One reason Quebeckers don't settle in Acadiana

[Victor Schneider, Ph. D.]

I have been wondering lately why, with pockets of Acadian settlement in
evidence from Austin, Texas, all the way to Tallahassee, Florida, there
is no evidence of renewed settlement by, say, retirees from Quebec,
Canada.

I think I have an answer. If you look at the road map of towns around,
say, Lafayette, Louisiana, you find a "Vieux Orleans" (not a
"Vieille Orleans") street which was probably named by someone who speaks
Acadian French at home, but is showing the effects of an illiterate
language tradition that also occurs in, say, Italian-American and
Spanish-American homes in America.

In other words, the misspellings and syntax errors of apartment
complexes and streets are not some malicious attack on the language, but
the innocent result of assumed competence.

[R.V. Gronoff]

Post by Victor Schneider, Ph. D.
I have been wondering lately why, with pockets of Acadian settlement

in evidence from Austin, Texas, all the way to Tallahassee, Florida,
there is no evidence of renewed settlement by, say, retirees from
Quebec, Canada.

Post by Victor Schneider, Ph. D.
I think I have an answer. If you look at the road map of towns

around, say, Lafayette, Louisiana, you find a "Vieux Orleans" (not a
"Vieille Orleans") street which was probably named by someone who speaks
Acadian French at home, but is showing the effects of an illiterate
language tradition that also occurs in, say, Italian-American and
Spanish-American homes in America.

Post by Victor Schneider, Ph. D.
In other words, the misspellings and syntax errors of apartment

complexes and streets are not some malicious attack on the language, but
the innocent result of assumed competence.
Sorry to sadden you, Victor, but this is not an error: until the 19th
century the modern masculine adjective "vieil".
Baudelaire, for example, used to write "un vieux homme" (with the
liaison) and not "un vieil homme" as we would write nowadays.

For some obscure reason, we'd say "Orléans est grand" (like "Paris est
grand") but we also say La Nouvelle Orléans. Regarding places names,
don't ask too many questions, c'est comme ça, et puis c'est tout! ;-)

[R.V. Gronoff]

Post by Victor Schneider, Ph. D.
I have been wondering lately why, with pockets of Acadian settlement

in evidence from Austin, Texas, all the way to Tallahassee, Florida,
there is no evidence of renewed settlement by, say, retirees from
Quebec, Canada.

Post by Victor Schneider, Ph. D.
I think I have an answer. If you look at the road map of towns

around, say, Lafayette, Louisiana, you find a "Vieux Orleans" (not a
"Vieille Orleans") street which was probably named by someone who speaks
Acadian French at home, but is showing the effects of an illiterate
language tradition that also occurs in, say, Italian-American and
Spanish-American homes in America.

Post by Victor Schneider, Ph. D.
In other words, the misspellings and syntax errors of apartment

complexes and streets are not some malicious attack on the language, but
the innocent result of assumed competence.
Sorry to sadden you, Victor, but this is not an error: until the 19th
century the modern masculine adjective "vieil" was not in use.
Baudelaire, for example, used to write "un vieux homme" (with the
liaison) and not "un vieil homme" as we would write nowadays.

For some obscure reason, we'd say "Orléans est grand" (like "Paris est
grand") but we also say La Nouvelle Orléans. Regarding places names,
don't ask too many questions, c'est comme ça, et puis c'est tout! ;-)