Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 17:29:27 -0500

From: "Peter L. Patrick" PPATRICK[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.BITNET

Subject: hmm.. what's cajun English, then?



This takes off from the /buku(z)/ issue. Several people wrote in to

say that it was not Cajun English since it dates back to WWII or older

(though I'm not sure just how these are contradictory), or-- more to

the point-- since Cajuns don't use it in their English. I was taking

Dick Heaberlin's word for it that it's used by folks in what I think

he called Cajun country in SE Texas (didnt't keep the message). Cathy

Bodin writes to say it might be used by

1--"Anglos (people of Cajun extraction who speak English)"

or 2--"transplants [..on] the fringe of the dialect area"

Mike Picone has also recently used the term "Cajun English" in this

group. My questions are these:

--if (1) above are NOT speakers of Cajun English, then who is?

(I'm assuming that the real speakers, who "Please to stand up"

as we say in Jamaica, must both be "of Cajun extraction" and

"speak English"!)

--has anyone written about Cajun English itself, and where?

(I believe y'all about /buku/, but still find it an odd bit of

grammaticalization that it can take plural /-z/. Course then it looks

more like "buckets", which can be similarly used, at least for "buckets

of money"! and there's "mercy buckets", etc..)