Louisiana-French
William Alexander Read.
Imprint Baton Rouge, LA : Louisiana State University Press, c1931
This is a fun book I came across in the library. It has definitions for several Louisiana French words. It also has definitions for Louisiana words from other groups: Native American, German, English, African, Spanish, and Italian.
Read starts his book by describing the different dialects of the Creoles and the Acadians. I'm always interested in the history of the words Cajun and Creole and I noticed once again how it was used in the past: "…they are still commonly distinguished from the Creoles of Louisiana by the term Acadians or the less dignified Cajuns." (Introduction p. xviii) He says many things to express his bias, in my opinion, for Standard French. Anyway, I'm getting used to seeing that in the old books and newspaper articles.
Here are some of the words included in the book. He says many of these words are of Native American or South American Indian origin.
Boucane Boucaner (smoked meat)
Chaoui (raccoon) chat sauvage was supposedly used by early French explorers
Choc (blackbird)
Choupique (bowfin fish)
Maringouin (mosquito)
Pacane (pecan)
Check the book out or request it through inter-library loan.