Dear Chopin, what exactly did you just say?

“Yere,” he said, handing it to her, “I think this is the pretties’ ; an’ it look’ strong too.  I’m sho’ it will break all of the res’.”  (Love On The Bon-Dieu – Chopin’s reference to pocking eggs)

“Who say’ so?  Who say she’s canaille?  If it’s a man, I’ll smash ‘is head!” he exclaimed, livid.  They all laughed merrily at this.”  (Love On The Bon-Dieu – Chopin)

“Ef you will give me one good drink tisane, Tante Lizette, I b’lieve I’m goin’ sleep, me.”  (Beyond The Bayou – Chopin)

“’La Chatte, I wants some croquignoles, an’ I wants ‘em quick, too.’ I ‘low : ‘G’ ‘way f’om dah, boy. Don’ you see I’s flutin’ yo’ ma’s petticoat?” (A No-Account Creole – Chopin)

I checked out Chopin’s collection of short stories called Bayou Folk from the Ville Platte library.  I read them before, as well as Cable’s short stories, but wanted to look though Chopin’s stuff for certain things.  I found a reference to pocking eggs but I’m still looking for stuff like burying nombrils at birth, seeing blood in the ground if dug on Good Friday, etc.  I like finding old stuff like that in literature and see how we’re still doing those customs today.  I really wanted to find a reference to Madame Grand Doigts but so far I haven’t seen any.  She used a lot of French words and expressions and local English dialect in her writings.  I can only imagine if she had spent some time in Evangeline Parish back then.   Her writings would have given us an idea of how our ancestors talked and acted.

(looked on Internet and you can read her stuff here: Kate Chopin )