Prairie Creole: Ville Platte Today

3/10/2008

Ville Platte Today

The Ville Platte Gazette is online. I read about it yesterday and checked today to see if it was up. I'm glad they created this because they'll be able to deliver more than what's available in print -- and in color. I like it and I'm sure people who've left the area will appreciate it because they'll be able to stay in touch every day with their native area.
Ville Platte Today (Gazette)

I haven't posted much because I've been working a lot. I've been coming home at 11:30 p.m. and sometimes past 2 a.m. And now I'm working on other work that will hopefully get me even more work, but if I get it I'll love it.

This is more Cajun English/French I've heard:
Qui c'est ca?
Mais, that's Mike, Calvalene's son.
Qui?
Calvalene a (ah) Roland. Mais, you can't think, you?

Qui asteur!
Nothing's the matter. C'est correct. Be quiet and leave me alone, you!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: "Qui asteur"

It's hard to hear it, but, there are really more words in that phrase. "Qui il y a asteur" is what is actually being said. The pronunciation is "Queeya asteur" and if you say it real fast, you'll hear only "Qui asteur."

Dowell; 3/11/2008
Anonymous said...: Hi Mike, Merci bien pour nous autres donner ces nouvelles. J'aime lire ton blog. Oh ouais, j'vais garde Le Gazette sur l'internet. J'suis Scott Fontenot et j'viens de la Ville Platte mais asteur, j'reste a Washington DC. J'ai quitte VP en 1989 pour Unviversite mais mes parents habite encore a la Ville Platte sur DeMoncherveaux blvd. Hope you understood that, my english is only a little better than my french. Keep up the good work!; 3/17/2008

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Wish list

children's book showing Fontenot/LaFleur/Brignac soldiers leaving Alabama and settling in Evangeline Parish
children's book featuring Madame Grand Doigts
children's book about French soldiers at Fort Toulouse
book of Evangeline Parish area “Cajun French language”
historical representations of Fort Toulouse in Evangeline Parish
movie or essay written concerning Euzebe Vidrine
essay or article about Madame Grand Doigts
book about Creole history of Evangeline Parish (one is being written)

Words and expressions - not expert at spelling

‘illon ‘illon (yaw(n) yaw (n)) 10 times worse than a couillon
couillon (coo yaw(n)) crazy or funny person
panse bourre – stuffed pig stomach
tourbillion (tour be aw(n)) tornado
un bout d’boudin (an(d) boot duh boudin)link of boudin
pas d’quoi (pas dqwa) you’re welcome
mouman (moo maw(n)) mom
poupa (poo paw) dad
t’est correct? (tay codeck) you OK?
boutique (boo tick) store
making boudin – pouting
etoile (a twel) star
go dodo – telling a kid to sleep
culottes (key lawt) jeans
Mon J’sus correct (maw shu d codeck) me, I’m OK.
cabane (cuh bun) shed
tocaille (toe kie) someone with same name

Quotes from people who knew and know

Ville Platte its history, growth, and future Compliments of Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce by Jules R. Ashlock "…Quite erroneous is the impression held by many that Ville Platte was settled by the Acadians driven from Nova Scotia by the British. Actually, the earliest settlers here were directly from France or the British Isles, or the descendants of such individuals. The Acadian, or "Cajun" country, is located largely south of Opelousas…" 1967
“…as you can see Creole is a word that can have many connotations and it means different things to different people. And as strange as it seems the majority of the people of Evangeline Parish is of Creole ancestry. Their progenitors came to Louisiana directly from France before the Acadians were exiled by the British from Nova Scotia in 1755. Of course many acquired Acadian blood down the line by intermarriage between the two groups...” --Pascal Fuselier The Many Connotations of Being Creole
“Recoiling in horror from the confusion over the racial identity it created, white Creoles throughout Louisiana gradually abandoned their traditional ethnic identity, thereby eventually creating the false impression among outsiders that Creoles were exclusively either blacks or people of mixed racial parentage–a misconception perpetuated by popular writers of the late twentieth century.” --by Carl A. Brasseaux
The Gazette (Ville Platte, LA) Jules Ashlock (80s - can't find exact date) “Before describing the adventures of the maid Evangeline, as I promised last week, it might be best to consider the people who first inhabited what is now Evangeline Parish. When I was a boy my grandmother, who was a LaFleur and could speak no English, and all of my relatives never referred to us as Cajuns. We were always called Creoles, pronounced Cray-all in French…”
Mamou Acadian Press (Mamou, LA) March 25, 1982 Revon Reed “The original Franco-Americans that settled this neck of the prairie did not consider themselves Cajuns or Acadians at all, but rather they referred to themselves and their ancestors as Creole-French. As late as 1946, I recall my father saying ‘What’s this with Cajuns? We’re not Cajuns. We’re Creoles. As far back as I know we referred to ourselves as Creoles from France, not Canada.’” But almost overnight everyone started referring to themselves as Cadiens which they pronounced Cadjins (Cajun apparently became the English spelling.) These people were right. Most of the early St. Landry homesteaders were French descendants. Not Acadians. Old Opelousas journals of the time bear this out. Fontenots, Fuseliers, Guillorys, and Soileaus all came from France…”