French Pronounces Louisiana Street Names (but not only) Listen "à la française" (the French way) 😉🇫🇷
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ม.ค. 2021
- Tchoupitoulas... Tchoupiloutas??? Your favorite French Girl will lend you her voice for you to hear a French pronunciation of all those streets and places named in a "French way". I also gave a try to Canadian names and checked some Cajuns words.
Thank you to everyone who commented on my community post and gave me those words to pronounce, as well as the links to the two different websites (linked below).
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French Pronounces Louisiana Street Names (but not only) Listen "à la française" (the French way) 😉🇫🇷
#FrenchTastic #Louisiana
Louisiana is the only place where you’re gonna pronounce “Orleans” differently depending on if it’s got the New in front of it or not 😂
Linz, Leenz and Lee-unz
Non Cajuns pronouncing New Orléans like Na lins.
I have told countless touristes
Just say New Orléans.
@@KateDunno if it's folks from Georgia/Alabama that's probably just their accent.
@@KateDunno girl nobody says that. We only put that on T shirts to sell in the square. Stahp 😂
@@PatricenotPatrick the only time I've ever heard "n'awlins" was facetious in nature. Even out of towers know at this point we don't say it like that. Lmao
It’s common for people to mistake Native American and French words here because the cultures were blended together so quickly. Thanks for using my suggestions.
Also I like that you said you want to say things in your Spanish accent. Despite Louisiana being “French” culture, a lot of the names are Spanish and Native American too lol.
They have many Indian names in here mixed with French.
Native* 😉
@@Tijuanabill LMAO. They came here also,,,From Mongolia,,,DNA tests showed.
@@bobbyscott5162 The point is they aren't Indian. We knew this wasn't India hundreds of years ago. So let's not look like clowns in front of company.
....not from India...
@@arianachristinacarranza3468 Blond?
Fun fact: the Marque de Lafayette was a Frenchman that led American troops during the Revolution. He named his son George Washington.
Lafayette is one of the few people granted honorary American citizenship. A statue of him is in Lafayette Square Park in Washington, DC.
He is the most honored French man in the USA.
@@MichaelScheele I’m sure The Left will tear it down > White Supremacist 🤣
@@byzinski, sadly you're right. Many are trying to erase George Washington from our history. Stalinists...
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette. Try putting that on the back of a jersey lol.
@@jeffburnham6611 or a check
as a Louisiana native, this is great,
I remember telling you French trappers blended with the native American tribes to open trade with them. So there's a lot of crossover with multiple Native American languages.
In fact, *every* state has names from multiple Native languages.
'Texas' is the English phonetic translation of the Spanish 'Tejas,' which is a phonetic translation of the Caddo native word for 'friend.'
So did transported Scots. The MacLeods - for example - are old royalty on two continents.
Texas is Spanish not English. Maybe the pronunciation of Texas in English is English but the word Texas is spelled in a Spanish way. In Spanish, x can be used where j is used and vice versa.
@@IslenoGutierrez
Fail. 🙄
Try reading what I wrote again.
@@garyballard179 Wow you are so rude
@@IslenoGutierrez
And you are so stupid.
I can't stand abject stupidity.
If you had bothered to *read* what I wrote, you wouldn't have posted such an idiotic reply.
I am from Louisiana(born in New Orleans). Most of those names are mispronounced _here_ , but that's okay, b/c we're _here_ . I love your pronunciation of them. French is such a cool sounding language. Everything sounds so elegant the way you say it.
It's mispronounced today because of the English language influence, but the New Orleanians that spoke French pronounced them correctly.
@@IslenoGutierrez It's the same in Lafayette. We all know how to pronounce it correctly, but it's been done wrong for so long that it's just accepted nowadays.
thats because americans are dumb and refuse to do anything right, we just do it the american way and the rest of the world be damned.
I've watched youtube for 14 years and this is the first time I've ever seen Metairie mentioned in a non-Louisiana-based channel's video. Very surreal lol.
Oh! I thought you were living somewhere in USA. Heureux d'apprendre que vous vivez en France. Vous êtes de quelle région ou département? Keep going, I can see(hear) that you're improving a lot... from Quebec city area.
@@Pagaie101 i think you were trying to reply to someone else.
Right! And she says it with a pronunciation closer to the local pronunciation. As kids we used to roll on the ground laughing when adds would come on the the announcer would butcher the pronunciation.
@@paulnormann6630 "muh TARE ee"
“Metry” and “Kenna bruh” 😂😂
Hey Marie.. It was cool hearing you pronouce these names.
My ancestors came from France to North America in 1653. They came to what was than called Acadie., now called Nova Scotia. The British took control of it in 1765 , ran us out lol and changed the name. And many of the French Acadians that left there came to Louisiana. My family been in Louisiana since 1765. Some of the surnames in my family are.. Bourgeois, Breaux, Bergeron, Cormier, Hebert, Doucet to name a few.
In fact I traced my ancestry back to the 1500's and found out i'm related ro Gabrielle d'Estrées who was the mistress of Henry IV.
Very good! As a Louisiana native, it was fun hearing the actual French pronunciation of these places. Here's a few as they are pronounced in LA:
Tallulah - [tuh-LOO-la]
Bossier City - [bo-SURE si-ti]
Shreveport - [SHREE-port]
Ouachita - [WA-shi-taw]
Also, the mentioned Choctaw in one. That's another Native American term.
I'm from Bo-sure lol and have never heard Shreveport (named after Captain Shreve) pronounced that way. The more I think about it, maybe I have and subconsciously heard the V.
@@romaschild3 , yeah...the correct way to say it is with the V, but the Southern way to say it, is without the V. ;) Any time I've heard it, if the V is there, it's very faint. :)
@@dustyken I have lived in Bossier, which is just the other side of the Red River from Shreveport, for 66 years.
I'm from New Orleans. my Lousiana roots go down deep from Orleans to Evangeline parishes. So I spent my life in most of those places you mentioned. Got a kick out of you pronouncing Natchittoches and Tchoupitoulas
I was hoping she would read Tchoutacabouffa but technically it’s not in Louisiana lol
My last name is Sirois and I grew up in Northern Maine. I speak Acadian French. You should look into this French dialect!
La Grange is a name for many towns in the US which just means The Barn in English . .ZZ Top has a famous song called La Grange about the town in Texas
More particularly about a certain house just outside LaGrange....
La Grange is also a town in Missouri. There is a college, now a university, in Hannibal, Missouri named Hannibal-LaGrange.
Not from the US, but in Timmins we've got Hamelin, Belanger, Broussard, Lavigne, Richelieu, Rochedale, Bonhomme, couture and malette, to name a few.
Louisiana native here. I'm glad you revealed that YOU are a French native. Your English is great, with a slight accent that does not sound like your typical French accent. I could not place you, as we say.
Louisiana was founded by the French, of course. However it's also been heavily.inflienced by many indigenous Indian tribes, and German, British, and Spanish settlers, ALL of which brought their unique cultures and words. Many of the "French" words tossed out at you, in fact are Indian words or names, not French. AND Louisiana Cajun French is a DIALECT derived from French that journeyed to Canada, then separated from that evolving dialect to journey to Louisiana, where it continued to evolve and specialize. My own parents and aunts and uncles were fluent in SPOKEN French. I have an uncle, who journeyed through France, with WW2 US Army troops. He was right at home in France and Belgium, and was called upon to interpret
The most French name I can send your way is one that absolutely sets apart REAL Cajuns: Quebedeaux!
Pronounced "Kwi-buh-dough" where the first two vowels are short.
Bonne Seur, Mon Cheri!
I’m from Louisiana. Love hearing your pronunciation.
You’ve done a great job pronouncing the New Orleans streets. I’m a New Orleanian. Tchoupitoulas is native american.
Great job from a New Orleans native :)
A *LOT* of French (and other language) street names are completely unrecognizable to native speakers here - Burgundy (bur-GUN-dee), Calliope (Cal-ee-ope), Tchoupitoulas (chop-ih-too-lus). We have what are called Yats (comes from the greeting "Where y'at?" = How's it going, not actually "where" you are) - they pronounce Metairie like "Metry" 😅
There are also street names in New Orleans also pronounced the same as in French. It's just some are pronounced in an english way while others are pronounced a French way.
Fun fact about Louisiana, the French communities are outside the cities. Breaux Bridge for example has bilingual signs and 29% native French speakers. New Orleans is a mere 1% it’s not common to hear French there.
Some old Mexican there, like Incan, lots of spanish, some Indian. You did GREAT Marie !!
Hi from New Orleans. I'm a tour guide, and one of my guests a couple of years ago was from France and complained because a waiter at a restaurant kept correcting her on how to pronounce etouffee. I had to explain to her how the proper pronunciation in France isn't the proper pronunciation here.
I'm Texan and I studied French in high school and college. It's étoufée, but it's pronounced essentially the same in French as it is in Louisiana, only the La. version gets a more "country twang' than the (Parisian/standard) French. It's close to "ay-too-FAY," but English "ay" has too much of an "ee" on the end, which French é/ai does not have. (The French would say the English ay is more like "éï," where the two dots on the ï mean it is pronounced separately.) But the é in French is a close mid front vowel, more like English ay, while è is just like eh in English bed. -- I haven't heard Marie pronounce it yet, but I'd be very surprised if she mispronounces a French word. :)
@@benw9949 I'm from south Louisiana and it's pronounced the same here as in France but some people pronounce the first e differently as you pointed out and that's probably how that waiter pronounced it.
My ex-wife lives in Marseilles, Illinois. It's pronounced locally as "mar-sales." I grew up 2 towns over from "Des Plaines" which we pronounced as "dess planes." Some years back there was a train derailment so big it made our national news. This took place in Bourbonais, locally pronounced as "boor-bonn-us" but all the national reporters who flocked to the scene used a more French "ber-bun-ay" pronunciation in their newscasts and it kinda took, so most people now pronounce it that way anymore.
My husband and I were both born and raised in Chicago, but his mother and her family were originally from LaSalle which is not far from Marseilles. And of course Joliet was also off of I-80. LaSalle being a trailblazer assisting Father Joliet in missionary work. Even Illinois sounds French. And of course the founder of the Chicago area was Dusable, a half French and half African ex-slave trailblazer.
@@susanfigueroa872 My ex actually moved from LaSalle-Peru to Marseilles ;)
Hello Marie, I am originally from Pennsylvania, and it is funny how we have Americanized the pronunciation of these cities. The way we were taught the pronunciation of these cities sound nothing like French. Thank you for your always entertaining videos.
When I visited Boston and Salem we found a museum focusing on French colonists and the influence of francophones in the area. Now of course I can't find it anywhere on the Web or in Massachusetts' tourism sites. Maybe it closed. I've been to Bethlehem PA, it's beautiful. Old hardwood trees, the place has an atmosphere I hadn't felt anywhere else.
The accurate pronunciation would sound more like a French Canadian accent, the metropolitan french accent changed so much throughout the centuries it's not accurate when talking about North American street or city names. (not shaming the accent in anyway, it's already way more close than the american version)
We rode a train from Paris to Disneyland Paris. I was surprised to see familar town names. But they sure were pronounced different. Just as an example, Vincennes.
Maybe old French pronunciations
Here in Michigan some French named cities:detroit,cadillac, sault ste marie ,marquette and charlevoix
They were found by a french canadian thats why 😁
I lived near new orleans for many years so to hear you attempt some of those name of streets and places reminds me of what I likely sound like reading italian to my italian friend .
Even though your pronunciations were correct
I have only ever heard them with the local dialect and in american accent until now !
A lot of these do like native. Never thought about that. I’m from New Orleans and it was so satisfying to hear these true pronunciations!
The current state of Missouri, as part of the French Colony (upper Louisiana) along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, also has many French place names for cities, counties and rivers. Such as: St. Louis, Pomme De Terre, Laclede, Gasconade, Bourbon, Versailles, Auxvasse, Bourbeuse, Moreau, Marais De Cygnes and a dying form of french creole dating from the colonial period, called Missouri French or Paw Paw French.
Patois not Pawpaw. And Pomme de Terre means potato. Mus have been named by Irish French😁
When a cat blinks their eye's at you it a sign of love and trust. If you do it back to them, then they know you feel the same.
I had requested it. Thanks for doing it! It was great to hear how you pronounce the names that I've lived with most of my life and have grown accustomed to hearing.
“Natchitoches (Nak-a/tish). Really? That’s how you pronounce it?” .. 🤣
My hometown. That cracked me up! Merci Beaucoup!
I'm from the Shreveport area of Louisiana and yes, that's how it is pronounced. Doesn't look like it, does it?
Hey I'm a New Orleans Native, living in Florida after Katrina, enjoyed your videos.
Bonjour @FrenchTastic ! Parisian dude here. I've just discovered your work here, and I'm realizing I knew so few about Cajun, Creole and Louisiana French. So thanks a lot for this Channel. Looking forward to see more of it :)
OMG! I could sit and listen to you speak in french all day and not even care if I understand you or not. Just love love love it! Hugs from Idaho.
Loved hearing you read these 😃
A lot of fun! You did a great job Marie. And I like the way you put it together, very well done, thank you for that. My nephew lived in Louisiana for about five years and I visited a few times so I’ve seen some of these names.
Cut her some slack, some of those names are Native American based. My French teacher from HS talked about going to Louisiana and not understanding people speaking Creole at all. Lots of friends there for me and enjoy traveling there a great deal. If for nothing but the food it's worth the trip. But, the people in LA are great.
Correct some of those names are of native american origin. I was born and raised in La.
Across the Louisiana Purchase a lot of Native names were first Latinized by French traders and explorers so you often get French spelling conventions and sometimes the French pronunciation has been preserved. Arkansas is the most famous. It's a French plural of an Algonquian word so the "s" sound is dropped. Kansas is from the same native word, but changed to the English plural sound so the "s" is pronounced.
Hi from Jennings, Louisiana
I am from Arkansas and yes that is so, the correct French convention ending pronunciation is actually backed by a state law here.
I was looking forward to this and you did a great job.
Yeaaaah thank you😎😎
It's always fun finding new mots apparenté - among city names, my favorite was Detroit originally coming from "le détroit du lac Érié".
It's wonderful to hear you speak the names with the accent. Thank you so much. Very amusing.
Don't feel bad, I've been living here my whole life and you pronounced most of the words better than I can.
Aye shoutout my hometown Thibodaux and the rest of the great state of Louisiana🤙🏼🤙🏼. Love you and your channel Marie! All love ❤️
I live in Duquesne Pennsylvania and it's so nice to be able to hear somebody pronounce it that doesn't live in this area or is that speaks French.
Love your videos keep up the good work.
Great 👍video 📹👏👌👍 Love hearing you speak French 😀🇨🇵
Enjoyable video. Thank you.
A lot of the rivers and bodies of water retained the native indian names the buildings and streets and places came after ,so mostly French or Spanish names.
Lots of towns with French names scattered across western Canada, even though almost no one speaks the language there.
Portage la Prairie
Grande Prairie
Lac la Biche
Lac des Arcs
Lacombe
Qu'Appelle
That last one is my favourite. It's a hilarious name for a town.
I am wondering if Qu’appelle is not a misspelling or a literal french transcription of Capel which would make sense if the first settlers would be regrouped in Parishes maybe ?!? Capel is written chapelle in french but Normandy people would pronounce it Capelle at this time like they would pronounce cat instead of chat...
Marie, I am so happy you said Charleroi, my Dad's family comes from there in Pennsylvania. The locals call it 'Char-Le-Roy'.
That's cool, I guess I'm late to the party lol I'm from Houma, Louisiana (Which is in Terrebonne Parish). Grew up on Grand Caillou Road, family is from Little Caillou. Recently traced my family tree to find out most of my family came from Nova Scotia. It's really cool you did this. Most of my family are Martin's, Foret's, and Duplantis'. Been really enjoying watching your channel. Keep it up!
Bonjour Marie! Yeah, those are tough. Here in the Detroit area (which by the way is French...De Troit) we have a lot of Polish street names that are challenging, and Michigan has a ton of Native American place names that can be difficult. Thanks for this! Avoir un merveilleux week-end! ~Be Blessed
Lol, its french and it means... détroit. Like all the détroits
It means a strait or a stretch like the Bering or Gibraltar straits. Not "from Troie" but yes it is indeed a french name!
Funny because Quebec means détroit in Alonquin Sioux language which means "strait" or more literally "where the river narrows".
The name of Détroit (the city in Michigan) comes originally from the bigger Colony’s name of "Fort Pontchartrain du détroit" or " Fort Pontchartrain of the strait".
Like numerous places in North America, the town’s toponymy are inspired by the immediate surroundings.
The fun part of all these names is that it's a mix of, largely, French, Spanish and Native words and then trying to figure out which AND THEN trying to figure out if it's the original pronunciation or some warped pronunciation.
For example, Lafayette might be pronounced exactly like you said it, or it might be pronounced more like Lah-FAY-it.
In Wisconsin the French were here in the 1670's, in the western part of the state.
I'm guessing if a Louisiana 'Cajun' came to France they would be as misunderstood as when I, a Texan, goes to New York. They don't understand a word I say! haha
Same here. South East Texas accent.
@@pilotboy3328 nacogdoches myself
They would not understand Québecois ( French Canadian) either. I guess we exaggerate the accent just to see their face.🤣
From Bossier City, Louisiana here and love this
In Ontario, we have Presqu'ile provincial park pronounced the French way. I went to Maine and was in Presque Isle and ended up being corrected a number of times.
Hey, you gave my name a try! You actually got it right the second time, so as I promised.....it means "strawberry" or "one who grows strawberries" . 😁
🍓🍓
hello from Opelousas!!!! you said it great!
That's exactly why it's known as Vieux Carre! Parce-que the outline of the city. A lot of the names you had a hard time with were American Indian (Tangipahoa, Natchitoches, etc.). They're very hard to say unless you've heard them locally, because American Indian languages are not connected to any other languages.
But why Algiers?
@@sarahgilbert8036 the ordinance of the name, are dubious by speculated to be Spanish
Salut, Québécois de Montréal ici! J'adore la Louisiane et c'était super drôle de t'entendre prononcer ces noms. En fait, il y en a beaucoup qui sont d'origine amérindienne (Tchoupitoulas et Natchitoches, par exemple), mais également hispanique (notamment la rue Carondelet à la Nouvelle-Orléans) étant donné que la Louisiane a été sous gouvernance espagnole pendant quelques décennies à la fin du 18e siècle. Et en passant, «Elysian Fields» se trouve à être une traduction littérale de «Champs-Élysées» en anglais. C'est une des grandes artères de la Nouvelle-Orléans. ;)
D'autres noms sur lesquels tu as hésité sont bel et bien d'origine française. «Duplessis» (le dernier «s» est muet) est un nom très répandu au Québec, quoique probablement plus rare en France. L'orthographe porte définitivement à confusion dans certains cas. «Poydras», par exemple, se trouve à être l'équivalent de «Poitras», un autre nom de famille populaire au Québec, lequel semble provenir de l'ancienne province française du Poitou.
C'est toujours cool de voir d'autres francos s'intéresser à la Louisiane, qui est encore si méconnue dans le reste du monde francophone. J'espère que d'autres chaînes comme la tienne verront le jour dans les prochaines années! :)
You will also find many French names in the northeast as one of the first waves of Acadian deportations landed along the east coast from Maine to the Carolinas .
Thanks, someday hope to visit some of those places.
I am shocked you so not have more followers. Your channel is in my top 2. Seriously. Both a tie. If I see a.new one from you, or the other, I click here as fast as I can. I can tell others feel the same from the great gifts they send you.
Aww you're so sweet🤗☺️
You did great ! New Orleans native here, also a French speaker
You pronounced those just fine .. even Tchoupitoulas!
In Louisiana, we do not name our regions "county" like in other states - because of our French/Catholic heritage our "county" are called "Parish". So Terrebonne Parish is an administrative region encompassing multiple cities.
As for names like Tchoupitoulas or Natchitoches? Those are definitely more native in nature. We pronounce "Natchitoches" like "Na-ko-tish" and Tchoupitoulas is a street in N.O. ("Cha-pe-tou-la").
No way. I am from Nacogdoches Texas. The sister city of Nacatish, LA. By the way it is Native Americans called the Caddo Indians. Many of the names in East Texas and Louisiana are Caddo Indian. So good luck with that. You are the best.
You pronounce these names so much better than most of America and with a better accent than many locals who often don’t put a French accent on French words. And yes we have a combination of French, English and American Indian names. When pronouncing Indian names with the Tch drop the T. I’m sure the original Indian name sounded like Tch but no one bothers trying pronounce it.
Awesome video
Here in Detroit we have many things named in French like the Rouge River which is both the name of the river and a city on the river, streets like Gratiot, Dubois, Charlevoix, Pontchartrain, and Lafayette, we also have the Islands of Belle Isle and Peche Isle in the Detroit river, also the church of St. Anne de Detroit, and of course Detroit itself is a French word.
I live in Montreal and many of Detroit's French names are truly iconic here. Cadillac (obviously), Beaubien, Montcalm... However, you guys have some really cool ones such as Gratiot and Livernois, which are almost nowhere to be found here. It never ceases to amaze me whenever I come across some unknown French name in America. Those guys were everywhere!
The story behind "Fais do-do" being used for dance parties is that a mother would put her children to bed before going and say fais do-do to them. If the children were brought along, she might put them in another room to sleep and say the same. Either way, it's so common that the parties were named for it. Atchafalaya derives from the Choctaw term hacha falaia, meaning "long river". Tchoupitoulas isn't so clear-cut. It's thought to be derived from a native American language, but no one knows for certain. There are many words used as place, city or street names in Louisiana that came from native words, just like there are throughout the northern and southern continents. Some of the French names are related to native places or words -- Baton Rouge is named after a red-painted tree trunk that formed a boundary marker between the territories of two native settlements.
I loved your video. I learned a lot and was impressed with your pronunciations of the Native American words. I am trying to learn Espanol, on my own, and would love to speak at least a little Francais. I speak some Deutsch. Bottle line, I am American and speak only English.
lots of fun!
In Lafayette near my home is Beau Pre, La Nouvelle (from La nouvelle acadie), chemin Metairie. Many of the names down here come from Choctaw (Atchafalaya for example)
Much of the early explorers of the North American interior were French, Based in Quebec. Pere Marquette, Jolliet, Frontenac, Cadillac to name just a few.
Cities, streets, Mountain ranges are named after them, or by them, or the French fur trappers and traders who were the first Europeans to travel in these lands.
Saint Louis, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa; Pierre, South Dakota. To reach Lake Superior one passes through Sault Ste. Marie.
One of My Favorite obscure US name origins is a county in Wisconsin (A state with a long list of French names) But the County is called "Door" County...
The county consists of a peninsula and a large island that separate Lake Michigan (one of the Great Lakes) from a large bay.
The reason that the county is called "Door" County is that the water passage between the peninsula, and the large Island is called "Porte au mort".
It is still on all the navigational charts.
Your mentioned the city I grew up in! 👍🏻
This is what comes to mind in Malta "Rue d'argens"
Happy to see the pendant of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers behind you. We have some French named streets, cities, rivers, etc. but more native American influence than French. Still happy to see Minnesota represented in the background. I'm from Minneapolis. Enjoyed the pronunciations!
That was fun!
I am Cajun from a small town in Louisiana called Ville Platte and can trace my ancestors to a French sergeant from the Napoleon army stationed at Ft. Talouse in what is now in Alabama. After the British defeated the French, his family had to leave and went to Louisiana.
In northern Michigan, there is a town named Mackina City from which you can take a ferry boat ride to Mackina Island. The city's name was spelled to match how it is pronounced in English, while the Island retains the French spelling. Mackinac is actually not a French name, though, it's a Native American name spelled in French. Similarly, Michigan and Illinois were Native American names originally spelled by French explorers/settlers. I think this explains why the "ch" in Michigan is pronounced like an "sh" and the "s" at the end of Illinois is silent.
There are many French place names on the Mississippi gulf coast as well since the coast of Mississippi was part of New France for a long time. Biloxi MS was the first place in the US the French settled in 1699 and it was the original capital of New France until it was changed to New Orleans for logistic purposes (Nola is at the mouth of the MS river as it enters the Gulf of Mexico making it an excellent port to trade with and connect to Frances north claims in Canada.
I’m from Biloxi and my seventh great grandfather was one of the original explorers who settled there in 1699. His name was Jean Baptiste Boudreau dit Graveline. Graveline bayou is named after him and he established the city of Pascagoula MS. My family has lived in coastal MS ever since he first arrived in 1699 and we, like many others from the area, are very attached to our French creole heritage. Unfortunately none of us speak French other than a few words that were passed on to us by our great grandparents. My second great grandmother was the last in our family to speak French natively alongside English and she died in the 1960s. I do plan on learning French soon though (and since I already speak Latin I’m positive it won’t take long for me to get to basic conversational ability- I can already read a bit of French because it is close enough to Latin for me to get like 80% of it more or less).
I’d love if you did a video where you learned about specifically French Mississippi and how creole French culture is still very present there today. It’s heritage is both Cajun and creole (the distinction being that Cajuns are descendants from French Acadia whereas creole are French who were there prior to the Cajun migration to the gulf).
Here in KY we have a Versailles. However its pronounced V- ER- sails. Unlike the typical english pronunciation of V-er- sigh
Seeing the Gophers pennant on your wall, even Minnesota was originally discovered by the French. Our state motto is L'Étoile du Nord.
The Village of Mermentau is in Acadia Parish, Louisiana. Mermentau, the Village of and the river, is named after the Atákapas-Ishak (Atákapa is the name the Choctaw gave to the Ishak when warning the Europeans of their warlike neighbors that translates to “people eater” and Ishak is pronounced "ee-SHAK", which translates as "The People.") Chief Nementou who sold land on Bayou Plaquemine Brulé (plækɪmɪn bru-li and translates to "burnt persimmon bayou") to Antoin Blanc for $100 in 1784. Eventually, thanks to the name being written wrong on an official document, Nementou became Mementou and this then turned into Mermentau through confusion that caused the Cajun and Creole speaking French people of the area to mispronounce it further. The Village of Mermentau lays on the East banks of the Mermentau River.
@2:38 That look on your face reminds me of my foreign born ex-wife who is a francophone speaker. She had that same look in most places that I took her to Louisiana when she heard people speak & when she 1st visit my birth state. It was classic.
Btw you did very good and your french accent is good. You only struggle on Louisiana created words which are really blend of native American.
I love when your you Say "Ry-ver" when you try to say River ;)
Yes, you're right - some of those names are actually Native American names.
We Americans have a tendency to change how a name/word is said, based on how it looks like it 'should be pronounced' *in English* ... I'm sure that it can be annoying to a 'native speaker' of the language! Heck, sometimes we mangle an *English* name/word! An example: there is an area on the edge of Rochester that is named 'Charlotte', which used to be a fairly common English name (originally adopted from French - the "-tte" ending is the clue). The English name is pronounced
< *shar* let >
, but here in the Rochester area that area's name is pronounced
< shar *lot* >
, which is probably *closer* to the original French name's pronunciation, but probably not identical!
If you do a search online for 'U.S. Louisiana Purchase', you'll be able to see the area of the U.S. where you can find French names (usually - but not always! - mis-pronounced); it's a *huge* area!
Some history: President Jefferson arranged/approved the purchase, for $3,000,000, which was a *huge* amount for a young America! In fact, Jefferson had a lot of political trouble because of the purchase; of course, after he was *dead* it became "a brilliant idea" ... but at first he was accused of all kinds of horrible things (his opponents said he was "in the pay of the French", or was "trying to destroy the nation" by bankrupting it, or that he was somehow trying to personally profit from the purchase, or that he was going make sure his friends made all the profit from the 'new' territory, or other nasty things). He certainly didn't profit personally from the purchase - when he died in 1826 (exactly 50 years after the Declaration Of Independence), he was broke and impoverished!
Au revoir, hasta luego & do svidanya!
There's an even bigger clue in Charlotte about it's origins than the -tte ending (you could get that from other Romance languages like Italian). It's the CH being sounded as a shushing sound (the English SH). CH in French is the phonetic equivalent of SH. To get an English or Spanish sounding CH sound in French, you have to add a T (TCH, like in Tchaikovsky).
The Rochester area pronunciation is closer to French, yes, but the vowel sounds and the R will be different (especially the very flat North American English R - the closest R sound in English would probably be the R of a Welsh accent which kind of resembles the old fashioned R in some Canadian French accents...). The vowels can be approximated fairly easily but R sounds can be tricksy little devils. That said, the Canadian sounding R's are probably closer to the colonial era French phonology than modern European ones are since the pronunciation of R changed in Europe in the last two centuries (in both English and French) and stayed a bit more archaic in North America.
Also, the stress pattern with the final syllable stress is correct in French (although it is not a stress-timed language like English and other Germanic languages, a light stress occurs on the final syllable of each word... it's a variation on Latin's standard stressing pattern). French dictionaries literally don't have stress marks on syllables like English dictionaries do. Every syllable gets roughly equal emphasis and duration with just a little extra on the last syllable (but it doesn't de-stress the other vowels like in English). Learning what syllable to stress in English words is really confusing for French speakers learning English.
What a charming video! Thank you!!
Names like Atchafalaya and Tchoupitoulas are native American names. So is Natchitoches, which is pronounced Nack A Dish.
In addition to French and Native American influences, there are significant African/Caribbean, Irish, Italian, and Spanish influences in New Orleans. New York City was the # 1 port of immigration from Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but New Orleans was # 2. There are also Croatian, German, and (from the 1970s) Vietnamese communities in New Orleans.
"Cajun" is a corruption of "Acadian" and refers to French Catholics who fled to Louisiana to escape British rule in Canada. The Cajun/Acadian community is mainly in south central Louisiana.
I am a native of Louisiana and have lived most of my life in New Orleans. The last generation which commonly spoke French in Louisiana was born in the early 1900s. Mass communications in English (radio, the cinema, and TV) virtually ended French as even a second language by the 1960s. Louisiana state government is cooperating with the French government to preserve French as a part of Louisiana's culture.
crt.state.la.us/cultural-development/codofil/index
Presque Isle is a town in Maine. I don't know whether Louisiana has one too, but it's the one I'm familiar with.
Cajun French, when spoken by a true native speaker, is mutually intelligible with standard continental French and sounds like contemporary Québecois mixed with an American southern accent.
Both Cajun (Acadien) and Québecois are reminiscent of the accent and dialect one hears even today in Brittany and Normandy. Most French speaking settlers in North America originally came from those regions.
Many linguists theorize that standard French of the 16th and 17th Centuries sounded much more like the accent we hear today in Québec and and Louisiana. In other words, continental French evolved and colonial French retained more of its original sound.
There is strong French influence throughout North America, not just in regions traditionally associated with French colonial culture. French fur trappers named towns and landmarks as they explored the interior.
Partial list of examples:
Bellevue, Nebraska/Washington
Papillon, Nebraska
Platte River (direct French translation of the Otoe Indian word, *ne-BRATH-ka* , meaning "flat water")
Versailles, Indiana
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Belle Fourche, South Dakota
Grand Tetons (mountains named for their shape, rather than wishful thinking on the part of lonely French coureurs de bois).
Porte d'enfer (now, Hellsgate), Montana
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan
Florissant, Missouri
Of course, present pronunciation of these places reflects American influence, rather than correct traditional French pronunciation. Nevertheless, the roots are there.
Some of these places retain the old French pronunciations
Hey miss Marie!!!
Here in Vermont. We have lake Champlain that is on the west side of our state and split's new York and Vermont and 🇨🇦 Canada.. If you look on American map you'll see it is a big lake.👍 keep smiling
Angel eyes..🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Try this one for me. I live in a city called Pataskala Ohio. It's an indian (Native American) word meaning "shining waters ".
I have lived in Missouri all of my life. This state began as a Spanish territory and became a French possession. President Jefferson bought the territory from Napoleon. There are cities and towns in Missouri with French names. The two oldest cities in Missouri are St Genevieve and St Louis. They are almost 300 years old, not old like cities in France but old for this part of the world. We also have a small town that has an odd name and it is Auxvasse. Locals pronounce it Aw- Vaz, but others have had some interesting ways of pronouncing it, including Ox-Vassie.
I just thought I should add that there is a lake in Missouri named Pomme de Terre, the apple of the earth aka potato.
Montegut is actually pronounced the same BUT generally written Montegue in American English; and a variant where the 'g' is replaced by a 'q'.
Louisiana has an odd mixture of French, Spanish and Native American history that shows up in some of these names. Of course French is the predominant influence particularity in southern Louisiana, but it's not all "just French" heritage like most people believe.
Les canadiens français vivant ailleurs qu'au Québec et l'Acadie, ont, en général, gardé la VRAIE langue française de nos ancêtres. Nos ancêtres ont commencé à s'installer en Nouvelle France de façon permanente en 1617. Jusqu'au milieu du 20e siècle nous étions essentiellement isolés de la mère patrie. Nous avons continué à parler le français de nos alleux avec peu de changements à notre parlé. Par contre les français de France on BEAUCOUP changé leur langue.
Le plus grand changement que les français de France on fait c'est de changer complètement la prononciation du 'r'. Nous, on roule nos 'r' comme toutes autres langues Latine. Le français de France crache leur 'r'. Je n'ai jamais compris pourquoi et quand la France a décidé de commencer à cracher les 'r' quand toutes les autres langues Latine continuent de rouler leur 'r'.
Malheureusement, au Québec, durant la révolution tranquille des année 1960s, certains citoyens de la province de Québec ont choisi de renier la langue et la façon de parler de leurs ancêtres et ils ont adoptés un version du français de France, imitant le "crachage" du 'r'.
Je suis dans ma soixantaine et en tant que cinquième génération franco-ontarien qui est fier de parler la langue de mes grands-pères, j'ai TRÈS honte de ceux au Québec qui ont renié nos racines linguistique! Ceci dit, il y a une minorité au Québec qui roulent encore leurs 'r', tout comme il y a une minorité ailleurs au Canada qui ont décidés de cracher leur 'r' comme au Québec.
En Acadie, eh bien leur dialecte est complètement différent de tout le reste du Canada français. Le dialecte acadien est plein de couleur et de richesse qui est très bon à entendre! C'est dommage que de plus en plus l'accent acadien disparait.
En conclusion, je veux réitérer qu'à cause de notre isolation de plusieurs siècles, le français dans le reste du Canada est LE VRAI français authentique, et non pas le français parlé en France. Nous n'avons pas beaucoup changé notre façons de parler, alors nous somme les vraies francophones du monde, pas ceux de la France.
I looked up the Meaning of Natchitoches. (An early Spanish explorer claimed “Natchitoches” derived from a native word “nacicit” meaning “a place where the soil is the color of red ochre.” )
Ohh thank you🤗
also a waring tribe of Nachidoches,a tribe on the other side of Texas border
Hello Miss Marie ! I Am Listening 😄
Still Subscribed, like button Illuminated
Always A Pleasure to hear you speak French ! As For the Song of the Day just for you. by VAN HALEN ( Dance the Night Away )😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄
First in comments As well ( Sweeeet )
I enjoyed this one, I was born in New Orleans and lived in Metairie and Grand Isle Louisiana. My family came here from Algiers Algeria ,when it was a French colony. They came Louisiana in United State in 1964 my dad ,my mom and my uncle spoke French all the time. My sister still speaks French ,my brother and my other brother not so much . I know a little French but not enough Also was the first one to be born in the United States in our family. I think you would enjoy southern Louisiana.
Thank you for doing this. New Orleans is probably one the important cities in America.