A documentary on language and culture along Louisiana's Bayou Teche. Created by students in the class "Field Research on French in Louisiana" at Tulane University in the spring of 2013.
I love this! I am a Cajun woman born and raised in southeast Louisiana, along Bayou Lafourche, about 25 miles from Grand Isle. I am 73 and spoke French and English from the beginning. I am 5th of 6 children. Dad spoke really good English and French. Mom spoke French, and broken English. I still speak French as much as I can. My 3 children understand French, my son speaks it, my daughters just a bit. Some of the grandkids have picked it up. I am the only girl in my family that graduated high school, but we are all educated, some self educated. I love my Cajun state, my town and my heritage.
I'm French , and it's so fantastic to listen all this differents French , different that standard French. Hope that Cajun and Creole French don't diseapper and the young generation of Cajun can be proud of this legacy. Greeting !
Oh how I love this video. I'm 81 , born and raised in Avoyelles Parish where 99% of the people are french and when I was a young girl, they all spoke french. My maiden name is Moreau. Merci beaucoup cher.
It's fascinating how their entire demeanour changes once they switch to English. If it weren't for their dialect, I would have said that they're all French nationals, not American. Regardless of how much time passed, there's something irrefutably French about them. C'est vraiment fascinant. Merci d'avoir réalisé cette vidéo.
Soyant Américan qui a appris le français au lycée et qui a eu la bonne chance de faire des études à la Sorbonne à Paris, je vous remercie de vos efforts de produire cette piece. La Louisiane pour moi est intéressante car on essaie de préserver ses racines. Je souhaite tous les participants dans ce film et je les remercie pour converser dans leur langue maternale. Pour moi, c'était une expérience inoubliable. Que Dieu vous bénissent tous et Vive le Français dans l'état de Louisiane!
I love my roots... I spoke this to my great grandparents...they couldn't speak english at all... but I lost the practice after they passed away when I was around 12 years old... man I wish I would have kept practicing...my parents and grandparents spoke as well but never made me ... oh how I wish they did
you do love your roots ??? Are you sure ?? i let the french translation of your french name : "Pourciaux" below : "En Anjou, pourciau à rapprocher de pourceau, porc, cochon. Au sens figuré, tu manges comme un pourciau pour tu manges comme un cochon (salement).' Are you still proud of your roots ????
So special to hear Cajun French. Very special to see Mavis Fruge' my sister-in-law work so hard to preserve the language. Thanks to her staying strong. Thanks also to Betty Roy for working to keep Arnaudville history in tact.
THere have been this idea that people of "African" origin speak Creol and "European" speak Cajun French. This program shows that Creol was spoken by both communities. There are some "European" villagers who spoke Creol French and some spoke. Cajun French.
Being punished to speak your language sounds like what the navajos went thru in the 50s and 60s. My parents were punished for speaking navajo EVEN AT navajo schools.
Speaking Polish and other native languages was forbidden in schools behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War--Russian only. History is a burden we must bear and never dare to forget.
This s all music to my ears! My father spoke Creole French and my mom spoke French so I grew up understanding both. I miss being in the midst of French conversation and stories from my family. A story in French says so much more than the same story in English. It's a beautiful language in either dialect.
Mo laim un ta ! Mo né en New Orleans épi mo gin bokou de fami endan LaLwizyan ki parl fransé é kréyol . Mo kontan mo té lévé ak langaj la . Un jou , m'alé pasé li à mô petit-yé !
I kinda got teary eyed...reminds me of my father so much when I here these people talk, my preacher, youth director, father and football coach in Jr high only spoke to us En French...we need to save this culture
BRYKS22 then do it. But do it in the manner with which you can. Learn words, maintain them if you already have french, pass it on. If anything it’s more American to speak it than to speak English which is always a fun thing to tell people who are the English-alone’ers. A language doesn’t always have to revolve around a lifestyle which is what the greatest connection with culture is. Learn what you can from the family and where you can and pass it on.
Uh, I;m pretty sure that's not up to the federal government though. Les gens de la Louisiane parlent pas le francais parce quils veulent pas faire l'effort. Mon francais c'est horrible, mais neanmois je fais l'effort.
PLEASE more videos like this! There is a great deal of educational material in these short phrases for folks wanting to learn the right way to teach their children the vocab, grammar, and pronunciation.
That was wonderful! It kills me that no one in my family speaks Creole anymore, in me they would have had a very willing student! I wish this video had some younger people in it! It's important for them to carry this on or end up like my family!
Raymond Petit There was two types of creole in Louisiana. Creole French, which was the creole style French Language of the white creole populations of the state and creole patois, also known as kouri vini, which is the French-African hybrid language spoken by Creoles of color/black Creoles and was often called “negro French” in the old days. I’m sure you are speaking about the creole patois of the Creoles of color/black Creoles and not the creole French of the white Creoles.
Joshua LeonardoASMR Nobody in Louisiana called it “plantation society French” in Louisiana in the old days. It was just called “français” but when speaking particularly of Louisiana style french, the terms français créole or français Louisianais was used. The creole part of it wasn’t that it was an actual creole language, but that it was a creolized French dialect of Louisiana, meaning that it had borrowed words, and phrases that were not heard in France and also that it was the language of the Creoles (white Creoles). What people are referring to as creole french today was called kouri vini, or patois créole (creole patois) or was even called negro French (français negre) This “plantation society French” crap people are pushing today was a name created by academics in the late 20th century (these same academics also call it Colonial French). Nobody called it any of that nonsense in old Louisiana. French in Louisiana spoken among the white Creoles was not like French in France. It had borrowed words in it from Spanish, German, African and Amerindian influence, although most of it was actual French language. Also, there were phrases in it only used in Louisiana. Take for instance the phrase “laissez les bon temps rouler” (let the good times roll) this was a phrase in the white Creole Louisiana French dialect of New Orleans. To the ears of the French, it would sound odd because it’s an American phrase but in french language. But in actuality, all languages in Louisiana were creolized as they were not exact as found I. The mother countries of those languages. Not saying they were textbook definitions of a creole or mixed language, but were creolized from its original through borrowed words and phrases particular to Louisiana.
I’m learning French and Louisiana Creole currently to pass on to my future grandchildren. My adult children no longer live with me so I have to pass the language and culture down to the future grandchildren and look forward to it!
It's so sad children were punished for speaking French. Instead of being happy and proud that these children were bilingual, they did everything to have them only speak English.
Very cool documentary. I hope our neighbors to the east will be able to preserve their language and culture despite all the resistance over the years. We have a lot of Cajuns in Texas and we love the food, especially in Houston and East Texas. Sadly, none of my Cajun friends growing up spoke the language. Their parents could, but they didn't speak it to their children. I have been living outside the US for many years and may return home for good in the next year. I think one of the first things I will do when I get back is visit the French speaking part of Louisiana.
Ma femme et moi espérons trouver des emplois comme enseignants de Francais en Louisiana l'an proclaim. Il serait formidable d'avoir la chance de rencontrer ces gens que l'on volt dans CE video. Vive le Francais et vive les Cajuns.
Such a good documentary, I just came back from a visit to Quebec and the North-American French speakers sound so interesting to me. I learned French in school and like to read and speak it, I read Maria Chapdelaine and will start reading Pélagie-la-Charrette about Acadiens gonig back to Nova Scotia after their deportation. When I'll visit the US I will definitely come to Louisiana and listen to Cajun speakers: I find it so sad that children were punished for speaning their mother tongue, this also happened to children in my home town, Vienna where Czech speaking kids were punished if they didn't speak German in school. Today, we often experience problems of the opposite nature: immigrant children that can't speak the majority language well or barely at all. Speaking various languages is so important for our human development, speaking to parents and grandparents in their language is invaluable❤
Je suis Québecois et bilingue.J'aimerais bien un jour avoir la chance d'aller la bas parler avec ces gens. Ce serait un honneur de les rencontrer. Merci pour ce documentaire.
J'aime la musique que la femme joue à la fin de la vidéo! Je suis étudiant qui apprend le français en Corée du Sud. Avant, je ne connaissais pas l'histoire de Cajun, mais grâce au vôtre , maintenant j'ai appris tout :) Merci pour votre vidéo et à votre santé de la Corée :D
I'm Haitian American born in Miami my family is from Haiti and few family members from Martinique on my mother's side so we are Caribean creole/French Antilles People. I grew up speaking both French and Haitian Creole and I understood a lot of Louisiana Creole its kinda the same but Louisiana people speak with a strong American accent you can tell they are from America the tone is very American where as Haitian's Martinique french sounds more native french. But I really want to visit Louisiana it's great some people still speak Louisiana creole/french I love it.
We speak with the accents that our people spoke since the colonial times which is why when you hear us speak in English our accent is nothing like our southern neighbors
Quels beaux témoignages. Il est tellement difficile pour les francophones du monde entier de comprendre la réalité et l'histoire contemporaine des Cajuns et Créoles des États-Unis. Bravo pour ce document.
This is a very well done video that captures the spirit of a proud people who want to preserve their culture, language, and a way of life. I also appreciated the various forms of beautiful art in the background of several of the Cajuns and Creoles being interviewed. Kudos to the students at Tulane University for putting this treasure together!
Ça fait chaud au coeur d'entendre ça. Ici au Québec on s'inquiète beaucoup sur l'avenir de notre langue, y en parlent constamment dans les journaux, à tel point que les gens banalisent. Mais c'est très important, comment en témoigne les gens de la Louisianne. L'Amérique Française ne mourras pas.
je crois que la langue au quebec est en train de se perdre. vous savez que c'est vrai. tous les statistiques le montrent. le francais, lamentablement se perdra dans l'amerique du nord si rien nest pas faite au respect. je suis pas francophone, je suis hispanophone, mais j'aime bien le francais de l'amerique meme si je ne suis pas francophone. peut etre que c'est des simpaties pour des freres de langue romane.
Grocerie, épicerie ... Très intéressant documentaire. J'ai visité la Louisiane surtout La Nouvelle Orléans mais parlé une seule fois en Français avec une guide de plantation. Continuez !
Now I know why my mom says,"Uhhhhh," a lot in English. I heard so many "uhs" when they were speaking French. My mom had to learn English as a child because she spoke Cajun French. My dad was taught English first because my grandma thought it was the best thing since they were punishing the kids for not knowing English. He understands French, though. They used it to talk about us kids, so I don't know it...well, only a few phrases and the slang curse words. Now I wish I did know it. :)
My great great grandparents were creole.. native tongue, creole French, Lafayette Louisiana.. they had 15 children, 13 lived.. as soon as they went to school, although their highest grade was second grade, the language was completely gone.. you can imagine what traumatic experiences they went through to completely fear speaking their native tongue… at that time, once the elders passed, the kids started having kids and going to school.. French was gone… aside from portraits, I’ve never seen my 3rd great grandparents, they passed in the late 1930s early 1940s, but I know how my gma looks.. idk if it was a dream but she visited me and I have a visual of her standing on a porch fussing at me in French.. it’s never left my mind
It's amazing that some folks sound exactly like the Acadians in New Brunswick Canada and others sound closer to Kreyol spoken in some of the Caribbean islands. I found a book by Alcee Fortier that documents the 'gumbo' language of Louisiana.
Ne lâchez pas les Louisianais, continuez de parler français et de tisser des liens avec les autres peuples francophones d'Amérique et d'ailleurs dans le monde. Vive la Louisiane!
Tres joli vidéo, émouvant. Soyez fiers de votre heritage, longue vie au Francais Cadien, au creole et toutes les formes de francais parlées en Amérique. Longue vie a la Louisiane francaise! Que les nouvelles génerations aprennent a parler Francais et a preserver ce trésor qui n'a pas de prix. (excusez mon orthographe, j'ai un clavier en espagnol)
Très bon ton français, à part quelques accents sur les « e » et « a » (accent grave è et à ) et la cédille sous le « c » de français, probablement absents sur un clavier espagnol, il ne te manque qu’un « p » pour le verbe apprendre. L’accent grave sur le « à » sert à différencier la « préposition » du « a » de l’auxilliaire avoir. Está orgulloso de eso! Tentative en espagnol.. saludo desde Québec.
I'm from Louisiana and it would have been nice to see some diversity in this video. My nanny was Cajun french from Layfayette and she would only speak it around her family. I wish she would have taught us more than just hello, how are you doing!
Merci beaucoup pour cette belle introdusction au monde du francais louisianias et la beaute de son vocabulaire. Moi je suis irlandais et j'ai appris le francais metropolitaine ai lycee mais ce patois est aussi beau que ca
Quel plaisir d'entendre parler français en Louisiane et de découvrir dans ce documentaire Mavis Frugé et Maud Courville dont j'ai apprécié l'hospitalité à Arnaudville.
Pour tout le monde au reste des E-U que les médias ont fait croire que toute la Louisiane est comme les gens de Duck Dynasty, ça montre qu'on est bien différent que ça au sud de l'état. La différence entre le nord et le sud est comme jour et nuit. Asteur je vis à Ruston épi c'est difficile pour moi. Le manger c'est pas si bon qu'au sud. Ici les gens sont pas si marrant ni si ouvert que chez nous-autres. Eux-autres a une différente entendement de la balance de la vie en faite. Beaucoup des gens ici au nord sont plutôt racistes et xenophobes; en faite un bougre m'a dit "Speak English, you're in America!" quand j'parlais en français avec ma grand-mère. Quand j'ai entendu ça j'pouvais pas le croire.
11:43 I feel the same way, too. I might never be able to speak fluent French, but with the help of my mom and the lessons I learned from my VHL Supersite online class, we could understand one another. I understand you speak Kouri-Vini, and that's good. But you must know, not everyone speaks perfect French like you.
I am making it my mission as a cajun mother to teach and learn Cajun French with my children. I don’t want our language to die Nd the fact they forced us to stop speaking French makes me upset!
Creoles are not just of color, there are white creoles. Actually creoles were only white for a long time in Louisiana, later on came along creoles of color. There is a distinction between white creoles and mixed race creoles....white creoles are called "French Creoles" and mixed race creoles are called "Creoles of Color".
My family are french creole's. Fuselier, Fontenot, Guillory, Soileau or some of my ancestors surnames. They all came from France to Louisiana. Creole only meant a 1st generation person born in Louisiana from someone directly from France. Later on it took on other meanings. Cajuns are the french decendants of Eastern Canadians. Who mostly came to Louisiana by way of Canada instead of France.
Creoles was white in Louisiana for a long time due to colonialism.. but! the truth is Creole or kreole was created by the Portuguese in the Caribbeans that is what they called the slaves who was mixed with the Spanish. the original Creole is dark-skinned people that is why the country of Haiti!.. St. domain!.. is the capital country of Creole on the Western Hemisphere. and we all know it is a independent Black Country in fact the First Independent black country on the Western Hemisphere.
Jerni Michelle Godmother 1005 Thats not correct. The Spanish are documented to have created the word creole to mean a person of Spanish descent, born in the colonies instead of Spain. This is documented. Haiti uses creole identity because the French copied the Spanish in Latin America that was using criollo (creole) to call themselves. We can move to producing documented material if you disagree. The French brought the identity of creole to Louisiana as well and the Spanish reinforced it in Louisiana.
J'ai appris le créole en Martinique ou je suis né mais à l'école nous avons écrit en français international mais pour la majorité du temps....nou palè creol mem parmi nou gen blan.
It's as varied as the regional french in France. Interesting as a Welshman living in france. Bon chance mais ami. We had the same problem with Welsh 50 years ago. Now it's a strong language again and used in many places in Wales every day. Ironically we have had Welsh speakers from Argentina(patagonian) come back to Wales to enrich the tongue.
Cc les cousins ici en France on a un peu le même problème avec les langues d oc ( langues anciennes) parler avant le français qui va varier selon la région voir même à 10 km. après les racines c'est tout pareil c'est toujours du français juste super !!!!! La bise les cousins !
What is the name of the song they play in the hall at the beginning of this video? It sounds a little like D.L.Menard's "Rebecca Anne," but I don't think it is.
Les cajuns sont certainement beaucoup plus attachés au français que les Français ne le sont pour leur propre langue. En tout cas, je reste fier de ma langue et de sa propagation à travers le monde, sous toutes les formes qu'elle y recouvre.
@@SB-gq3ir Il n'est pas menacé ? Avec tous les Français qui ne sont pas assez attentif et qui la maltraite, je peux vous donner pleins de contre-exemple, parce qu'avec le cranberry qui s'introduit de force au lieu de la canneberge, avec tous ces cute, live, like, vous voyez très bien de quoi je parle. Parce qu'aujourd'hui on danse dans un crew, et si on a faim on va au drive commander des hot chicken wings avant de se poser devant my tf1 parce que c'est plus fun, quand nous vient l'idée par The Voice de vouloir nous aussi, passer un casting. Moi je préférerais danser dans un groupe et finir ma soirée en allant commander mes pièces de poulet épicé avant de me poser devant une chaîne qui ne m'abrutira pas. Évidemment je ne pourrais rien contre TF1 qui m'oblige à aller sur MyTF1/news histoire d'avoir les nouvelles (puisqu'il me l'impose toujours en anglais) si bien que j'en oublie que casting en fait, c'est une audition...
I am at a loss how these people can speak these languages. Do they teach in school? The older folks obviously learned from their parents but how common are creole and cajun french? Ive never been to luoisiana but i know people who have visited new orleans and they never heard these languages in new orleans. Just curious.
You wont hear Cajun or Creole French in New Orleans. You have to go to other areas for that. For instance where I live the older people talk French a lot, my generation not so much. I'm 61 and though it was spoken by my parents in the house I'm the only one who can speak it well. I lived next to my grand parents who spoke only French to me so I learned French right alongside of English. I still talk french to other Cajuns who do as well when I can. Me and my brother sometimes speak French just so we don't lose it. One has to be careful when speaking to a Cajun from another region because the same words have different meanings. For instance the French word for turtle where I live means a woman's privates in the south western part of Louisiana. Could be embarrassing for me to tell someone from the west I like to eat turtle using this word. See what I mean ?
@@gillisdanos9354 I hope you preserve that to the younger generation. I think it’s important preserve this interesting culture in Louisiana. America needs to respect and preserve any sort of languages like this. It adds to the uniqueness and beauty of America.
Very interesting documentary. It was wrong for the schools and Louisiana to prevent the children speaking in French. In the U.K we were taught to speak French in year 7, unfortunately we were only taught until the end of year 8, not sure why, as other schools were taught Spanish and German too, right up to year 11 when they were 16. How can anyone be expected to learn a language for one year only and be expected to understand it and be fluent without any further help. I learned the basics at school, I was also the only one to count to 20 in French faster than rest of the class. lol I think if we had been able to carry on until we were in year 11, (16) years old, we would have had more of a chance of conversing with other's speaking the same and actually understanding it and being able to reply. At school, you were taught how to say words in French, but not taught much in a way of conversational French. In other words, you could say something to them in their own language, but be unable to answer their reply as you were'nt taught how too?
+Marie Lecomte-Tilouine C'est un choix des francophones louisianais, une façon d'affirmer leur spécificité culturelle et linguistique. Par ailleurs, meme si nous savons que ça vient d'"à cette heure", en français louisianais je dirais que c'est interprété comme une seule unité, et tout comme on n'écrit plus "main tenant" en français de France, on a choisi d'écrire "à cette heure" en un seul mot. Mais je conviens qu'il y a un peu d'arbitraire dans ce choix, étant donné qu'on emploie l'orthographe du français standard pour représenter la plupart de la langue.
The lady goes from speaking creole to saying France and French like anyother English speaking American. Idk but it made me laugh for a long time. 11:30
For all that wish to talk Cajun just go pass a couple of months in new brunswick canada and here you go! :D And c'est moitier-moitier and same accent! Gaspesie too but it's less english Bon, je sais ou aller si je vas au Étas un jour! M'aller jaser un ti brin avec les Cadiens!!
You're right! Sorry I never noticed that before. Indeed, the question they were asked to translate was "He would fix the car if they paid him enough," not "He would sell the car." Thanks for pointing that out. Je vas essayer d'arranger ça dans la video! Merci bien.
