I was thinking the other day about the Cajun phrases that still show up pretty regularly in my speech. I hadn't really thought about it before, how many there are.
My mother was the first generation not to learn French. In fact, when she was growing up in the 40's and 50's, you'd actually be punished at for speaking it in school. She can still understand it, but there are only a few phrases that she can manage to speak now.
My grandparents and older aunts and uncles, of course, always spoke French, mainly when they wanted to gossip, so we younger children couldn't understand.
Just out of curiousity I've started a little list of some of the terms that still crop up fairly regularly in conversation with my mother :
cochon- dirty (from French for "pig") but used as an adjective. (Mais, that's cochon!)
couillion- crazy (literally, in archaic French, testicles...as in "nuts." I just recently found this out) "You cousins, they all just couillion."
saleau - a big, dirty man
nannan - godmother
parrain - godfather
tous les vieux -all the old folks (said derisively)
touloulou - fiddler crabs
minou - kitty
maudit - god damned
rodez - to go out visiting constantly "You know her, she always like to rodez"
faire la misere - make trouble
fais do-do- to go to sleep (or of course, a dance, done while the children are put to bed)
'Ga ca!-Look there, look at that! (from the more proper French "regarde-ca")
Tien ca! - look at that!
en colaire(fache')-to be angry
Mal a la tete -headache
Boudee - to pout ("She's making the boudee. She's been boudee-ing all day long.")
Depeche toi!- hurry up
canaille- sly, sneaky
envie - a craving ("I sure have an envie for some tarte a la bouille, cher.")
gris gris - a spell
traiteur -a medicine man, healer (My mother still tells tales of the traiteur who'd come around the plantation)
4 comments:
Minou - I believe that was a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Depeche toi - Wasn't that an '80s band? ;o So what does "depeche" mean? Hurry? What's "mode"?
I've never heard of the others. I grew up hearing words like schlep, schloch, putz, nosh, shmata, etc. on a regular basis. I'll bet you don't hear those much in Cajun country.
You're right, "Depeche" does mean "hurry" or "quick."
"Mode" means "fashion." Depeche Mode was the name of a French fashion magazine I think, that the band took.
And actually, I did hear all of those Yiddishisms and more....but then I watched a lot of tv. :)
I grew up on the bayou, so all of these are very familiar to me! I don't hear them much now that I live on the West Coast... but every now and then I catch myself talking about an envie I have or putting a gris gris on any team that's playing the Saints!
Thanks for the memories!
bienvenue, heather!
But it never really leaves you.
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