Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T12:59:22.694Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The social consequences of writing Louisiana French1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Becky Brown
Becky Brown
Affiliation:
Program in Linguistics and Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, 1359 Stanley Coulter Hall, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1359
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies on language shift often refer to the demise of the ousted variety by detailing various stages of language decay and extinction. Problematic for these accounts are well-documented cases of intervening social phenomena, such as language revival movements, which can alter in some way the stages of decline. French Louisiana's situation illustrates language shift interacting with a strong revival movement. In the wake of the revival and in spite of continued shift, another trend is apparent – the writing of Louisiana French. Whereas shift clearly represents a stage of language decline, the creation of a written code functions as a key ingredient for language maintenance. A sociolinguistic analysis of these forces reveals the complexity and the conflict involved in the choice of the written word. (Sociolinguistics, Louisiana French, Cajun, Louisiana French Creole, variation in writing, ethnography, literacy, language maintenance)

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 67 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abshire, Shirley, & Barry, David (in preparation). Cajun French.Google Scholar
Allain, Mathé, (1978). Twentieth-century Acadians, In Conrad, Glen (ed.), The Cajuns: Essays on their history and culture. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana Center for Louisiana Studies. 129–41.Google Scholar
Allain, Mathé, & Ancelet, Barry (eds.). (1981). Anthologie: Littérature française de Louisiane. Bedford, NH: National Material Development Center for French.Google Scholar
Allain, Mathé,(1983). Acadie tropicale. Lafayette, LA: Editions de la Nouvelle Acadie.Google Scholar
Ancelet, Barry (ed.). (1979). Jean l'lours et la fille du roi. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana Center for Louisiana Studies.Google Scholar
Ancelet, Barry(ed.). (1980). Cris sur le bayou. Montreal: Editions Intermède.Google Scholar
Ancelet, Barry(1988b). L'œuvre et l'ouvrage de Jean Arceneaux, poète louisianais. Études de Linguistique Appliquée 70:13–19.Google Scholar
Ancelet, Barry(1988a). A perspective on teaching the “problem language” in Louisiana. The French Review 61:345–56.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1987). L'Elyssrie à Omère. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Arceneaux, Jean (1980a). Untitled. In Ancelet, (ed.). 15.Google Scholar
Arceneaux, Jean (1980b). Fille cadienne. In Ancelet, (ed.). 53.Google Scholar
Barry, David (1989). A French literary renaissance in Louisiana: Cultural reflections. Journal of Popular Culture 23:47–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourque, Antoine (1988). Trois saisons: Contes, nouvelles et fables de Louisiane. Lafayette, LA: Éditions de la Nouvelle Acadie.Google Scholar
Brown, Becky (1988). Pronominal equivalence in a variable syntax. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Brown, Becky(1989). Naissance d'une littérature, naissance d'une orthographe. Revue Francophone de Louisiane 4(2):45–54.Google Scholar
Clifton, Debbie (1979). Review of Smith-Thibodeaux (1977). Cahiers de Géographie du Québec 23:343–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifton, Debbie(1980). Voyageur. In Ancelet, (ed.). 76.Google Scholar
Coles, Felice Anne (1990). The Isleño dialect of Spanish: Language maintenance strategies. In Klee, Carol (ed.), Sociolinguistics of the Spanish speaking world: Iberia, Latin America, the United States. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe. 304–19.Google Scholar
Coles, Felice Anne(1991). A social and linguistic history of the Isleno dialect of Spanish in Louisiana. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Daigle, Jules (1984). A dictionary of the Cajun language. Ann Arbor: Edwards Brothers.Google Scholar
Deiler, J. Hanno (1909). The settlement of the German coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German descent. Philadelphia: America Germanic.Google Scholar
Dominguez, , Virginia (1986). White by definition: Social classification in Creole Louisiana. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy (1981). Language death. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doucet, Carol (1982). La charrue. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana Center for Louisiana Studies.Google Scholar
Dressier, Wolfgang (1988). Language death. In Newmeyer, Frederick (ed.), Linguistics: The Cambridge survey, vol. 4. New York: Cambridge University Press. 184–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esman, Marjorie (1985). Henderson, Louisiana: Cultural adaptation in a Cajun community. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Faulk, James (1977). Cajun French I. Abbeville, LA: Cajun.Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua (1964). Language maintenance and language shift as fields of inquiry. Linguistics 9 32–70.Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua (1991). Reversing language shift. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortier, Alcee (1894). Louisiana studies. New Orleans: F. F. Hansell.Google Scholar
Fortier, Alcee([1895] 1965). Louisiana folk-tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. [Reprinted, New York: Kraus Reprint.]Google Scholar
Gal, Susan (1979). Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Gelhay, Patrick (1985). Notre langue louisianaise: Our Louisiana language. Jennings, LA: Éditions Françaises de Louisiane.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack, & Watt, Ian (1963). The consequences of literacy. Comparative Studies in Society and History 5:304–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griolet, Patrick (1986). Cadjins et Créoles en Louisiane. Paris: Editions Payot.Google Scholar
Guidry, Richard (1981). Les jeunes louisianais. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Department of Education.Google Scholar
Guidry, Richard (1982). C'est p'us pareil. Lafayette, LA: Éditions de la Nouvelle Acadie.Google Scholar
Guilbeau, John (1972). Folklore and the Louisiana French lexicon. Louisiana Review/Revue de Louisiane 1:45–54.Google Scholar
Guillory, Karla (1980). Le prix. In Ancelet, (ed.). 89.Google Scholar
Hamel, Réginald (1984). La Louisiane créole: Littéraire, politique et sociale, 1761–1900. Ottawa: Les Éditions Leméac.Google Scholar
Hancock, Ian (1977). Repertory of pidgin and Creole languages. In Valdman, Albert (ed.), Pidgin and Creole linguistics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 362–91.Google Scholar
Heath, Shirley (1982). Protean shapes in literacy events: Ever-shifting oral and literate traditions. In Tannen, Deborah (ed.), Spoken and written language: Exploring orality and literacy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 91–117.Google Scholar
Henry, Jacques (1990). Le français nouveau arrivé? Gazette de Louisiane 1(3):1–5.Google Scholar
Hertzler, Joyce (1965). The sociology of language. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Hintze, James, & Oukada, Larbi (1977). The lexical item Creole in Louisiana. Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest 2:143–61.Google Scholar
Hull, Alexander (1968). The origins of New World French phonology. Word 24:255–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landreneau, Raymond (1989). The Cajun French language, vol. 1. Atlanta: Chicot.Google Scholar
Lane, George (1934). Notes on Louisiana-French, I: Spoken standard French of St. Martinville. Language 10:323–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, George (1935). Notes on Louisiana-French, II: The Negro-French dialect. Language 11:5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larouche, Alain (1979). Les Cadjins du Canal Yankee: Problémes d'identité culturelle dans la paroisse Lafourche. Cahiers de Géographie du Québec 23:239–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Page, Robert (1980). Hugo Schuchardt's Creole studies and the problems of linguistic continua. In K., Lichem & H., Simon (eds.), Hugo Schuchardt: Schuchardt Symposium 1977 in Graz. Vienna: Verlag der Österriechischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 114–45.Google Scholar
Le Page, Robert & Tabouret-Keller, Andree (1985). Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and identity. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lipski, John (1990). The language of the Islenos: Vestigial Spanish in Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Menoyot, Fabrice (1987). Une voix cadienne: Jean Arceneaux. Revue Francophone de Louisiane 2(2):38–47.Google Scholar
Milroy, James, & Milroy, Leslie (1991). Authority in language: Investigating language prescription and standardisation. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Milroy, Leslie (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Morgan, Raleigh (1970). Dialect leveling in non-English speech of Southwest Louisiana. In Glen, Gilbert (ed.), Texas studies in bilingualism. Berlin: de Gruyter. 50–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumann, Ingrid (1985). Le créole de Breaux Bridge, Louisiane. Bamberg: Buske.Google Scholar
Newton, Milton (1975). Blurring the north-south contrast. In Steven Del, Sesto & John, Gibson (eds.), The culture of Acadiana: Tradition and change in South Louisiana. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana Press. 42–48.Google Scholar
Reed, Revon (1976). Lâche pas la palate. Montreal: Éditions Parti Pris.Google Scholar
Richard, Kenneth (1980). Le temps se passe long. In Ancelet (ed.) 108.Google Scholar
Richard, Zachary (1987). Voyage de nuit. Lafayette, LA: Éditions de la Nouvelle Acadie.Google Scholar
Rickels, Patricia (1979). Foreword to St. Martin & Voorhies (1979). xiii-xvi.Google Scholar
Ryan, Ellen (1979). Why do low-prestige language varieties persist? In Howard, Giles & Robert, St. Clair (eds.), Language and social psychology. Oxford: Blackwell. 142–57.Google Scholar
Smith, T. Lynn & Parenton, Vernon (1938). Acculturation among the Louisiana French. American Journal of Sociology 44: 335–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith-Thibodeaux, John (1977). Les francophones de Louisiane. Paris: Éditions Entente.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Nicolas (1977). Cajuns and Creoles: The French Gulf Coast. Southern Exposure 2/33:140–55.Google Scholar
Spitzer, Nicols (1982). South of the south. Southern Exposure 10:56–59.Google Scholar
St. Martin, Gerard & Voorhies, Jacqueline (eds.). (1979). Écrits louisianais du dix-neuvième siècle: Nouvelles, contes et fables. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Stubbs, Michael (1980). Language and literacy: The sociolinguistics of reading and writing. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Tentchoff, Doris (1975). Cajun French and French Creole: Their speakers and questions of identities. In Sesto, Steven Del & Gibson, Jon (eds.), The culture of Acadiana: Traditions and changein South Louisiana. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana Press. 87–109.Google Scholar
Trépanier, Cecyle (1989). French Louisiana at the threshold of the twenty-first century. (Projet Louisiane, Monograph 3.) Quebec: Laval University, Department of Geography.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of Census, (1980). Census of the population. Part 20: Louisiana. Washington, DC: Department of Commerce. 3.Google Scholar
de Gravelles, Untel, Marc (1979). Mille misères: Laissant le bon temps router en Louisiane. (ProjetLouisiane, Working Paper 5.) Quebec: Laval University, Department of Geography.Google Scholar
Wagner, Daniel, Messick, Brinkley & Spratt, Jennifer (1986). Studying literacy in Morocco. In Schieffelin, Bambi & Gilmore, Perry (eds.), The acquisition of literacy: Ethnographic perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 233–60.Google Scholar
Wardhaugh, Ronald (1987). Languages in competition: Dominance, diversity, and decline. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel (1953). Languages in contact. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Western, John (1973). Social groups and activity patterns in Houma, Louisiana. Geographical Review 63:301–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whatley, Randall & Jannisse, Harry (1978). Conversational Cajun French I. Baton Rouge: Chicot.Google Scholar
Winer, Lise, (1990). Orthographic standardization for Trinidad and Tobago: Linguistic and sociopolitical considerations in an English Creole community. Language Problems and Language Planning 14:237–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar