Linguistic Variations Between Cajun French, Pedagogical French . - CORE

/ʃəmɛ/̃ /həmɛ/̃ “road”), a trait which is also seen in Canadian French (Papen and Rottet, 1997). Apart from the use of /h/, metathesis of sibilants is fairly regular (pistache /pistaʃ/ /piʃtaʃ/ “peanut”), as is the nasalization of syllable and word-final stops preceded by nasal vowels (bombe /bɔb̃ / /bɔ̃m/ “bomb”) (Papen and Rottet, 1997). The syntax of Cajun French, for the most part, strongly resembles that of Pedagogical French. However, there has been significant change due to language contact with English, most notably in the placement and use of pronouns and prepositions. Clitic pronouns used before the verb such as le or la are being replaced by disjunctive pronouns that more closely resemble English pronoun placement, replacing the Pedagogical French form (1) il lui parlait “he spoke to him” with il parlait à lui (Blyth, 1997). Younger speakers of Cajun French also place the partative pronoun zen (liaised version of the pronoun en ‘some’) in a post-verbal position, mirroring English syntax, resulting in the shift from the Pedagogical French (2) J’en ai déjà acheté “I already bought” to j’ai déjà acheté zen (Blyth, 1997): While there are several sources of information in regards to most areas of the linguistics of Cajun French, one notable exception is the extraordinary difficulty in finding information on the lexicology of Cajun French, as it seems that very little, if anything, has been published on this area. There are two available dictionaries of Cajun French: (1) A Dictionary of the Cajun Language, was compiled Rev. Msgr. Jules O. Daigle and published in 1984; and (2) the Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities, was compiled in 2009, with Albert Valdman acting as senior editor but did not focus exclusively on Cajun French. Its reliability, however, in regards to any one of these languages slightly suspect, as it is not clearly indicated which dialect of Louisiana French is the source for any given word or expression. 6

2.2. Mississippi Gulf Coast French 2.2.1. History of Mississippi Gulf Coast French Of the dialects discussed in this thesis, Mississippi Gulf Coast French is the least well known. Mississippi Gulf Coast French was spoken in the area surrounding Bay St. Louis, the primary area of settlement for the French during their colonization of Mississippi. The only extensive study of Mississippi Gulf Coast French, which was completed in 2001, shortly prior to the death of the last of its speakers, focused on the community of Delisle, Mississippi, a small town on Bay St. Louis. The language community in Delisle was one of the last Mississippi Gulf Coast French communities. All of the speakers were elderly, and the remainder of the community was eliminated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The history of French settlement in Mississippi is closely tied to that of Louisiana. Both saw initial settlement at the turn of the 18th century, with settlers of similar backgrounds. However, their settlement histories changed in the 1750s with the arrivals of Acadian refugees in New Orleans. While these refugees settled throughout southern Louisiana to form the Cajun population, records do not show any of them moving east to the area surrounding Bay St. Louis. A very different wave of refugees, French and Creole refugees from St. Domingue fleeing from the revolutions of 1791 (Moreton, 2001), arriving in Mississippi from 1790 to 1810, would shape Mississippi Gulf Coast French. . As a result of the Louisiana Purchase, Mississippi became open to American settlement in 1810 and was made a state in 1817, resulting in a large English population that has shaped Mississippi's character. However, the English settlement on the Gulf Coast was not as significant as a result of the area's lack of suitability for agriculture and limited resources. For similar reasons, there was not a large permanent slave population in the region. Delisle probably had a 7

large transient slave population, as it was used as a stop for newly landed slaves to recover from the voyage from Africa (Caire and Caire, 1976). The occasional runaways may have managed to integrate themselves into the local free Black community that had come from St. Domingue, increasing the numbers of the French speaking Black community who called themselves "Creoles." The relative isolation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast communities was a significant factor in the maintenance of French as the dominant language of the region. However, that isolation ceased in the 1920s with the dawn of compulsory schooling. This was, to be more specific, compulsory English schooling, and the experience was universally traumatic to the Francophone children who were expected to understand English suddenly upon entering the English school system. These children, who formed the last generation of Mississippi Gulf Coast French speakers, refused to transmit French to their children, in order to spare them the same trauma (Moreton, 2001). This decision marked the beginning of language death for Mississippi Gulf Coast French, as the break in direct transmission from parent to child ensures that there are no new native speakers of a language. This in turn ensures that a language will move from endangered to dead within a few generations, when there are no new speakers of the language (Krauss, 1992). For the Mississippi Gulf Coast French community, that death was quick, and almost entirely voluntary. While they do not dislike their native language, the French speakers of Delisle, Mississippi have made no effort to retain their language. They did not teach it to their children or grandchildren. There have been no moves to preserve Mississippi Gulf Coast French as a heritage language or to facilitate its transmission to a new generation. In fact, the last speakers of the dialect did not speak French regularly at the time of the interviews, other than within very 8

restricted familial contexts, placing it at a stage 8b on the EGIDS scale, which is the very last stage of language death prior to extinction. Interestingly enough, this last generation of speakers is also the only truly bilingual generation of Mississippi Gulf Coast French speakers. Prior to the final generation, language contact with English was not as common, as French-speaking communities were relatively isolated. This meant that the parents of the last generation of Mississippi Gulf Coast French speakers did not necessarily speak English. It has already been established that members of the last generation refused to teach their children French to prevent the negative experiences of entering compulsory English education as speakers of a different language (Moreton, 2001). This single generation of bilingual speakers preceding language death is significant, as it means that Mississippi Gulf Coast French experienced radical language shift. This type of shift towards obsolescence is most in situations where there is a great deal of external pressure to shift languages (Crystal, 2000). However, this was probably speeded along by the already small size of the community. English had already become the dominant language of the region by the mid 19th century, facilitating the death of Mississippi Gulf Coast French. Similarly facilitating its death was the fact that Mississippi Gulf Coast French had no written language tradition. There are no available written documents of the language, which makes sense, as the final generation of speakers was also the first generation to receive consistent schooling. Thus, it stands to reason that most written word within the community would be in the dominant language of English. This is of particular importance, as it means that all samples of Mississippi Gulf Coast French used in this thesis will be given in IPA as opposed to a standard written form as the Cajun and Pedagogical French forms will be. 9

2.2.2. Structure of Mississippi Gulf Coast French Moreton placed her 16 participants on a continuum of language retention. The conservative end of the continuum indicated that the speaker demonstrated a greater retention of the dialect's lexicon and grammatical complexities. At the advanced end of the continuum, the speaker demonstrated a loss of linguistic complexity while also using a greater number of innovations (Moreton, 2001). The placement of speakers along the continuum affected the phonology of their speech in certain areas. The different size and contents of the phonemic inventories of conservative and advanced speakers is most pronounced in terms of vowels. Conservative speakers demonstrated eleven vowels (/i/, /e/, /y/, /œ/, /u/, /o/, /a/, /ẽ/, /œ̃ /, /ã/, /õ/), while advanced speakers only demonstrated eight (/i/, /e/, /ø/, /a/, /u/, /o/, /ẽ/, /õ/) (Moreton, 2001). This smaller vowel inventory can be attributed to several factors: (a) normal internal language mergers (b) external pressure from English resulting in the loss or addition of phonemes, and (c) breakdown of transmission and lack of language use (Moreton, 2001). In terms of its phonology, Mississippi Gulf Coast French is both distinct from and similar to Standard French, just as Cajun French is. However, Mississippi Gulf Coast French shows signs of far greater influence from English in its phonology than Cajun French. For vowels, one of the most distinctive differences is the merging of open and closed mid vowels to their closed form, taking the law of position to the end point of its development: /e ε/, /ø œ/, and /o ɔ/ have merged to /e/ (/εdε/ /ede/ “help”), /ø/ (/pœ/ /pø/ “can”, and /o/ (/pɔ:r/ /por/) respectively (Moreton 2001). Also notable is the loss of the front-rounded vowel series /y ø œ̃ / which can be found in both Cajun and Standard French. This loss of rounding has also affected the nasal vowels, where 10

the two back nasal vowels /ã õ/ have merged into the single back nasal /õ/ (/vãn/ /võn/ “to sell”). This back nasal is determined by backness, as it would be in English, rather than by roundness, as it would be in Pedagogical French. Conservative speakers maintain distinctive rounding (Conservative /vãn/ “to sell” becoming advanced /võn/). Advanced speakers do not display distinctive rounding (Moreton, 2001), which may be a more recent phonological development, particularly as some of the rounded vowels, such as /y/, were demonstrated by the more conservative speakers. English has also affected the vowels of Mississippi Gulf Coast French by stress placement on a vowel. While lengthening a vowel in Pedagogical French does not place stress on said vowel, it does in English. Mississippi Gulf Coast French follows the English pattern, wherein stressed vowels are notably longer than unstressed vowels. Stressed /e/ is variably diphthongized regardless of circumstances, while /o u/ are variably diphthongized in loan words from English (Moreton, 2001). Consonants prove to be more stable and less affected by the conservative to advanced speaker continuum. Conservative speakers demonstrated 23 consonants (/p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ, m, n, ŋ, r, l, ɥ, j, w/) while advanced demonstrated 22 (/p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ, m, n, ŋ, r, l, j, w/). The only point of differentiation was the semiconsonant /ɥ/, which was used by conservative speakers but not by advanced speakers. Instead, advanced speakers had seen it merge with /w/, as opposed to remaining a distinct phoneme, resulting in a restructuring of /w/. For example, conservative speakers would say /zɥit/ “oysters” while advanced would use /zwit/ (Moreton, 2001). 11

2.4. Language Obsolescence Several scales measure language obsolescence. The one used here is the EGIDS (Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale) system developed by Lewis and Simons in 2009, based primarily on Fishman's original GIDS system, with additional input from UNESCO's Language Endangerment Framework and the Ethnologue Language Vitality Categories. This has resulted in a scaled system of thirteen levels of language endangerment, which can be seen on Table 1. The EGIDS system allows for greater variance in the status of endangered languages, while maintaining the scaling system and divisions of the original GIDS and allows for a more specific specific placement on a scale, and, importantly, also includes language dormancy and extinction as possible language states, unlike the GIDS system (Lewis and Simons, 2009). Both Cajun and Mississippi Gulf Coast French fall into the very endangered categories on the EGIDS. While Mississippi Gulf Coast French falls decidedly into Level 10 “Extinction”, the case of Cajun French is more interesting. While it would seem that Cajun French, as a readily acknowledged language that is still in somewhat consistent use ought to be reasonably low on the scale, possibly at a Level 6b “Threatened”, that is not the case. Regular transmission of Cajun French does not remain the norm. In fact, it seems likely that, given the steadily rising average age of Cajun French speakers, significantly fewer children are being taught Cajun French than in the past. A significant break in transmission and lack of transmission of Cajun French to children has become the norm. This, along with its steadily decreasing domain of use would indicate that Cajun French should be placed at Level 7 “Shifting” of EGIDS. This is probably an optimistic estimate, as it assumes, without ready evidence, that quite a few members of the parent generation can speak Cajun French. The significant break in 12

transmission occurred during and after World War II, when parents who had attended school after the 1921 began to raise their families, when the Louisiana state constitution banned French from the government and government run institutions, including public schools in that year. Many parents who suffered public humiliation at school as a result of these policies refused to teach their children Cajun French, causing the break in transmission (Rottet, 2001). Thus, many members of the parent generation do not speak Cajun French and cannot transmit it to their children, implying that it might be more accurate to place Cajun French at the Level 8a “Moribund” stage instead, as the majority of native Cajun French speakers at this time were born prior to World War II, in the grandparent generation. Such a break in transmission, and the reasoning behind it, is fairly consistent across obsolescing languages. Dorian (1986) notes that there tends to be a 'tipping point', when acquisition of an obsolescing language tends to slow or cease entirely. This point is usually long in the making, with years of gradual build up negative sentiment towards both the language and the cultural group to which it belongs. Frequently, there is political and social pressure from outside sources to increase the negativity. Finally, it reaches the tipping point, when children subconsciously conclude en masse that it is time to abandon the language of the ethnic group. It is of note that tipping points tend to be inadvertent, community-wide decisions. In smaller towns, residents may be able to point out the exact year when transmission began to break down, because that was the year that children entering school did not speak the ethnic language on the playground. Their older siblings did, but they and any younger children did not (Dorian, 1986). 13

Table 1: EGIDS Stages Level Description 0 Language is widely used on an international scale. 1 Language is widely used on a national scale. 2 Language is widely used within a region, and has government recognition. 3 Language is used within mass media and work environments, but is without government recognition. 4 Language is frequently used, and is transmitted through the educational system. 5 Language is frequently used within the community, but has low literacy rates. 6a Language is frequently used within the community, and there are still native speakers, but literacy is uncommon. 6b Language is still frequently used, but a significant break in transmission to the next generation has occurred. 7 Language is still used among adult generations, but has not been transmitted to the present generation of children. 8a Neither the child bearing generation nor their children speak the language of the community. Only the grandparent generation still frequently speaks the language. (Cajun French) 8b Only speakers of the language are elderly, and they have minimal opportunity to speak the language. 9 No proficient speakers of the language remain, however, vestiges of the language have been retained as a reminder of heritage identity. 10 No proficient speakers of the language remain, and no one retains any degree of connection to the language, sentimental or otherwise. (Mississippi Gulf Coast French) This seems to be fairly consistent with what occurred with both Cajun French and Mississippi Gulf Coast French. Both were languages of a minority culture (Cajuns in Louisiana, 14

the remnants of French settlers in Mississippi) that faced a great deal of internal and external political and economic pressure to stop using their dialects of French. Eventually, the combined forces of the school system and economic necessity triggered the tipping point, at which point direct transmission ceased. In the case of Mississippi Gulf Coast French, this resulted in an already small community becoming even smaller. Several children grew up to become semi-speakers of the language, meaning that they could understand far more French than they could actually speak (Dorian, 1977), continued by the conscious decision of fluent and semi speakers alike not to teach their children how to speak French. As a result, Mississippi Gulf Coast French did not develop ma

Those dialects are Pedagogical French, an international language, Cajun French, an obsolescing language, and Mississippi Gulf Coast French, an extinct language. In order to determine the degree of variation, thirty-two lexical items or phrases that display variance with Pedagogical French are selected from Mississippi Gulf Coast French. They are