French and Creole in Louisiana by Albert Valdman (review)

Abstract

194 Reviews to pidgins, but to approximationsof French. During the second phase (the plantation society), when there was a largeinfluxof slaves, the target language forthe newarrivals was no longer French but approximative varieties thereof. Modern Creoles are thus the result of 'approximations of approximations' and subsequent autonomization. In Chapters 6-10 Chaudenson turns from linguistic creolization to the develop? ment of other aspects of Creole cultures such as music, cuisine, medicine, and oral literature. He does not suggest that the model of linguistic creolization that he offers can be directly extrapolated to the study of the genesis of other cultural systems, but rather that the socio-historical and comparative methods he advocates offerthe opportunity to reassess research paradigms and to illuminate the two-way traffic between the development of Creole vernaculars and Creole cultures. While Chau? denson's arguments in favour of a socio-historical and interdisciplinary approach to the development of Creole phenomena are compelling, it remains to be demonstrated, by reference to linguistic data, to what extent the linguistic processes involved in the creation of French-lexifier Creoles were fundamentally differentfrom those of other contact languages known as pidgins and Creoles. Nevertheless, this volume offers those unfamiliar with Chaudenson's original work, and scholars interested in Creole genetics, a stimulating and extremely useful presentation of the current thinking of one of the major creolist scholars. University of Leeds Marie-Anne Hintze French and Creole in Louisiana. Ed. by Albert Valdman. New York and London: PlenumPress. 1997. xiii + 359pp. $65.00. ISBN 0-306-45464-5. This collection provides a welcome and scholarly exploration of the state and status of French-based varieties in Louisiana. It is also timely since both Cajun French (CF) and Louisiana Creole (LC) are endangered languages. Of particular interest is that, unlike earlier studies, it confronts the realities ofthe complex continuum in which the language varieties spoken in Louisiana now survive?a factor which, as Albert Vald? man recognizes in his introductory chapter, renders the definition of a Cajun speech community and the delimitation of the varieties problematic fordescriptive purposes. The ten chapters that focus on Louisiana offereither socio-historical accounts or linguistic descriptions. Studies of Cajun French include Carl Blyth's examination of the social and linguistic issues confronting Louisiana French in the face of the high prestige attached to both English and Standard French and the resultingmultiply embedded diglossia. Language shiftto English, compounded by linguistic insecurity on the part of speakers of CF, is reflected in calques, blends, and code-switching, in turn leading to a blurring of the distinctive characteristics of CF and LC and of the speech communities themselves. Blyth suggests that any future for French as 'a functional second language in Louisiana' (p. 43) will be based on Standard French rather than CF. Sylvie Dubois reports on the methodology used in an ongoing sociolinguistic investigation of four Cajun communities aimed at determining 'who uses it, when, with whom and to what end' (p. 48). Interestingly, the results of a questionnaire on linguistic attitudes and cultural identities distributed to a stratified sample of 1,440 individuals point to a new positive attitude towards CF, particularly among younger speakers. Robert A. Papen and Kevin J. Rottet offera structural description of the CF spoken in the Lafourche Basin, specifically in the parishes of Lafourche and Terrebonne , where the level of retention of CF is reportedly higher than in most other parts of Acadiana. Their outline of the phonological, syntactic, and lexical features of CF contains illuminating insights into features shared not only with Standard French but also vernacular and dialectal varieties. MLRy 98.1, 2003 195 Valdman and Thomas A. Klinger examine the phonology and grammar of Louisiana Creole and, in so doing, document how tenuous is the line of demarcation between LC and Cajun French. They also return to the issue of possible African influence on the Creole but conclude that the parallels with vernacular and regional French forms suggest a process of convergence between the varieties spoken by the white settlers and the languages of the slave population in the genesis of the Creole. Margaret M. Marshall outlines the historical emergence of LC and argues for the early existence in...