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Irrintzi

Cadjin

Anyone know the French cajun?
Is it still spoken by the young cajun people?
What are the differences between Cajun and standard French?
And the pronunciation?
Etc....
Bashar

I think Cajun French has been on the decline since the end of the Civil War when Louisiana was made officially monolingual, English only. Before that, Louisiana was officially bilingual English-French, and the constitution actually said that the laws of the state had to be written in both languages. During the post-Civil War reconstruction, that was changed and everyone had to speak English since then.
Deborah

I've read that only the older generation still speaks it, but that many of the younger generation speak "Cajun English", which has influences and occasional words of Cajun.

While I was looking for information about Cajun, I came across this Wikipedia page about Yat, a non-Cajun-related dialect of New Orleans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yat_(New_Orleans)

I guess that was what I heard someone speaking recently. I met a young woman who I thought was from the NY metropolitan area (New Jersey is what I figured) from her first few words. Then at times she sounded Southern. I thought she was making up a way of speaking or that she had lived in different areas and couldn't decide how to speak. I finally asked her where she was from, and she said New Orleans. But after reading about Yat, I'd say that's what her accent was.
Deborah

The link above doesn't work -- it takes you to the wrong "Yat" entry. But if you google wiki yat new orleans, the first hit will be the right one.
Irrintzi

On the great Youtube, I search Cajun extracts:

I found:

Old Cajun accent (English):


Cajun French


Louisiana french creole:



For me Cajun don't sound like French, I undestand a little what they say.
It is very hard to understand, even for a french speaker.

The French Quebecois is more close for me lol.
David

Re: Cadjin

Irrintzi wrote:


Quote:
Anyone know the French cajun?

Yes.
Quote:
Is it still spoken by the young cajun people?
It has been dying for many years. Some do speak it at home, but they are the minority.
Quote:
What are the differences between Cajun and standard French?

I don't speak French, but I had a French exchange student stay at my house a long time ago...a very uppity Parisian. Anyway, she visited a Cajun community and said "They spoke an old dialect", and were hard to understand.
Quote:
And the pronunciation?

Not sure.

ddog800

Deborah wrote:
I guess that was what I heard someone speaking recently. I met a young woman who I thought was from the NY metropolitan area (New Jersey is what I figured) from her first few words. Then at times she sounded Southern. I thought she was making up a way of speaking or that she had lived in different areas and couldn't decide how to speak. I finally asked her where she was from, and she said New Orleans. But after reading about Yat, I'd say that's what her accent was.


Ahh yeah, so its not just me who picked up on that. I see ppl from New Orleans all the time and hear that.
Julian

Here are some more Cajun YouTube extracts for you:

Cajun English spoken by Justin Wilson:


Cajun French from "The Louisiana Story" (1948):
Deborah

So Cajun English has silent Ss at the ends of words.
David

ddog800 wrote:
Deborah wrote:
I guess that was what I heard someone speaking recently. I met a young woman who I thought was from the NY metropolitan area (New Jersey is what I figured) from her first few words. Then at times she sounded Southern. I thought she was making up a way of speaking or that she had lived in different areas and couldn't decide how to speak. I finally asked her where she was from, and she said New Orleans. But after reading about Yat, I'd say that's what her accent was.


Ahh yeah, so its not just me who picked up on that. I see ppl from New Orleans all the time and hear that.


I speak Yat.
Julian

Deborah wrote:
So Cajun English has silent Ss at the ends of words.


Yes, the S's are usually dropped in plural nouns. See http://langcafe2.myfreeforum.org/about605.html
David

ddog800 wrote:
Deborah wrote:
I met a young woman who I thought was from the NY metropolitan area (New Jersey is what I figured) from her first few words. Then at times she sounded Southern.

That's exactly what it is, basically...it is like a very hard-core version of a New york accent with a Southern twist, and a Southern vocabulary.

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