Blog 6

Growing up military, and namely outside of Louisiana, I would always get the same question from my teachers after roll call.( Participle, shows state of action) As their eyes skimmed the list, absentmindedly calling names to a chorus of “here,” I would see them stop and stare at one near the bottom of the roster. As their eyes flitted between confusion and curiosity, I knew it was my name they had stopped on. “Taylor—um—Taylor T?” I would laugh and correct them, and inevitably, this question would follow: What an interesting last name! Where did it come from? I would say its Cajun, to which I would always get the answer “You mean. . .  Like the food?”

There are very few out there who know that Cajun is a culture, a language, and a way of life. This springs from the fact that the Cajun culture is only found in south Louisiana, a very small area. But Cajun culture is as diverse as any, and rich in traditions. Unfortunately, the Cajun language was all but obliterated in as little as a single generation.

The Cajun people originated in France. In the 1700’s, a small group, no more than 15,000, left France for Canada. Once there they lived in peace with the local Indian tribes, sharing farming methods and land, until in 1754 the British army invaded. One of the Majors of the British army, Major Charles Lawrence, demanded the French settlers—now called Acadians—to convert from Catholicism to the protestant church. (Two Appositives, shows more information on the French settlers)

When they refused, chaos followed. Many where shipped off to kingdom come, landing either in England or along the new colonies of America. Some tried going back to France, where they where, and still are, treated as outcasts. This wandering continued for the Acadian people, until they came to the Spanish Colony of Louisiana. While the Spaniards thought of the Acadians as illiterate and uneducated, they offered them a home, and over the next decade or so, about 3,000 Acadians settled in the bayous and swamplands of Louisiana.

In the 1920’s, to be labeled “Cajun” was synonymous with “hillbilly” or “redneck” or “trailer trash.” Hardly anyone was proud of their Cajun heritage; many refused to speak Cajun, a dialect of French, and refused to teach their children it. Because of this, there rose a generation of people who could understand Cajun French, but not necessarily speak it.

Blog 5

The article I read was on Chicano English. After reading this article, I realized there was actually very little I knew about the subject [complex sentence with a dependent clause to begin, this shows the connection in time and emphasizes when the events take happen sequentially, it also emphasizes what comes next]. This article’s main purpose was debunking several myths about Chicano.

The First myth was: “Chicano English is spoken by people whose first language is Spanish, and whose Spanish introduced mistakes into their English.” This myth was debunked by the fact that most speakers of Chicano English are not actually bilingual. This means those who speak Chicano don’t necessarily speak Spanish [ In this I used the relative pronoun “who” because it is talking about all speakers of Chicano, it is also used to encompass a large number of people].

The next myth was: “Chicano English is the same as Spanglish.” This really threw me around the loop. Before reading this, I had never heard of Chicano before, in all of the places I grew up, most people spoke Spanglish. As I read this, I immediately assumed that Chicano was another variation of Spanglish, but this is not the case. Most speakers of Spanglish are fully  fluent in both Spanish and English, but, like previously stated, this is not the case in Chicano.

Next was the myth: “Chicano English is a dialect spoken mostly by gang members and not used by middle-class Latinos and Latinas.” This myth is actually a common misconception with most dialects of standard English. Cajun dialects are thought to be only used by rednecks, Appalachian dialects are stereotyped to hillbillies. What seems to be perpetuating these awful labels are films. Many gang members in films are portrayed as speaking Chicano English, which only serves to make those who don’t know about Chicano to get the wrong ideas about it.

The last myth was: “Chicano English is merely incorrect grammar.” This myth, similar to the last, is also not only reserved for Chicano. Many people believe that the different dialects of standard English are simply people brutalizing the language. I would have to admit, a while back, I too thought that people that spoke the dialect in say, Philadelphia, were simply too lazy to use proper grammar. Then I moved out of the south and to Arizona. There, where people constantly told me that I was using incorrect grammar, I realized something was up. It wasn’t until I got back from Germany, were I spent three years speaking what is known as Standard English, because that was the English that the Germans knew and when I used my own variation of slang it confused people, I realized that grammar is a personal preference.

What I consider to be “proper grammar” differs greatly from others. Every dialect has its own complex grammar system, and we don’t even realize that we use it. It is ingrained into us at a young age. I am also taking a phonology class and we were talking about this a few days ago. You can always tell when someone is trying to emulate your dialect/accent who isn’t actually from the area of the world that you are from. It is because they aren’t raised with the grammar that you are raised in, and it is something that they will never be able to fully copy, as it isn’t their grammar system. For me, not spending enough time in any one place to fully learn the grammar of the dialect there, my language is a mix of many different dialects, all partially learned and grown into a unique language I can call my own.