Irish Gaelic really IS doing better than Louisiana French, by comparison…maybe even in the USA…
And where is CODEFIL in all this? (Committee for the Development of French in Louisiana, a branch of state government.) Their website is low on statistics and full up on hopeful platitudes. That’s the Katrina-style of gov’t service for y’all…
When the last native French speaker in Louisiana dies, I will mourn with a Sazerac or twelve. And I hope I’ll be no younger than 120 then.
So, I guess that movie Southern Comfort was all just fiction, wa’n’t it? I don’t mean the shooting and hunting and killing parts, I mean the good parts: the Cajun party with Dewey Balfa singing and playing the triangle, hanging and shooting pigs for the feast, a sweet young Cajun chick asking Keith Carradine “Allons danser!” and him blowing her off with “Excusez-moi”…
So, none of that ever happens?
Merde! I wanted to go to that party.
Without the crazy backwoods hunters chasing me, naturellement.
I’ve spent a good deal of time in Cajun country, Louisiana, Zydeco country, too, listening to the various dialect, music, and, well, the food. The food takes up about all your senses.
One fella you want to know is Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet, who has done a great deal to gain appreciation in the past 30 years for preserving Cajun culture and language. I had a LP record produced by him that was a “repetez” learning of Cajun—gifted it to someone, and can’t find another copy. You might contact him to see if it’s available.
Here’s an LSU French Studies page on Cajun French, with some depth.
Definetly listen to Cajun music, it will give you a good brain boost toward the rhythm of the language. Zydeco, too. The analogy would be that Cajun is like Country music, and Zydeco is like Blues. Both are rooted in Louisiana, with heavy French influence, unlike anything else in the US, but on divergent paths.
My favorite town in Cajun LA is Mamou. A tiny powerhouse of a way different culture than you’ve ever experienced.
My heart is crying for Louisiana now, heartbreaking hard times.
Eh, oui, oui, le bon Docteur Ancelet is prominently featured in the documentary two people recommended, “Dancing For A Chicken,” which concerns Cajun Mardi Gras in the favorite town you mentioned, 'Tit Mamou. A nice little documentary, très joyeuse.
I definitely spent some time with the LSU Cajun French website before my trip. Now all I need is someone to speak it with me! And Cajun music – can’t wait for Thursday (7-9 pm, KCSN 88.5 FM, Los Angeles)!
I have to say, after visiting New Orleans over Fourth of July week I do not really feel sorry for Louisianans. Wait, wait, put those stones away! What I meant was, I did not really see anyone suffering there. I went to a benefit concert for the Gulf Restoration Network, and spent a day in the Lower Ninth Ward restoring a home with Common Ground Relief, and all I saw were determined, hardworking, strong people with plein joie de vivre, full of warmth and hospitality, and by the way they’re way ahead of Los Angeles with race relations – blacks and whites hugging each other, comforting each other. That’s what I saw in my little time in a little part of LA. Some of the best people I have ever met, anywhere.
But damnit, I wish more of them could speak French!!!
tc, you really need to go out into the country in LA to get what you’re looking for— a totally different milieu than NOLA. And, all of South Louisiana is a different place from the rest of the country in it’s mixing of cultures. The warmth and strength has always been there, but currently, they are up against two of the worst disasters anyone can face in the the US. Realize that, and carry it with you when talking about your visit to fellow Californians.
