Date:  Fri, 27 Jan 1995 14:56:08 -0500

From:  "Cathy C. Bodin" <cbodin[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSMARY.EDU>

Subject: Re: TV and dialect



Regarding the discussion Jeff Allen started concerning loanwords in

Gullah and other New World creoles and in Cajun French, I wondered if

the French loan /tele/ for "television" isn't from modern Standard French,

which the older generation would use where their children, in contrast,

are using English. /tele/ is indeed StFr.

   I thought Jeff's reply was highly interesting. By the way, I am

an Acadianist working in Louisiana some part of each summer while

living out-of-state. CODOFIL is the Council for the Development of

French in Louisiana and as Jeff rightly pointed out, has spearheaded

the introduction of French in the schools since about 1968--including a

bilingual elementary school that's up and running, with people fighting

to get their kids in. However, the practice of teaching StFr has not

contributed to the preservation of Cajun French; perhaps the contrary.

   I wish I had a copy of your original comments, Jeff (I wasn't

subscribed then); any possibility of getting it?

  PS. I'm finishing (hopefully in 1995) a short-form dialect atlas

of Cajun French, hoping to broadly outline isogloss-lines with about

100 maps, describing S. Louisiana between Alexandria (to the north),

with lines drawn down to the Gulf to the east and west border of LA.

  Does anyone have an idea of software I can get to print my

dialect maps, with marginal notes on the side?

                Cathy Bodin, now in Maryland