Canada’s Maritime Provinces expelled French-speaking Catholics in 1763 for religious and political reasons. Approximately 4,000 found their way to South Louisiana, a Catholic- and French-speaking territory France had owned from 1682 to 1762. The transfer of the territory to Catholic Spain in 1763 didn’t negatively affect the Cajuns, as they became known. What is commonly called ‘Cajun Country’ now encompasses the three B’s: from Beaumont, Texas, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
The Cajuns’ resettlement forced them to adapt their French to that spoken in the Louisiana territory, thus creating a patois. When the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 increased the English-speaking population, Cajun English evolved out of economic necessity. Translation difficulties and rampant illiteracy led to a fractured grammar. Since Cajun French lacked the plosive /th/ sound, words like they and think turned into dey and tink. Modifiers repeated, with the first modifier meaning very: Da day is hot, hot. Expressive speakers ended sentences with no or yeah for emphasis. But Cajun English did not contain a southern drawl and was spoken at a fast clip.
Cajun English and Cajun French flavor Rings of Trust. But in the spirit of moving the story along and with a nod to the reader, concessions had to be made. For example, bag daer for back there challenged too much. Following the format in George Washington Cable’s books about Creole and Cajun Louisiana (1844-1925), what is written as w’at to indicate accent change, but words with similar sounds remain as they are. This also applies to dôn for don’t. Although too would be more accurate for the pronunciation of the preposition to, the visual conflict with the adverb too meant keeping to as it is. Since too much accent change becomes problematic for the reader, the flavoring in Rings of Trust lies with selected words, phrases, and idioms.
Cajun French is colorful and expressive. Even thought most of today’s 500,000 Cajuns do not speak Cajun French, representative words provided in the glossary still sprinkle conversations. In many cases, variations and spellings exist for the same word or expression. Every attempt was made to list the most common, including the spelling that helped the reader. The colorful aspect of Cajun French also includes profanity, a practice not exclusive to either male or female. Again, variations exist, as do meanings and spellings. Every attempt was made to incorporate the most benign into a character’s personality to avoid translation problems. Some expressions are a bit too colorful.
African-Americans in South Louisiana often have a French accent. This legacy evolved from the horrific slave trade from French-speaking Haiti and countries in West Africa into Louisiana and from the slaves’ proximity to Cajun French. African-Americans also learned English out of necessity, but with a more complicated linguistic challenge as slaves had been born into various languages, learned French for colonial reasons, adapted to Cajun French, then transitioned to English. Thus, African-American characters in Rings of Trust have somewhat of a French accent. It is recognized this accent differs from Cajun French. But attempts to reflect subtle differences led proofreaders to think typographical errors had been made and necessitated an abbreviated standardization.
New Orleans, the city that’s sometimes called the ‘Brooklyn of the South,’ has a distinctive accent that has crept into aspects of South Louisianans’ speech. Founded in 1718, the diverse groups that populated the predominately Creole, not Cajun, city left linguistic prints. New Orleanians often drop the /r/ in their rather hard-edged speech. Thus, New Orleans is actually New Awlins. The city of New Orleenz exists only in song.
Since the setting for Rings of Trust lies approximately 50 miles from Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, the more expected Southern drawl north of the city also crept into that area’s Cajun English somewhat. The characters’ dialogue reflects but does not duplicate the drawl in the South and Southwest. This includes dropping or eating the /ing/ ending.
Most linguists consider Cajun French an endangered language. Draconian efforts by the state of Louisiana to suppress the language in the 1950s led to this unfortunate situation the state now works to correct. The state’s Department of Education recruits teachers from France to re-introduce the language. The program has met with limited success. And, as cable television, affordable travel, and technology have expanded so has the Cajun accent diminished in many parts of South Louisiana. Improved education standards have erased much of the fractured Cajun English commonly spoken in the 1950s, a dialect of its own, actually, without rules.
South Louisianans understand the often heavily accent Cajun English that remains and can slip in and out of the dialect, depending upon circumstances. Much depends upon participants in the conversation, stress and intimacy levels, and so on. If a person speaks a more grammatical English but knows the listener struggles with Cajun English, the speaker usually adapts.
Linguistic upheavals didn’t diminish the spirit of the Cajun people. As their culture spread, other ethnicities in diverse Louisiana embraced the Cajun’s joy of life, a certain melancholy due to the long-ago diaspora, and their forgiving nature. Like their culture, Cajun festivals, foods, and music have become world-famous: Laissez les bon temps rouler. Let the good times roll.
Glossary of Cajun French Words and Expressions
Rings of Trust Page 11