Is Cajun French very different from European French?

[raccoon]

From Canadian French?

[rickrok66]

1. French, Cajun, Quebecois

I got some information for you from the French about.com site. Laura K. Lawless is the host and may help you some more. I posted a link which has a list of Quebec word and their French equivalents. I also believe the Quebecois "condense" words together like unofficial contractions. Good luck.


The huge exodus of Acadians that took place from 1755 to 1762 by order of Governor Lawrence was known as the Grand Dérangement.

The Acadians were forced to leave for three reasons:

Most Acadiens refused to pledge allegiance to the King of England.

The English were worried about the very high birth rate among Acadians.

Getting rid of the French-speaking Acadians made room for more English speakers.

The majority of Acadians settled in Lousiana.

Cajun French is the French patois spoken in Louisiana.
Beginning in 1755, the Grand Dérangement forced Acadians to leave their homes in eastern Canada. Many settled in Louisiana and their French language gradually evolved into what we call Cajun French.

The word cajun comes from acadien.


http://membres.lycos.fr/clo7/histoire/canada.htm

[tocqueville]

2. yes but still understandable without subtitles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_French

Cajun differs in some areas of pronunciation and vocabulary from the accepted standard of Metropolitan French. In some cases these are differences that are retained from the western langues d'oïl from which Cajun is descended.

The same pronoun is used for first person singular; je parle in Cajun is the same as in French. However, nous parlons in standard French is always on parle in Cajun French, as it is commonly in all varieties of spoken French.
Past tense constructions are almost all made using the verb avoir (to have) in Cajun French whereas there are a few important verbs whose compound past tense is made using être (to be) in standard French. Thus, Cajuns may say "j'ai passé par la maison" (lit. "I have passed by the house") where standard French would require "je suis passé(e) par la maison," (lit. "I am passed by the house"), or "il a parti" (lit. "he has departed/left") instead of the standard "il est parti" (lit. "he is departed/left").
/a/ is pronounced with tongue towards the back of the mouth, being more like /ɑ/.
/k/, /t/ are pronounced /ʧ/ (before /a/(?) and /i/, respectively).
/d/ is pronounced /ʤ/ (before /i/), as in the word Acadian. (This sound is represented in modern Poitevin-Saintongeais by the digraph jh)
/r/ is pronounced as an alveolar trill or flap rather than the uvular fricative of standard French and other dialects. /r/ is dropped when at the end of a syllable; for example: "mon père" , but "mon père est venu" .
/wa/ pronounced /we/, similar to Quebec French (and also to other langues d'oïl), but also often more like /ɔ/, with a bit of an offglide towards /u/, similar to Acadian French.
Over the years, Cajun French speakers have incorporated many anglicisms (such as truck) directly into the language. Due to extensive contact with English-language culture, business and communications, this is also a common phenomenon in both Quebec French and Acadian French and is gaining momentum rapidly in France. The majority of Cajun speakers have never been schooled in French and thus are not familiar with standard French spelling. As a result, much written Cajun has non-standard or anglicised spellings, e.g. Cajun Les le bon ton rouller for standard Laissez les bons temps rouler.

The first person plural subject pronoun used in Cajun French is "on" as it is in all spoken varieties of French. "On" is conjugated using the third person singular form of the verb. "We speak French" translates as "On parle français". "Nous-autres" can also be added before "on" to clarify; it is also used both in Quebec French and Acadian French. Cajuns tend to have a slight pause after each syllable. Also, the last consonant of a syllable is usually elided into the start of the next one.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Many of the names are pronounced COMPLETELY differently.

As someone who studied 2 years of French, it hurts my ears to hear beautiful last names mangled!

But take Cajun musician Clifton Chenier (pronounced Chuh-NEER')

I've also heard Darbonnier (Dar-buh-NEER') and other names pronounced similarly.

[Bassic]

5. That is not only true of Cajuns though.

There are many Americans who have French surnames, some of them are of Cajun descent, but others are descendants of people who moved from Québec and Ontario to the United States. One of the most famous is Jack Kerouac, whose parents were French-Canadian. In fact his given name was actually Jean-Louis.

Names like Lafontaine, Dugal, Dubois, and many others have been severely mangled by time. But I guess that's inevitable.

[Ellen Forradalom]

6. Kerouac is a Breton name, in fact

He grew up in a French-speaking household in Lowell, MA.

[Bassic]

7. Indeed

The bulk of the initials colonists that came from France and into Canada were Bretons and Normands.

[Bassic]

4. I don't know enough about how Cajuns actuallyuse the language,

but I do know there are some major differences to both Canadian and European French, not the least of which if pronunciation.