Josh McNeill

Author: Joshua McNeill (Page 8 of 20)

Sociolinguist | Specialist in French & Creoles, Race & Ethnicity
Sociolinguiste | Spécialiste en français et créoles, race et ethnicité

Papa Guédé will hear you out…

November 3, 2013 / / 0 Comments

… as long as you speak French or Haitian Creole.

So I went to an actual voodoo ceremony for the first time the other night for Fête Guédé, probably more commonly known as either All Saints’ Day or Day of the Dead. It was held in New Orleans in a small home converted into a sort of temple down a dirt alley with all sorts of decorations:

Papa Guédé

It was a really nice ceremony. There were probably 30-35 people plus more passers-by who I think just wanted to watch a little out of curiosity. For nearly two hours they walked around an altar (I think it was to Papa Guédé himself), writing things on the ground with dust of some sort, lighting candles, and saying prayers. This was interspersed with chanting in a call-and-response style as well as drums which reminded me a lot of Cuban rumba. The aura of the whole thing was definitely otherworldly and it worked purely based on the fact that so many people were involved. I mean, they were singing in a language I couldn’t really understand–which may have been somewhat poorly pronounced Haitian Creole–and I find it hard to believe that they all actually spoke this language so here we have some 15 or so people who bothered to memorize chants in a language they don’t even know. It made the whole thing feel real and for all intents and purposes it was. It served a symbolic purpose that could be appreciated even if it didn’t actually do anything. The ceremony was meant to communicate with the dead and as long as the atmosphere was right and no one cared to question whether it really worked, it might as well have been working.

I did feel a little confused about the authenticity of the ceremony, though. The woman leading it had long ago been ordained in Haiti, where the religion is still prominent, but it still felt somewhat like appropriation. As I mentioned, the chanting was all done in what may have been Haitian Creole and the woman leading the ceremony was definitely speaking Standard French. The people of Haiti use these languages because those are their native languages but it’s unlikely to be the same for the faithful here. The use of a language that’s not understood does help serve the purpose of creating an experience that clearly feels demarcated from everyday life but it’s also questionable whether it’s a sign of pure exoticism as well. I mean, it’s unlikely that any of these people grew up practicing voodoo–even the woman in charge grew up Jewish–but, really, there’s no rule against converting. I suppose the part that makes it seem somewhat like appropriation is that the people leading it aren’t people who grew up in it necessarily.

Ultimately though, it’s a bit sad that voodoo has been almost completely reduced to horror stories and sales gimmicks as it seems like a quite beautiful religion. I plan on checking it out more and maybe talking to the different priestesses in the city about it as well as the way that language fits in.

For (very) old men.

September 24, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“… to expose to the world, insofar as it is given me to do so in the profession of music, the vain error of men who esteem themselves such masters of high intellectual gifts that they think women cannot share them too.” –Maddalena Casulana, 1568

I found the above quote, a portion of the dedication in Casulana’s First Book of Madrigals, in J. Peter Burkholder’s A History of Western Music. Sometimes I’m not sure if I should be thrilled that there have always been women willing and able to prove that they’re equal to men or if I should be sad that they’ve felt the need to prove this again and again for hundreds of years. Hell, in the 12th century, Hildegard von Bingen invented a language while also finding time to make breakthroughs in science and music and yet over 300 years later Casulana was still like, “Ok, this will be the one that finally convinces y’all not to denigrate women!”

Ayoù sont les téléphones?

September 17, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Bec Doux et Ses Amis, from Cajun Héritage

It appears that a Paris-based outsourcing company will be creating some jobs in Shreveport, Louisiana:

French outsourcing giant Teleperformance has announced that it will create 740 jobs in Shreveport, Louisiana, in addition to its 1,260 existing employees there.

I found this story through NOLA Française and, when I read it, I immediately thought of a French-language call center, but I imagine a call center, particularly one that would be hiring Louisiana French speakers, is not all that likely. Just because the company is French doesn’t mean they need Francophone employees.

But it got me thinking, “Why not?” Part of what holds a language back can certainly be chalked up to a lack of meaningful uses and that would include not needing it to work or, in this case, really needing a different language altogether to get any work. Jobs in the tourism industry can be obvious exceptions but relying on one industry for all the French-based employment in the state probably doesn’t go too far. The possibility of grabbing outsourcing jobs that really do require Francophones would be an interesting addition.

Of course, there’s a definite dialect issue. It’s probably akin to using Filipinos for English-language call center outsourcing, or possibly worse. English in the Philippines is almost definitely going to be heavily influenced by American English as we’ve been fiddling around with their country in a big way up to some 50 years ago while French in Louisiana may not have received a significant amount of influence from International French in a very long time–according to Carl Brasseaux in French, Cajun, Creole, Houma, immigration declined a great deal after the Civil War. Instead of just being pronounced differently or phrased a little different, entirely different verbs and pronouns are also used.

Still, it seems worth it for someone to look into this possibility.

Blind guns and motorcycles.

September 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I’ve noticed a feature of the speech of both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart that seems a bit strange to me. Pay attention to how he Colbert pronounces his B’s in the following:

Normally this consonant would be pronounced as [b], just a regular stop, but Colbert seems to often use something like the trill [B]. Think of making the sound of a motorcycle by vibrating your lips, that’s the sound. For instance, at 3:16 when says breezy.

I’m not really sure what’s happening here. Maybe this is actually normal and I’ve just not noticed. It could also be a dialect change in progress but it seems kinda strange that I’ve heard this with Jon Stewart as well since they come from different parts of the country. It could also be just some mysterious ideolectal feature of fake news hosts. Who knows.

Japanonomatopoeia.

August 14, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Sometimes I wonder if the Japanese language is has so much onomatopoeia because the phonological structure leads to it or whether their interest in onomatopoeia lead to phonological structures reminiscent of it. Here’s one of the most difficult words to say that I know in Japanese:

暖かくなかった (Kanji)
あたたかくなかった (Hiragana)
atatakakunakatta (Rōmaji)
/atatakɯnakatta/ (IPA)

This is an adjective meaning it wasn’t warm outside. Because of the length and the very regular CV syllable pattern, this is a tongue twister for me and sounds like onomatopoeia for attacking. Of course, my (incorrect) interpretation is clearly influenced by the English word attack having a similar phonological structure (/ətæk/), but this repetition fits words that are accepted as Japanese onomatopoeia as well:

じろじろ見る (Kanji)
じろじろみる (Hiragana)
jirojiromiru (Rōmaji)
/dʑiɾodʑiɾomiɾɯ/ (IPA)

This means to stare (or, more literally, to look staringly). Although I’m sure this word goes back further than the invention of lasers, that’s what I think of when I hear the initial sound: lasers coming out of someone’s eyes.

Regardless of whether the chicken or the egg won this battle, I’m glad the battle happened as it gives me something to write (and chuckle) about.

Finding the bayou.

August 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I’m not exactly sure what the hell happened here, but The Lost Bayou Ramblers did not sound anything like this a couple years ago. Their last album was essentially traditional song and songs that sound like traditional songs. But this is a great example of modernizing the sound of Cajun music without losing the roots of the genre and I think it has a lot to do with Louis Michot’s vocals. He often wails in a way reminiscent of Iry Lejeune:

And even further back to Amédé Ardoin:

Of course, the language helps maintain the connection as well but I’m not really able to discern Louisiana French by ear yet. He clearly has some notable features like the tapped /ɾ/, though. Either way, I kinda just wanted to share this album because it’s pretty amazing.

Les fous.

August 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Around 48 seconds in, Murray Conque, imitating one of the characters he’s describing, delivers a punchline in French. The crowd, or at least part of it, gives a good laugh before he gets to any sort of English punchline or explanation. I missed what he said myself, other than calling the umpire an idiot at the end.

I was initially struck by this because it seemed as though the crowd knew what he was saying. I thought maybe this was a local Louisiana crowd that still had enough speakers that the joke worked or maybe the audience had some French speakers in general in it. Then I realized that people were probably just laughing at the obvious communication barrier between the two characters he was portraying. In that sense, the line almost seems almost like a mockery, with people laughing at the character, not with him.

This is possibly a direct contrast to what I described in a previous post with the bilingual joke in The Simpsons. That joke involved Spanish, which is certainly more widespread in the US than French and so likely to be understood. The Simpsons wasn’t mocking Hispanic people, they were simply banking on the idea that enough people would literally know what’s being said that it would be funny. Conque’s joke doesn’t seem to rely on that. In fact, his whole routine in that clip seems sort of like a mockery. It’s not that suspenders and small wooden houses don’t exist in Louisiana, it’s that those aren’t the only things that exist. They’re stereotypical, which I suppose is (or was) at least somewhat necessary for connecting to a wider audience, which is a bit of a shame.

When I saw the title, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I figured there was no way someone was doing comedy in Louisiana French, although comedy seems like a great arena for enriching and spreading the language. I also wasn’t expecting the comedian to be the butt of the jokes. It feels a little too self-deprecating and maybe Conque came to the same conclusion later on: in more recent clips he’s standing on typical stages wearing plain red suits.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that the intention was to convert any negative bias attached to these stereotypes as opposed to proving that Cajuns are respectable because they assimilate easily. I guess this is where the fine line is drawn between maintaining one’s identity and surviving within the larger culture.

Targeting su mercado.

July 31, 2013 / / 1 Comment

I clicked on an Iry LeJeune video tonight on YouTube and was treated to a commercial from T-Mobile with the actress code-switching between English and Spanish, much like the Target commercial above. I’ve gotten used to advertisements in various languages popping up in my browser as I change the language on my computer fairly often but I’ve only recently started noticing US commercials that utilize English and Spanish at the same time. Here’s another from Tide:

As far as this Latino focused blog is concerned, the Tide ad does justice to bilingual families in the US. I’m sure it does, and I have no problem watching these myself, but I imagine many Americans being upset by it, which is attested to in the aforementioned blog as well.

This is not the first instance of bilingualism I’ve noticed in the popular media, either. The Simpsons ran a joke maybe a year or two ago that relied on the audience having at least some knowledge of Spanish:

What is the big deal? The big deal is I’m gonna sue you! Got me one of them “abogados” from the bus ads. He said he’ll only take “veinte por ciento,” whatever that is.

Maybe I’m assuming too much, but this probably isn’t even capable of being funny to an English monolingual speaker.

The usual refrain that I come across from the English-only crowd is that their great great grandparents came to the US from Italy or Germany or wherever and had to learn English and so should everyone else and, ya know, they’re probably right. Not about how we should be treating language use in the US now, but about the situation their ancestors faced when arriving in the US. Sure, they could speak their native languages with other immigrants but I’d be willing to bet that newspapers and such were not catering to their languages during the late 19th/early 20th century when we experienced some of our largest immigration waves. (I’d love to be proven wrong about this by someone who has the time to find out, by the way.) It’s as if the multicultural aspect of our national mythos has overpowered our actual historical treatment of other cultures within our borders, which is refreshing really.

“I knew how to make a fire in this iron stove.”

July 25, 2013 / / 0 Comments

There’s something mesmerizing about this woman. The look in her eyes, the story that she tells, the way that she plays and sings, makes it seem as if she’s simply bursting with confidence and determination despite her clearly frail 92 year old body. When she states that she knew how to work that stove, it’s as if what she’s really saying is: “I knew how to get what I wanted in life against odds you can’t even imagine.”

When you QQ, I confuse morphograms with pictograms.

July 15, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I am a nerd. As such, I have an huge inventory of acronyms which are basically useless in the real world. Still, the following threw me off today (as I was wasting time I don’t have indulging said nerdiness):

One female human thief in LLK of TC in EB of WvW, from Guild [PinK] of SOS servers.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/wuv/wuv/A-Thief-in-TC-LLK-in-WvW

In normal person speak, this says: “Someone was in the Tarnished Coast game server’s Lowland Keep in the Eternal Battlegrounds Player versus Player game zone. They were in a guild named Pink that plays on the Sea of Sorrows game server.”

In fact, that’s not really normal person speak as I’m sure almost nobody who doesn’t play the game understands the translation. It would have to be parsed even further to make sense to people who don’t play video games, let alone Guild Wars 2. Maybe it would be something like this: “Someone playing an online video game against other players was in an enemy player’s base in an area where players fight eachother. They were a member of a group of players that often play together and call their group Pink.”

Of course, this loses all specificity (and makes awkwardly heavy use of the play morpheme). I’m not sure there’s actually a way to translate the original sentence to someone who has no familiarity with the subject at all without going into enormous amounts of explanation, which probably fits well into Language Log’s concept of nerdview.

But what really caught me was the orthography here, not the semantics. The original sentence was difficult to parse on the first reading even for myself. There are six acronyms (PinK, as all guild tags in the game are, is actually an acronym) which all require significant familiarity with the game. MMOs thrive on this sort of thing because so much conversation is typed while performing various other actions. Shorthand becomes essential for efficiency so that your character doesn’t die. Hell, even MMO is sort of for efficiency. It stands for massively multiplayer online… game. It used to be, more commonly, MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), then it got shortened because even the acronym was too much. Sometimes you’ll still see MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) but I’ve only really come across this being used by people who don’t play these games. This reminds me once again of the debate over Japanese orthography. Kanji are essentially serving the same function as acronyms in MMOs and the difficulty in understanding them for the uninitiated is often outweighed by the benefits they offer for the initiated.

This also reminds me of one of my favorite MMO shorthands: QQ. This isn’t actually an acronym–it’s not even a morphogram like kanji–it’s a pictogram. It’s literally supposed to look like two eyes with tears coming out. It means cry. I was confused by this for the longest time while playing Dark Age of Camelot, where (if you can call a game a place) it was invented because I kept wanting to read it as an acronym. Actually, I guess this wasn’t done for efficiency since there’s literally a one character difference. Maybe it’s for the semantic effect: I don’t believe you can use QQ to show sympathy for someone; it’s always used to mock. Hence one of the advantages, inherent in languages written in multiple ways like Japanese: intonation in writing.

And if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, QQ more newb.

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