A video about Cajun country

[bjd]

Interesting to watch about the attempted revival of French speakers in Louisiana. There are subtitles, but I was surprised how easy to understand the accent is. Reminds me of Quebec accented French.

www.france24.com/en/americas/20200703-united-states-in-louisiana-cajuns-are-keen-to-preserve-their-identity

[kerouac2]

That report is good because it is long enough not to be as superficial as most of them.

In the 1960'z, we had a shortwave radio and would often listen to the fisherman off the coast, who still spoke French to each other.

[bixaorellana]

Fascinating, Bjd. I looked up Fanny Allard because I thought her rather harsh and twangy accent meant that she was either from the US or Canada. Not at all -- she is French. Actually, she needed to tone down the correct French a couple of times, as the pronunciations of "Thibodeaux" and "boudin" have long been Americanized.

This was interesting to me on all kinds of levels. For one, my child (born in 1970) was in the program to "re-learn" French in the New Orleans public schools. It was some kind of exchange program, and all the teachers were young people from France. It was a little bit mocked because so much of the national backgrounds of the population of Louisiana are other than French. Regardless, my son learned to say "Bon jour, Claude" (his teacher's name) like a perfect little French kid, although he never actually learned French.

My grandmother was born at the end of 1899 on the side of the Mississippi River which she said was called "France" back when she was a kid, the other side being "England". She told me that when she went to school the children were made to speak only English. This wasn't a problem for her, since her family wasn't French-Louisianian, but she said it was really rough on other children who'd never learned English. Her sister-in-law, my godmother, who was @7 years younger than my grandmother & from a 100% French family, never forgot how to read French and indeed had a Louisiana French accent, though not so much the Cajun kind.

Because the presentation was on Cajun culture, it kind of skates over the fact that many people of French descent in Louisiana are not Acadians. There is even a level of snobbery about that, to which I'm not privy since it's not my culture. It comes out in things like old ladies telling you, "We are real French, not Cajun."

I went to University in Lafayette and pretty much all the people my age from right around there did not speak French, even though their families did. The ones from my age group who were more rural or from "further down the bayou" sometimes could speak it. That's alluded to in the OP video, calling the boomers the lost generation because they didn't learn French. It was common back then to go into a family-run grocery store and hear the proprietors speaking French, although they'd immediately switch to English when we college kids walked in.

One thing I have noticed is that young people from that area no longer have the classic strong Cajun accent, sounding more mainstream American. People my age from the area might have some of the accent or very little. I found this video from 2014 which illustrates that. The first man speaking, who I'd say is @65 has a little bit of a Cajun accent. But Mr. D.L. Menard, who would have been 82 at the time of the video, has the real thing. You can hear him at 1:50.

[lagatta]

Of course Acadians in New Brunswick have an accent much closer to Cajuns in Louisiana than most Québécois do. And the accent here has become more "international", at least in Montréal. There are quite a few young teachers from New Brunswick in Louisiana. I'll try to see that documentary later today; I don't have time now and am listening to a morning news programme.

[casimira]

Thanks ladies for the videos. 
It's funny that almost any town, small city, in that region lays claim to the title of being the Cajun Capitol. 
In my earlier years when I first came here I spent a significant amount of time in many of those towns during holidays when it was cost prohibitive to go to NY for just 4 or 5 days. Many of my fellow students at Loyola would invite me go and stay with their families and it was indeed a whole different world for someone like me who had never ventured that far at my age to anywhere outside of the NE US.
The food, music, language and hospitality was so rich and unpretentious especially in comparison with the NE and its stark coldness. 
One can't help but realize how much impact the weather and environment has on the way of life "down there".
And, everyone knows everyone and families that married into another makes for everyone to be related in some way, be it aunt, uncle, lots of cousins. I had a hard time keeping up and that's saying a lot coming from such a huge clan myself. There were a lot of similarities in both our cultures.
The procurement of food was a big one. Many foods passed my lips that were so lovingly prepared but, to this day I don't know what many of them were. Raccoon, squirrel, frog legs (delish!), nutria ,am sure were just a few of the creatures that were hunted and trapped and thrown in the pot with all manner of spices and vegetables and herbs lovingly grown in everyone's garden. And, of course the seafood.
Even the rice, something that was a special treat for me as all we ate in my home was potatoes, was grown in the very first rice paddies I had ever seen outside of movies set in Viet Nam or SE Asia.
And, there was always music and dancing. 
Tiny shacks on the roadsides would appear to be moving involuntarily as you drove by.
Most especially on Sunday late afternoons, you could see them vibrate and the music interspersed with laughter could be heard for miles until you passed the next one miles down the road.
I have one particular special memory of going to one of these places in 1973 during a Thanksgiving break. Unbeknownst to me beforehand, we went and there in the small building that held 100 people max, was Arlo Guthrie and his small band. Arlo Guthrie Live in LaRose. I had a cassette tape of that concert for many years, (it may still be here buried somewhere) but, the tape is still in my head and plays sometimes like when I see videos like these.
A fellow NYer, (Guthrie hailed from Brooklyn, L.I.) and I, in the same room full of heartwarming fun loving people, it is a memory I shall never forget.

As an aside, there is a wonderful movie, Passionfish, that captures very much of what I have attempted to describe for y'all. I don't want to give away too much of it so please if you run across it, check it out.
It's likely the best movie I've ever run across that accurately portrays these wonderful people and the rich culture
I can only hope will be preserved by the current generation living there now. 
It's a very fragile thing.
Thanks again ladies for stirring up the memories for me today.

[bixaorellana]

Perfect description of SW Louisiana, Casimira! Very cool about Arlo in LaRose, too.

Thanks for reminding me about Passionfish. I saw it when it came out because I'm a big Alfre Woodard fan, but wouldn't mind seeing it again.

[lugg]

Of course I know almost nothing about this part of the world but I really enjoyed reading this thread. Of course it led mn in different directions which is the beauty of AP