Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, ?, 1997

Two scholars research Cajun language growth

Francine Girard, a French citizen who is on the French faculty at Centre d'etudes superieures d'Agder in Norway, is in Louisiana interviewing native speakers of Cajun French for her dissertation on the language's syntax.

"I am interested in showing how the Cajun language is evolving, what it has evolved into today, and what the differences are between young and old speakers of French as well as the differences between standard French and Cajun," she said.

Girard said that when she first came to Louisiana five year ago she noticed similarities between the Cajun vocabulary and that of her father who lives in southern Normandy.

"There was something here that reminded me of the French language in that part of Normandy," she said, so she began researching Cajun French.

"I am looking for variations in syntax, and I have already interviewed people 50 to 80 year old. Now, I would like to talk to children, teenagers, and people in their 20s who were raised speaking French at home," she said.

Anyone who is willing to be interviewed or who knows of someone willing to participate is asked to contact Glrard, before October 25, through the CODOFIL office at 262-5810 or 1-800-259-5810

Shane Bernard of New Iberia, graduate of USL and doctoral candidate at Texas A&M University, is collecting information for his dissertation on Cajun history from 1941 to the present.

"I'm mainly interested in hearing from Cajun war veterans and their spouses and from Cajuns who were punished at school for speaking French not only during the 1920s and 1930s, but also in the 1950s and 1960s," he said. From veterans, Bernard would like to hear about their wartime experience as Cajun and what it was like for spouses who remained on the home front.

He said he was interviewing people from throughout the 22 parish Acadiana area and from east Texas as well, and that he needs more information from the post World War II generations. "One person I talked to recaps that as late as 1968, people were being punished for speaking French at school," he said.

"I would like to know what it was like growing up Cajun in the 1950s and 1960s," he said, adding that he is interested in hearing from non-French speakers. "My grandparents speak French, I don't, and I want to know what happened," Bernard said.

He said that he would prefer to have written accounts, and that anyone interested in contributing may send information to Shane K. Bernard, 221 Constance Ave., New Iberia, La. 70563-2553, or by e-mail to bernard3@bellsouth.net.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).