Why Do People in New Orleans Talk That Way?

Slate ^ | 9/8/2005 | Jesse Sheidlower

[Mike Bates]

If you've been listening to coverage of Katrina's devastation on the radio, you've no doubt heard the distinctive New Orleans accents of victims, officials, and rescue workers alike. Some of them speak with a familiar, Southern drawl; others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn. Why do people in New Orleans talk that way?

[Recon Dad]

He had the most pathetic accent, but then that's what you get when you have a great actor like Adam Sandler.

[Recon Dad]

Where'd you live? I lived uptown and in Metairie.

[sittnick]

Two distinctive groups who influenced the language and culture of New Orleans were the Acadians (relocated from Canada) and the Creoles: from http://www.uh.edu/hti/cu/2000/v06/03.htm Those who set up farming communities in the Canadian area of Acadia (now Nova Scotia) worked their own small plots of land, whereas the French who colonized the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Hispaniola (later Haiti) oversaw plantations worked by slaves brought from Africa. The sugar cane produced on the islands was so valuable in France that all the holdings in Canada were given up to the British (during what we call the French and Indian War) in exchange for the right to keep the colonies in the Antilles. As a result of their refusal to swear allegiance to the British, the French settlers were deported from Acadia, an event known in French as Le Grand Derangement. Some of these returned to France, some settled other places, but most ended up in southern Louisiana, where there was already a French presence because of the settlements around New Orleans. The farmers and fishermen from Acadia moved on to the farmland deeded them along the bayous and rivers west of New Orleans, where "for more than two hundred years the Cajun culture has preserved its ethnic identity" (Browne introduction). The Cajuns (or Cadiens) of today are the descendants of those hardy souls who endured the privations described in "Evangeline," Longfellow’s poem about the deportation of the Acadians. The term "Cajun" is attributed to American settlers’ corruption of the already-shortened "Cadien," which was the term New Orleans Creoles used to refer to an Acadien (Rushton 329). Thus "Cajun" is the written form of the English pronunciation, and "Cadien" is the French. The term "Cajun" and the people it represents have been the subject of much confusion and not much study until relatively recently. Prior to the 1960’s and 1970’s, "the usage of Cajun/Cadien followed a clear pattern: it was used derisively or stereotypically by outsiders [and] it was avoided or used carefully by insiders" (Henry 11). One result of the negative image was the decreasing use of the French language, a trend which was not reversed until the late 1970’s. At that time, the state agency CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) was created for the purpose of preserving and promoting Louisiana’s French culture. Less clear is the history of the term "Creole." Initially it was used to describe the offspring of Europeans (either Spanish or French) who were born in the New World. Many were associated with plantation society, such as Josephine de Beauharnais, who was raised in Martinique and later married Napoleon and became Empress of France. Other Creoles formed the group of families who settled New Orleans in the early 1700’s, "good old names figuring in the lists of military, naval and civil officers" (King 3). This early use of the term to refer to whites changed over time. The confusion of the use of the term "Creole" dates back to the 18th century, according to Ben Sandmel in Zydeco! "Creole slave owners sometimes applied the term to slaves of African descent who were born in Louisiana" (18). Some time later the term was used to refer to light-skinned blacks from the Caribbean, some of whom spoke French (Sandmel 18). In New Orleans, the term was applied to the children of intermarriage between blacks and whites; these were the "Creoles of Color" "whose ancestry was part African and part French" (Gridley 39). It appears that the current use of the term "Creole" is in reference to "members of southwestern Louisiana’s black community who speak French or have ancestors who did" (Sandmel 15). The same identity-affirming actions that occurred among the Cajuns have been happening with the Creole population: C.R.E.O.L.E. was formed in 1987 to "promote Louisiana Creole culture through student exchanges [and] cultural activities such as Zydeco dances…" (Henry 19).

[Welsh Rabbit]

I found most of the Confederacy of Dunces reference I made online:
"There is a certain New Orleans city accent...associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and Irish Third Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, New Jersey, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smith inflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans." --John Kennedy O'Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

[sittnick]

WITH FORMATTING

Two distinctive groups who influenced the language and culture of New Orleans were the Acadians (relocated from Canada) and the Creoles:

from http://www.uh.edu/hti/cu/2000/v06/03.htm

Those who set up farming communities in the Canadian area of Acadia (now Nova Scotia) worked their own small plots of land, whereas the French who colonized the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Hispaniola (later Haiti) oversaw plantations worked by slaves brought from Africa. The sugar cane produced on the islands was so valuable in France that all the holdings in Canada were given up to the British (during what we call the French and Indian War) in exchange for the right to keep the colonies in the Antilles. As a result of their refusal to swear allegiance to the British, the French settlers were deported from Acadia, an event known in French as Le Grand Derangement. Some of these returned to France, some settled other places, but most ended up in southern Louisiana, where there was already a French presence because of the settlements around New Orleans. The farmers and fishermen from Acadia moved on to the farmland deeded them along the bayous and rivers west of New Orleans, where "for more than two hundred years the Cajun culture has preserved its ethnic identity" (Browne introduction). The Cajuns (or Cadiens) of today are the descendants of those hardy souls who endured the privations described in "Evangeline," Longfellow’s poem about the deportation of the Acadians.

The term "Cajun" is attributed to American settlers’ corruption of the already-shortened "Cadien," which was the term New Orleans Creoles used to refer to an Acadien (Rushton 329). Thus "Cajun" is the written form of the English pronunciation, and "Cadien" is the French. The term "Cajun" and the people it represents have been the subject of much confusion and not much study until relatively recently. Prior to the 1960’s and 1970’s, "the usage of Cajun/Cadien followed a clear pattern: it was used derisively or stereotypically by outsiders [and] it was avoided or used carefully by insiders" (Henry 11). One result of the negative image was the decreasing use of the French language, a trend which was not reversed until the late 1970’s. At that time, the state agency CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) was created for the purpose of preserving and promoting Louisiana’s French culture.

Less clear is the history of the term "Creole." Initially it was used to describe the offspring of Europeans (either Spanish or French) who were born in the New World. Many were associated with plantation society, such as Josephine de Beauharnais, who was raised in Martinique and later married Napoleon and became Empress of France. Other Creoles formed the group of families who settled New Orleans in the early 1700’s, "good old names figuring in the lists of military, naval and civil officers" (King 3). This early use of the term to refer to whites changed over time. The confusion of the use of the term "Creole" dates back to the 18th century, according to Ben Sandmel in Zydeco! "Creole slave owners sometimes applied the term to slaves of African descent who were born in Louisiana" (18). Some time later the term was used to refer to light-skinned blacks from the Caribbean, some of whom spoke French (Sandmel 18). In New Orleans, the term was applied to the children of intermarriage between blacks and whites; these were the "Creoles of Color" "whose ancestry was part African and part French" (Gridley 39). It appears that the current use of the term "Creole" is in reference to "members of southwestern Louisiana’s black community who speak French or have ancestors who did" (Sandmel 15). The same identity-affirming actions that occurred among the Cajuns have been happening with the Creole population: C.R.E.O.L.E. was formed in 1987 to "promote Louisiana Creole culture through student exchanges [and] cultural activities such as Zydeco dances…" (Henry 19).

[poinq]

When Fitzgerald finishes cleaning up Chicago he needs to go to New Orleans. A prosecutor could spend a lifetime in that city and never make a dent. There aren't enough jails to old all the criminals. Crime is part of New Orleans culture more so than Las Vegas, Chicago or New York.

[Recon Dad]

I like that explanation it is very plausible.

[SE Mom]

I've been thinking about that book all week:)

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Dudette, James Carville has forever memorialized his accent as the equivalent of fingernails on a chalk board.

[Mike Bates]

Haven't see Sweet Mary on the tube for a while. Maybe she's afraid of more Anderson Cooper- type questions.

[Recon Dad]

Oh, Texans really shouldn't talk about accents! One of my best friends is named Skeet from Katy, so you know what he sounds like.

[Mike Bates]

I was stuck in a dentist chair last week and had to endure Oprah and her visit to the hurricane areas.

Time to find a new dentist.

[Recon Dad]

I've been places like Jennings and others spots where very little English was spoken.

[Bullfrogg]

Talking through the Zodiac sign,.....The bowels?(just a little humor!)

Bullfrog

[Melpomene]

their languages/accents, history, Ward 9

Dats da nighnt wawrd, dawlin. :op

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Thanks.

Nint' ward, which was NO east where the money was and the lower ninth, where the poor people lived (mostly black, most of the whites by that time had moved out to the Parish, as they said it (Moved to St. Bernard parish to live in Arabi and Chalmette).

There was a cop who turned writer O'Neil De Noux who wrote several novels about New Orleans that captures a lot of the flavor of NO and the various neighborhoods about 1990. He even had his parents live in a house where actually one of my girlfriends lived. It is that centered in the city.

[Mike Bates]

Tabula rasa.

Some have contended that I've maintained my rasaness.

[Mike Bates]

It's not that we talk too fast...you listen too slow....:)

Oh, so that's the problem. Have to work on it.

[CindyDawg]

You really think we have accents? lol

[Mike Bates]

Oh, no, thank you.