Comments for The French Connection at http://www.theind.com , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://www.theind.com Wed, 22 May 2013 23:03:32 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/198#comment-11994 Some clarifications: 1. Louisiana Creole did not come from elsewhere, it developed as the natural reaction to a geographic location encapsulating speakers of many languages who did not understand one another. It was not consciously created, either. We've overwhelming evidence from the first French colonial period (1699-1763), where in the 1730s and 1740s, a number of failed slave insurrections and other petty crimes took place. Witnesses, free, almost free (statue liber) and enslaved) were called to the witness stand in all cases and their testimonies were transcribed as spoken. Many of those testimonies were offered in Louisiana Creole. That is 60 years before the insurrections leading to the revolution of French Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Even then, those who swole the streets of Spanish Louisiana concentrated in very specific regions: 80% in New Orleans and its environs, with the rest in The Attakapas along Bayou Tèche in Verdunville, Charenton, New Iberia, St Martinville and Cecilia/Arnaudville. 2. Louisiana Creole is a language, but is as related to the Romance Creoles of the Caribbean (e.g. Haitian Creole, Dominican Creole, French Guyanese Creole) as Hebrew is to Arabic and Norwegian is to German. 3. Louisiana Creole is spoken throughout the state, in Natchitoches, Rapides, Avoyelles, Pointe-Coupée, St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary, St Tammany, East Baton Rouge, Ascension, St. James, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Calcasieu parishes - natively. Arnaudville is predominantly francophone - whereas all other cities on the Bayou Tèche remain predominantly creolophone (and some bilingual francophone/creolophone). 4. I would not go so far as to declare Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes as a "classic Louisiana" pastime. You know, folks who descend from Acadians in Louisiana historically were in three regions: the Attakapas, some on the Mississippi River (St. James Parish and Assumption parishes), later in lower Bayou Lafourche. That's only 1/6 of the geography of the entire state, and only a handful of speakers of Louisiana French. So, around Orleans parish, along the Northshore, in Natchitoches parish, in Pointe-Coupée, Avoyelles, Rapides, St Bernard and Plaquemines; they didn't learn names like Boudreaux and Thibodeaux until the 1970s when the appellation Cajun was used as a powerful economic and marketing tool to lure tourists into Louisiana. And consequently, that is when they learned of the Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes. 5. No one really knows true approximations of speakers of Louisiana French or Louisiana Creole. The reason is simple: most people do not know what is Louisiana Creole and what is Louisiana French (formally). As more Anglo-Americans entered Louisiana, so did the growing divide among the locals. At one time (namely, during the French and Spanish periods), segregation was between the classes (elite, military, bourgeoisie, literate, illiterate, free, enslaved). Then, Anglo-Saxonims created a new set of paradigms, though along divisions that they claimed were biological - races. The result: as Louisiana Latins began to identify with anglo-saxon races (white, black), they also racialized their cultural identity - white=Cajun=francophone, black and others=Creole=creolophone. Which means that 98% of the time, those who identify as Cajuns are white and say that they speak French and those who are Black or other identified, say that they are Creole and speak Creole. Linguistically, it's a mess, because the linguistic reality of Louisiana's francophone and creolophone populations transcends race and is way more complex than racial identity can ever explain, acknowledge or praise. For more info: http://LatinLouisiana2010.wordpress.com - Christophe Landry Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:43:22 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/198#comment-1225 Mais, pense donc, the Mello joy has been closed for nearly two years; and no mention of the five o'clock Friday afternoon table en Francais at Dwyers! C'est domage. Garde, venir nous voir chere; j'vas vous faire rire. William - William J. Thibodeaux Sun, 31 May 2009 13:01:23 +0100