Bayou Lafourche French
Particular mention should be made to the francophones of Bayou Lafourche. There’s an interesting linguistic phenomenon here that is absent everywhere else in Louisiana. Some francophones along Bayou Lafourche pronounce the G and J in French as Hs (as done in Spanish), and others pronounce these two letters in the ordinary manner of other francophones.
Historically, Chitimachas lived along here, in addition to Bayougoulas and others. The H in their language is always aspirated (never silent, unless it is a loanword from a Latin language).
Cajunists and some linguists argue that the aspirated H (voiced for the letters G and J – j’ai jamais été – h‘ai hamais été) in Bayou Lafourche French is an inheritance of Acadian French (French spoken in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick, Canada). I maintain that these individuals are seriously overlooking the geo-social dynamics and history of Bayou Lafourche settlement. Let’s look further…
Towards the end of the 18th century, Bernardo de Gálvez was successful at luring Canary Islanders to the upper Bayou Lafourche region in what became known as The Brulis settlements (Burnside, Brusley, Brulee, Brûlé St. Martin, etc – named as such for the landclearing that required burning trees), Valenzuela and others. These Canarios were hardly speakers of the same variety of Spanish, as linguists point out. They originated from Tenerife (45%), Gran Canaria (just under 40%), Gomera (about 300 heads total), La Palma and Lanzarote, each with its distinct terrain, lifestyles and linguistic differences – all together, 2,110 souls. That’s more than half of the total amount of Acadians to even make it to Louisiana. One thing is consistent, though, their Gs and Js are always pronounced as aspirated Hs in English (Jalisco = /hah lees ko/).
There were a handful of Acadians that were sent to live in the area in 1770, just before the Canarios arrived (between 1778 and 1779). The Acadians mostly remained at the junction of the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche and along the Mississippi River (that area was known as “La Côte des Acadiens,” the 1st Acadian Coast), whereas the Canarios lived literally on Bayou Lafourche as far south as Paincourtville.
Towards the end of the 18th century was when a band of Natchez, who referred to themselves as Houma (red people, the H is voiced), began descending the Mississippi River from near Natchez, Mississippi into Bayou Lafourche. They hiked at the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche junction for a number of years, until the Chitimacha, the main population along Bayou Lafourche began ascending into the Attakapas District, settling on the Bayou Tèche near Charenton in present-day St Mary Parish. Simultaneously, the Atakapa-Ishak, whose main grounds were all along bayous Tèche and Vermilion, began pushing west towards Cameron and Calcasieu parishes until resettling in the Liberty, Texas area with the Western Band of Atakapa-Ishak.
There was a resettlement of Creoles of Acadian descent on Bayou Lafourche after being kicked out of Cabannocé (St James Parish) towards the middle of the 19th century. They reportedly settled along lower Bayou Lafourche, where, by then, the Houma, Acolapissa, Tunica, Biloxi, some remaining Chitimacha were already living and speaking French *and* Spanish (tons of Spanish loan words exist in Bayou Lafourche French vocabulary that exists no place else in Louisiana).
Before these populations settled along lower Bayou Lafourche, they had intermarried with French, Louisiana francophones (free francophones “of color,” included) and Louisiana hispanophones who were baptized in Plattenville, Paincourtville, Donaldsonville etc towards the beginning of the 19th century. This is where the surnames Darden, Naquin, Verdun/Verdin, Sénet(te), Dardar, Billiot, Fitch(e), Verret(te), Gaubert/Gobert, Solet, Rodríguez and so on come from.
All of these populations clearly pronounce the Hs (e.g. Houma, not Ouma) in their language. The letters G and J (as expressed in French and English) do not exist in the language of the Natchez and Houma (members of same family), nor do they exist in of the other pre-columbian language families present in the area, except for Atakapa (the G is pronounced like g in girl, the J pronounced like the French J – Jérôme). On Bayou Lafourche, the francophones and hispanophones *did* have the G and J, though.
Interesting sidenote: the Louisiana Creole spoken in Lafourche Parish in and around Kraemer, Choctaw, Bayou Bœuf and Chackbay contains the letters G and J, but they are voiced as they are in LC spoken elsewhere in the state, and as the French spoken elsewhere – not as the aspirated Hs in Lower Bayou Lafourche French.
For sure, survival depended on cooperation and good relations with the inhabitants.
My theory, therefore, is that the second settlement of Cabannocéans along lower Bayou Lafourche, near Golden Meadow and region, prompted interaction, trade, commerce, intermarriage and linguistic adaptation with the various populations (Canarios, Chitimacha, Bayougoula, Houma, non-Acadian-descended Creoles etc) that predated their arrival to the lower bayou basin.
To this day, large numbers of members of the United Houma nation (entirely Francophone) aspirate their Gs and Js as Hs when speaking French. So do francophones with no Acadian ancestry living on the bayou.
Francophone Biloxi|Chitimacha|Choctaw
Isle Jean-Charles Band
Terrebonne & Lafourche Parishes
Special Dossier by France National channel 2
If this were an Acadian, Canadian and Central-Western French feature, as some argue, then the entire population of Provincial Francophone Louisiana would pronounce Gs and Js this way, and but given that the transplanted “Acadians” settling in Lower Bayou Lafourche arrived from Cabannocé (they were already 3rd generation Creoles, by then), then French spoken in St. James Parish, if anywhere in Louisiana, should have this peculiar feature of their French as well. Just not the case.
Helen Plaisance | Lower Lafourche Parish
LANGUAGES
LOUISIANA FRENCH
FLUVIAL LOUISIANA FRENCH
PROVINCIAL LOUISIANA FRENCH
URBAN LOUISIANA FRENCH
