Tuesday, June 1, 2010

I Envy Me Some Etouffee

My WIP, Bayou Blue, takes place in south Louisiana...the Bayou. So I need to portray the common style of speech there. I am beginning to understand what people's "Good Luck With That" looks mean when I say I'm going to learn some Cajun.
Uh...its English, but not. Like my Australian friend when I first met her. She was saying words I knew...but still had no idea what she was saying.

I think this will be both fun and challenging. I've been on some sites about Cajun cooking, even found one that gave sayings and their meanings. Its called Louisiana Cajun Slang and was very helpful. So was the very organized Terry Eymard's Guide to Bayou Cajun Words & Expressions.

I've learned some interesting ways to express myself. I thought I knew me some French...this is really, really different.

I wanted to say that I needed to mop, I'd say: I'm about to pass a  mop.
Or maybe I got scared and got goose bumps: I got the freesons!

Some of the words are just French blended right in with the English...Mais (well). "Maise I don't want to go, but..."
Or..."Don't be so coullion (coo-yon) which means foolish.

Over all though, it is reminescent of my own family's "Spanglish" a mixture of Spanish, English, and made up words like carro (car) in which the actual Spanish word for car is coche...so I think I may be able to get some phrasing down enought to write my book.

I hope some real life Cajuns out there are willing to help a writer portray the culture accurately. If you do speak Cajun, or spot any mistakes, please feel free to let me know. That is all for now. I shall see you all on June 4th for the Dream Sequence Blogfest over at Amalia T.'s blog.

Until next time, my friends...Go Write!

Photograph by Natalie Maynor, Uploaded on October 25, 2005. Photograph by HarshLight, Uploaded on January 3, 2010.