Non-standard varieties of English in local colour writing: Creole speech in Kate Chopin’s Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie

TRABALLO DE FIN DE GRAO CONVOCATORIA DE XULLO Non-standard varieties of English in Local Colour Writing: Creole speech in Kate Chopin’s Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie Alumna: Irene Fernández López Titor: Mario Cal Varela Grao en Lingua e Literatura Inglesas Curso 2015-2016 TRABALLO DE FIN DE GRAO CONVOCATORIA DE XULLO Non-standard varieties of English in Local Colour Writing: Creole speech in Kate Chopin’s Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction.........................................................................................................................................1 1. Background 1.1. Kate Chopin: the author..........................................................................................................4 1.2. Local Colour Writing: historical, social and cultural antecedents............................................9 1.3. Dialect in Local Colour Writing and previous research on the topic......................................13 2. Empirical approach 2.1. Conceptual framework..........................................................................................................17 2.2. Methodology and materials..................................................................................................21 2.3. Data analysis 2.3.1. Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie: the characters................................................22 2.3.1.1. Bayou Folk 2.3.1.1.1. A No-Account Creole.........................................................................23 2.3.1.1.2. Loka..................................................................................................24 2.3.1.2. A Night in Acadie 2.3.1.2.1. Athénaïse..........................................................................................25 2.3.1.2.2. A Dresden Lady in Dixie.....................................................................26 2.3.1.2.3. Nég Créol………………………………………………………………………………………26 2.3.2. Distribution of features across grammatical deviations from non-standard language 2.3.2.1. Pronunciation......................................................................................27 2.3.2.2. Morphosyntax.....................................................................................28 2.3.2.3. Code-switching....................................................................................29 2.3.3. Distribution of features across groups of characters 2.3.3.1. Characters who speak Standard English..............................................30 2.3.3.2. Characters with code-switching; from English to French and vice-versa..............................................................................................31 2.3.3.3. Other idiosyncratic characters.............................................................32 3. Conclusion and final remarks..........................................................................................................33 4. Reference list..................................................................................................................................35 Annexes Table 1: List of characters in the sampled stories........................................................................22 Table 2: A No-Account Creole (utterances)...................................................................................37 Table 3: Loka (utterances)............................................................................................................48 Table 4: Athénaïse (utterances)....................................................................................................52 Table 5: A Dresden Lady in Dixie (utterances)..............................................................................60 Table 6: Nég Créol (utterances)....................................................................................................66 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Mr. Mario Cal Varela, for his continuous help and encouragement. I learned so many things from him and I felt very lucky for having the opportunity to work together. I really appreciate all the things he has done for me in these worthy months. My gratefulness goes, moreover, to Mr. Constante González Groba and Mrs. Patricia Fra López, who prompted my deep devotedness to an author like Kate Chopin a few years ago, while reading her most famous novel, The Awakening. While writing my project, I received their help in order to expand my knowledge of southern literature. Also thanks to Mrs. Belén Méndez Naya for her lessons and her unconditional support. A special mention is likewise made to all the professors of the Department of French and Italian Philology in this faculty, for contributing to improve my French – a language which I have been learning for more than ten years. It has definitely encouraged me to develop this research because of Kate Chopin’s European heritage, despite being born in America. And last, but not least, to you, who are reading my final degree project. I hope you enjoy while learning about non-standard varieties of English in some Chopin’s works, like I did. I would like you to give me your hand and take a ride together around her literary and linguistic profile. Thank you for the bottom of my heart. 1 Introduction First of all, my final degree project deals with non-standard language and its literary usage. I thought it was an interesting issue, because I have always been fascinated by linguistic varieties; however, I did not know how to reflect them in narrative... until I met one of the most refreshing authors in the 19th century: the American writer Kate Chopin (1850-1904). The topic caught my attention between 2013 and 2014, when I was studying North American literature with my classmates and we heard her name for the very first time. She had a fascinating life story and tried to defy the stereotypical role of women, as we could see in the most famous work of hers, The Awakening. The novel itself is a symbol of sexual freedom, and I appreciate it very much – this is a worthy action in a world where differences are sometimes stigmatised. Indeed, one of my strongest beliefs is that we all are unique: any kind of difference between human beings should be cheered and praised. The other approach to be mentioned and assessed is the strong French influence in her works: while reading The Awakening, we found out that it is quite evident, in places like Chénière Caminada and characters like Edna Pontellier and Adèle Ratignolle. Anecdotally, I have been learning French for more than ten years – this probably explains my curiosity about the author. One of my goals is to manifest the linguistic and literary correlation in Kate Chopin – in fact, some of her works include French words or sentences in their dialogued passages, as well as Creole speeches. For that, I can assert that the gist of my investigation, dealt in the practical part of the project, is the spoken parts of the chosen chapters. Similarly, the subject called English Sociolinguistics, which belongs to the fourth and last academic year of the Degree in English Studies (at least in our university), gave us crucial clues to provide the necessary information. Terms like “variety”, “standard/non-standard”, “vernacular” and “Creole”, among many others, play a significant role and make the contents more understandable, especially for readers or students without any specific formation concerning the topic. They are the essential point of care and they need to become familiar with the contents. That is why I have 2 come up with the idea of pooling Kate Chopin and non-standard English; concretely, those varieties spoken in the southern area of the United States. The most ready-witted justification for choosing this title and the development of its contents is the need of explaining a motif related to non-standard varieties of English – if we have to be more accurate, those spoken in the Local Colour Writing, around the second half of the 19th century. In this period, many of them are worthy of discovery and exposition, being that they take place in the most southern part of the country. They show some interesting particularities in terms of phonology and morphosyntax, as well as the interference of French language and the Creole speech, which was quite common in states like, for instance, Louisiana. As the main focus, in order to expand our acknowledgements about this topic, we have chosen Kate Chopin, of French and Irish descent. Her heritage was an excellent starting point for us, in order to explain some curious points about her biography and the attributes of her literature. In two of her collections of short stories, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, we perceived many accurate exemplifications of her way of using language, and her ability to capture those dialecticisms in a faithful, wise way – this latter point constitutes the most practical part of the project; once arrived to it, we will find out her dialectal skills. In the same context, paying attention to the historical and socio-cultural background of the Local Colour Writing, we found the necessary help to register the linguistic situation of the time, filling the informational gaps of today, even though we must wonder how we could fill more in the future, since the topic has not been developed enough. The use of English in both collections has been recorded in a few stories, where dialogues will be the focus of the review. In general terms, after this brief introduction, the project will begin with a descriptive approach of Kate Chopin; including her biography, the characteristics of her literature, and the way she reflects her reality in her works. Later, basic information about the Local Colour Writing will be provided: its historical, social and cultural background – including conventions and lifestyles in the 19th century, examples of other authors, and how characters are depicted in their fiction. The following subsection will deal with the Local Colour dialect and speech, the sociolinguistic situation at the time, and previous research on the topic. 3 After that, the research will be developed by means of preliminary, terminological and conceptual considerations; among others, the notion of standard language, variety, and the element that influences Local Colour writing: the Creole. In other words, we will learn useful slang concerning sociolinguistics, in order to understand the next section: the data analysis. This will include the analysis of five Kate Chopin’s stories, two from Bayou Folk and three from A Night in Acadie – two of her most famous collections of short fiction. Our methodology consists on describing the non-standard English patterns which belong to the southern area of the United States, clearly appreciated in the dialogued parts. The linguistic richness and the diverse social profiles of the characters were the chosen criteria to select the stories. Last, but not least, there will be a final section with conclusions and critical reflections, where the work will be discussed and evaluated. All these sections will constitute the entire project. 4 1. Background 1.1. Kate Chopin: the author American author Kate Chopin – English pronunciation: /ʃəw’pæn/ – was born Katherine O’Flaherty on 8 February 1850 in Saint Louis, Missouri. The third of five children –most of them dead at an extremely young age, being Kate the only who lived past the age of 25–, she is mostly characterised by her European heritage, fact that usually defines her as a Creole writer. Her father, Thomas O’Flaherty, was a successful businessman from County Galway, Ireland, expatriated in the United States; whereas Kate’s mother, Eliza Faris, had French Canadian heritage from her grandmother, Athénaïse Charleville. In her early infancy, Chopin had a close relationship with these two feminine figures, as well as her grandmother and the nuns of the Saint Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, where she excelled and discovered her passion for novels, poetry and religious allegories. When, as a 5-year-old child, Chopin suffered her father’s death in a railroad accident, she eventually learned to live without a male role model. Paradoxically, this traumatic event would teach her to become an independent, self-sufficient woman in a near future. She was rarely witness of feminine submission, overwhelmingly frequent in the vast majority of marriages in the American regionalism as an enduring psychological pattern. After graduating from Sacred Heart, she married Oscar Chopin, son of a wealthy, prominent cotton-growing family, in 1870. The couple had six children: five boys and a girl, fulfilling the preconceived expectations of Local Colour society. Women, at least in the second half of the 19th century, were expected to behave as self-denying mothers and wives; these restrictions were extremely difficult to resist. Like Kate, Oscar was French Catholic in background, since his father participated in the Civil War and took his family to Europe. In the French-Prussian War period, after their honeymoon around other American cities –Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New York– and European countries like Germany, Switzerland and France, they finally settled in New Orleans, Louisiana. Once arrived, Oscar started to deal with cotton, corn and sugar industries; hence, he inherited his father’s concern about small plantations. Unfortunately, his cotton brokerage failed in 1879. Meanwhile, Kate was widely active in social circles and enjoyed unconventional occupations which bothered some local 11 These features can be perceived among other prominent figures of local colour fiction. They are found in, for instance, the already mentioned George Washington Cable. In order to criticise Lousiana's ethnic past, he started to condemn racism in New Orleans in favour of multicultural heritage, while other authors were more interested in the defense of the vigent plantation system and aristocracy claimed that the emerging notion of "creole" was only suitable with white people of European descent - the actual fact is that Creoles were historically of French-speaking African-Americans-. Cable did not agree with that definition and in 1880, when he released his novel The Grandissimes, he described with precision and accuracy the historical mixture of ethnicities in the region; in the same way, he printed the subject of racial passing and objected the cliché of purity in Old Creole Days (1879) and Madame Delphine (1881). This circumstance inspired Grace King, another expert in local colour literature, who linked miscegenation with tragedy and drew his own reality. In his short story The Little Convent Girl, published in 1893, where a girl prefers committing suicide rather than being blamed for her ethnical background. Later, in 1888, he released Monsieur Motte, which narrates the story of an orphan, white woman and her devoted black servant. This evidence proves King's interest in gender issues, their position in society and regionalist environment. Like Grace King, what makes Kate Chopin a local colourist is her competence at the inclusion of southern ethnic characteristics –from Creole, Cajun and African- American cultures– in her narrative oeuvre. Her first collection, Bayou Folk (1894), provides a unique approach to race alliances with a certain touch of irony, influenced by French authors like Guy de Maupassant, who claimed: “That which we love too violently ends by killing us” (Bonner, Jr., 1988: 199-202), alluding to the unequal nature of patriarchy. In its narrations, a serie of complaints about the rigid social hierarchy and a detailed description of the Acadian and Cajun population are taken into account, with the socioeconomic limits and the social limitations that were strongly challenged. In A Night in Acadie (1897), like in the former collection, the vast majority of its twenty-three stories take place in the Cane River country of Louisiana, where Kate Chopin spent several years. 12 Some literary referents could have followed Chopin’s steps and could have moved from their place of birth. That is the case of Ruth M. Stuart, another Local Colour author. She moved to New Orleans with her family and stayed there until she established in Arkansas after marrying. She returned to the South after her beloved's death and later she went to New York in order to develop her literary carrier. Her first story, "Uncle Mingo's Speculations" (1888), deals with a diverse array of women, especially of African-American ethnicity -like "Queen o'Sheba's Triumph"- and, indeed, women who come from her natal Arkansas and Louisiana to work in plantations, where they show their different dialects -like "The Woman's Exchange of Simpkinsville" or "A Golden Wedding and Other Tales"-. Sentimental and, perhaps, stereotypical, Stuart's work was disreputed; nevertheless, literary critics reconsidered it when they realised that she actually was a local colourist. After looking at their backgrounds, we know that all of them are example of something in common: their fascination for the daily America of the 19th century, its society, and its cultural diversity. Nevertheless, there is something else that reflects these entities and more: the Local Colour dialect. 13 1.3. Dialect in Local Colour Writing and previous research on the topic The dialect in Local Colour Writing was noticed running the 19th century. In the occidental part of Louisiana, a dialectal variety of English made its appearance, with a clear influence of French-speaking areas whose inhabitants were forced to alternate between two varieties or codes –English and French languages– across cultural boundaries. This phenomenon, which is sometimes triggered by factors like social status or linguistic domains, is called code-switching, and it is often associated with language shift, triggered by migration and colonisation. The dialectal variety which will be dealt is denominated Cajun Vernacular English, or simply Cajun English (Dubois & Horvath, 2004). Mainly concentrated in southern Louisiana, with Lafayette as its metropolitan centre, Cajun English is generally spoken by Acadians emigrated to French Louisiana around 1765, as a result of British occupation and land domination. French-speaking population in Nova Scotia and Canada, as well as other linguistic communities, were contacted by Louisianans. This instance made French the first language of Cajuns, who had to face poverty and frequented small and uneducated towns, even though some people of French descent were regarded as equals. Despite the strong French influence, English was gradually added to the linguistic repertoire after the Louisiana Purchase, when Irish-Americans, Scottish-Americans and emigrants from all Europe chose Louisiana or New Orleans as their new home. From 1830 to 1840, the population of New Orleans expanded from 46,082 to 102,193 inhabitants, until French population finally occupied a third part of New Orleans demography, following Irish and German emigrants. Over half of the free population living in the Vieux Carré (New Orleans) were foreigner, followed by American-born and Louisiana-born people. Later, by the 1930s, Cajun speakers, who did not learn English due to the fact that they did not receive a proper literacy and education, still preferred French in daily routine; all the same, English was established as the language of education in the American state. Cajun English, in World War II, suffered a significant decline when the army manifested clear symptoms of bilingualism or semi-bilingualism: Louisiana was making an extraordinary effort to promote English language and even after that 14 period, children of French-speaking origin had to learn English at school, leading to wealthier and literate individuals who refused French in order to avoid certain social stereotypes. Since English had started to be considered the language of prestige in the early 20th century, French began to be abandoned by initially bilingual speakers. Cajun English, after many decades, was only used by elder people, though the new generations became more aware of their cultural identity and they started to recover it, process known as Cajun Renaissance. If we need to focus on this part, we have to take into account how linguists and non-linguists studied the differences between written and spoken discourse. Abercrombie (1965: 4) remarks that “nobody speaks at all like the characters in any novel, play or film. Life would be intolerable if they did; and novels, plays or films would be intolerable if the characters spoke as people do in life”. Moreover, Chapman (1994: 1) adds that “variations in accent, social or regional, and in personal voice quality, are tacitly ignored unless the text requires that they be made specific. Standard spelling neutralises speech and puts the onus on the author to show any special features”. Able to convey the flavour of spoken speech, despite its frequently notorious inadequacy in written language, Kate Chopin proved that it is never too late for depicting and encoding a brief overview of the more salient linguistic traits of her literary characters, especially from Louisiana, where the events of Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie take place. Their co-existing varieties are Louisiana French Creole and the Cajun dialect; in the same way, the French past of Louisiana is reflected through toponymy (Avoyelles, Bayou Têche, Bayou St. John, Chenière Caminada), proper names (Madame Célestin, Ma’ame Pélagie, Azélie) and nicknames (Nég Créol ‘noir créole’). As a local colourist, she seems to be aware of the difficulty of making a comprehensive analysis of the dialogues and tries to provide an overall view of regional phonological pointers (Dubois & Horvath, 1999; Pérez Ramos, 2012; Jobert, 2013): - Replacement of /ŋ/ by /n/ in –ing forms (singin’, walkin’) - /θ/ and /ð/ realised as plosives instead of fricatives: /t/ and /d/ (tink, dis) 15 - Non-rhoticity: the southern speech of the United States, unlike General American English, tends to be non-rhotic (mo’, sto’) - Compression, or weakening of unstressed syllables, where the written representation is actually closer to the phonetic reality than the orthographic, in order to indicate a deviation from the standard accents (b’lieve) - /ɪ/ and /e/ neutralisation: “ef” (if), “tell” (till) - h-dropping (‘appy) - In monosyllabic words, /ɪ/ tends to be followed by a schwa, lengthening the vocalic sound (“yair” for “here”) - Dropping of final consonants, or final consonant clusters, in monomorphemic and bimorphemic words, having the deletion of these – sometimes playing the role of phonological markers – as a remarkable consequence in grammar: /t/, /d/, /θ/, /f/, /ʃ/, /v/, /s/, /m/, /r/ and /l/. - Reduction or absence of glides in stressed /i/, /e/, /o/ and /u/. In Cajun English, these stressed vowels and diphthongs are not prolonged, such that /i/, /e/, /o/ and /u/ do not suffer the phenomenon of lengthening, quite habitual in southern English. The monophthongisation of mid vowels /o/ and /e/ and of diphthongs /ai/, /aʊ/ and /ɔi/ - the two first diphthongs pronounced /a:/ and the second pronounced /o:/ are consequences of this phonological process. Nasalisation of vowels, non-aspiration of plosives /p, t, k/ in initial position, /h/ dropping, and stops /t, d/ replacing interdental fricatives /θ, ð/ are other traits of this variety of English language. In morphology, the grammar consequences of the elimination of the final consonants derive into morphological changes (Dubois & Horvath, 2003): - Disappearance of the present tense marker –s in third person of singular: ‘She like cherries’. - Absence of the past tense morpheme –ed in weak verbs: ‘I paint the wall yesterday’. 16 - Missing auxiliary verb TO BE in the third person of singular, the second person of singular and the second person of plural: ‘He funny’, ‘You expected to work’, ‘Nick and Paula looking at the houses’. - WAS levelling: ‘You was happy’, ‘We was playing in the park’, ‘They was couple’. - Non-standard use of some prepositions: 'I've been to London during two years'. - Blend of French words, expressions or sentences: ‘Mon Dieu!’ These are the linguistic features that can be found in Cajun English. Before moving on to the empirical approach of the project, we must bear in mind that these features are used by Kate Chopin, as well as other Local Colour authors, with the aim of reflecting the sociolinguistic types of their characters. After all, these traits are reproduced not only at present, but also in past periods like the 19th century, where all these authors lived. 17 2. Empirical approach 2.1. Conceptual framework As a way of advancing the following section, which is the most practical one, we would like to focus on some preliminary, terminological and conceptual considerations related to varieties of English. All of them were learned with Belén Méndez (2014) while giving sociolinguistic lessons here, in this faculty. One of them is the notion of standard – a prestige variety of language used within a speech community, providing an institutionalised norm for such purposes as media and language teaching. Leith (1997: 31) claimed that “a standard variety is therefore seen to be a fully developed one [...] coupled with this trend is the desire to have it recorded and regularised, to eliminate variation, and if possible, change”; while Trask (1999: 289) stated that it is “that variety of a language considered by its speakers to be most appropriate in formal and educational contexts.” Standard English, as a social dialect, is regarded like this: the higher the social class, the more likely it is that the speaker uses Standard English; the lower the social class, the more likely that the speaker will use a regional dialect. But Crystal (1992: 366) had a singular nomenclature to refer to the varieties which deviate from that standard, saying that “linguistic forms or dialects that do not conform to this norm are often called substandard or (more usually, within linguistics) nonstandard”. We can assure that different features of speech are used to distinguish one group from another, and different dialects have their differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. On the bases of varieties, they may correspond to a group of nations (e.g. Euro English - English as used by speakers in the European Union whose mother tongue is not English) or an individual nation (e.g. British English; Canadian English), as Tagliamonte stated in the following quotation. It is fascinating to consider why the many varieties of English around the world are so different. Part of the answer to this question is their varying local circumstances, the other languages that they have come into contact with and the unique cultures and ecologies in which they subsequently evolved. However, another is the historically embedded explanation that comes from tracing their roots back to their origins in the British Isles. Indeed, leading scholars have 18 argued that the study of British dialects is critical to disentangling the history and development of varieties of English everywhere in the world. (Tagliamonte 2013: 3) Varieties, in general, are specific forms of language that are susceptible of being defined by the origin of the speakers. In terms of race, let us remember that an ethnic group as a common national, geographical origin, with common ancestors, a similar culture and race, a shared religion, the same language, and loyalty to their own community. Ethnic groups may use a distinctive language, in complete conversations or just short phrases. It may be the case that a group of speakers adopting the dominant language and, therefore, losing symbols of their identity. When this happens, they may start using the majority language but with characteristics that point at their ethnic identity. To sum up, social class consists of occupation, life style and aspirations, where space for individual mobility is possible and often taken for granted, at least after the 19th century. Moreover, we have to take into account the variability of language according to its use, in terms of style (degree of formality, attention to speech, addressee), register (how an individual performs in particular contexts linguistic features of a particular occupational group), and context (speakers tend to use higher prestige variants more often in more formal contexts, and lower prestige variants in informal contexts), where the roles of participants are crucial and may affect the degree of formality. It is also remarkable the phenomenon of code-switching: speakers deliberately diverge from the speech style or even language of the person who is addressing them; for example, to mark distinctiveness of a particular ethnic group. Many of these concepts are transferred to local colour fiction, where the districts or regions are concerned, rather than individuals. The characters are mostly known by their attachment to the old ways – maybe their homesickness for a past golden age – and for their sometimes stereotypical nature. If we talk about heroines, they are often single or young girls, and live stories narrated by an educated observer or mediator who adopts a sometimes ironic, sometimes sympathetic attitude. The narrative voice also builds bridges between the old-fashioned, rural atmosphere of the tale and the urban audience who reads it, always in a diglossic context; in other words, a context where two varieties live: two varieties of the same language, two varieties 19 used for different functions, or a variety that nobody uses in everyday conversation. It is a characteristic of speech communities, not of individuals – individuals can be bilingual or monolingual. Still, since many people experienced a clear case of shift from French to English, the older generations had French as first language, and Francophone areas were currently affected by the arrival of monolingual English speakers, at the point that they began to use English in most of their ordinary interactions, leading the theory of a possible case of bilingualism in earlier periods and a long, gradual process of codeswitching. Southern population, when they were still starting to learn the language, developed the zenith and the decline of bilingualism, which took place in the 19th and the 20th century and did not deny ratial differences, despite economic and social improvements in the southern part of the United States. Taking as example French, Spanish, Creole, or all three, it is important knowing that, in addition to English, they are the most spoken languages by regionalist characters, like those Louisianans who had French and Spanish roots – nevertheless, Kate Chopin did not use Spanish, at least in the two works that concern this project: Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. In fact, some editions of Chopin’s works include translations of French expressions, with their corresponding meaning, which must not be considered a mistake in the novel. She tries to record accurately how her characters sound like as they speak, with the aim of being listened rather than read. When it is all about speakers of a minority language in a predominantly monolingual society, we may witness the shift from one language to another. Children’s first encounter with the language of the recipient country usually comes at school. Language shifts likewise go hand in hand with assimilation in the host society, sometimes in two generations: migrants (monolingual) > children (bilingual) > grandchildren (monolingual in the host language). Another case comes in non-multilingual communities, when a language is imposed by colonisation, favouring the language of the most powerful group, like the American Indian languages – lost after the language shift – to English. Communities can see economic or political reasons for adopting a second language, or even no reasons to keep their ethnic code, mainly for uselessness. If we talk about Creoles, we have to say that they are symbolic of intimate and solidarity relations instead of formal and distant. They emerge when pidgins – 20 grammatically simplified means of communication consisting on a mixture of multiple languages in groups with no common speech – native speakers, becoming then the first language of a community. The key of Creoles is reduction and simplification: Creoles usually reduce vocabulary and avoid polysyllabic words, consonant clusters and sounds typically acquired late by children (/θ, ð, f/ > /t, d, p/). They also ignore inflections, prepositions, plural markers in nouns, case markings in pronouns, articles, copulas and passive forms. Instead, they use separate words to indicate tenses, an only word order and more analytical structures. Romaine summarises quite accurately this information: The process of creolisation is the transition from pidgin > creole. In many cases (e.g. Caribbean creoles) it took place centuries ago, in other cases, the process is more recent, and has been well documented by linguists. (…) Workers from various parts of the Pacific who spoke mutually unintelligible languages were living and working together and needed a means of communicating with one another as well as with their English-speaking plantation managers. When the workers went back to their home countries they spoke this (…) Pidgin. In multilingual countries such as Papua New Guinea with more than 800 languages, this pidgin served useful internal functions in communicating across different ethno-linguistic groups. Nowadays Tok Pisin is used across the whole social spectrum. It is the most frequently used language in the House of Assembly, and is one of the national languages. (Romaine 2012: 1768) Taking this information into account, it is time to take a look at the next section, which deals with the methodology and materials in the research and the majority of the notions already explained. They are implemented in a few Kate Chopin’s stories, extracted from her collections Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. 27 2.3.2. Distribution of features across grammatical deviations from nonstandard language The following features are recurrent in heterogeneous characters, being thus gathered in groups of linguistic patterns. 2.3.2.1. Pronunciation Beginning with phonetics and phonology, these are the most recurrent samples in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie’s stories, with some examples. a) Consonant clusters (labials, dentals and velars) are the most likely phonemes to be deleted, recurrently in final position: bes’, Hardin’, lan’, Orlean’… b) It is also noteworthy that some sounds, not necessarily consonant clusters, can disappear not only in final, but also in initial or medial position. We can find cases of aphaeresis (‘im, ‘bout, ‘an, ‘t, ‘em, ‘long, ‘broad, ‘Thénaïse, ‘count, ‘lone, ‘muse), syncopes (myse’f, gall’ry, f’om, han’s, Pres’dent, p’int, ev’body...), apocopates (g’, go’n’, lit’, ver’...) and mixed cases, where both initial and final sounds may disappear (“a” for “have”, “rec’lec’” for “recollect”). Some deletions are represented by different orthographies (“fine” for “find”). c) Plosivisation of fricatives, from /θ/ and /ð/ to /d/ or /t/. It is frequent in determiners, pronouns and conjunctions: de, dem, dat, dis, wid, dere, t’ree, an’t’ing... d) Non-rhotic pronunciations, often reflected in written language (mo’, befo’, co’se, yo’, secu’, fo’ced, po’...). We can even find some alternative orthographies in characters who reflect this, like La Chatte (“bettah” for “better”, “gwine” for “going”, “bigga” for “bigger”, “neva” for “never”) or Placide (“behine” for “behind”) in Bayou Folk’s A No-Account Creole. e) Vowel shifts, especially neutralisation (“frum” for “from”, “ef” for “if”, “warn’t” for “weren’t”, “nax” for “next”) and droppings (“agin” for “again”). We also find frenchified forms of certain words: “nevair” for “never”, “hair” for “her”, “aiggs” for “eggs” (in French, /ai/ is pronounced like /e/)... 28 f) Palatalisation of initial sounds due to the lengthening of the initial vocalic sound: yere, yeared, year... g) Reordering of sounds, or metathesis (asking > axin’, pronounced /’æksın/). h) Addition of sounds, or prosthesis (‘crost for “across”). i) Influence of Irish in pronunciation (from /s/ to /ʃ/ and from /t/ to /θ/): “It’s a shtout shtick I’m afther giving her...” 2.3.2.2. Morphosyntax a) Deletion of auxiliary verbs: “have” in the conditional perfect form (“If it would been me myse’f...”) and in the present perfect form (“I been kine espectin' hair sence yistiday - hair an' Placide”). b) Absence of –s in the 3rd person singular form: “Euphrasie say…”, “He come”... c) Analogy/levelling: regularisation of irregular plurals (“persons” for “people”, “mans” for “men”) and irregular pasts (“comed” for “came”). d) Verbal tense shifts: “was” instead of “were” in the 2nd person singular form (“You always was a liar, La Chatte”), 3rd person instead of 1st person form (“I does”, “I knows”, “we was”), 3rd person instead of 2nd person form (“you sees”, “you’s”), absence of –d in the past participle form: “excite” for “excited”... e) Modal shifts: past participle instead of past simple form (“Because I wanted you to know who done it, an’ w’at he done it for”), past participle instead of infinitive form (“Didn’t I done...?”), and past participle form in the present perfect: “she’s (has) fall” for “she’s (has) fell” f) Absence of –d in the past participle form: “excite” for “excited”. We also find unfrequent past forms: “brung” for “brought”. g) Absence of the copula “be” in the present continuous form: “(...) he gwine quit…” for “he (is) going to quit”. h) Deletion of –ing in progressive forms: “must be starve”, “she’s walk” 29 i) Use of the infinitive in wishful enunciations: “I hope you be...” j) Double negation: “Nobody don’ know”. k) Objective instead of subjective pronominal forms: “him neva say nuttin” (“he will never say nothing”). l) Lack of articles: “an’ lit’ bit” (“and a little bit”). m) Lack of conjunctions: “You meet’im two t’ree time’”. n) Anomalous interrogative forms, without inverted order: “You are not ready?”, “Why you don’t take...?” o) Absence of copula verbs in copulative sentences: “He well” p) Emphatic DO: “Ev’thing do look...”. q) Construction “I’m after giving” for “I have just”, very common in Irish English. 2.3.2.3. Code-switching a) French exclamations/expressions: “ Ma foi”, “pas possible!”… We can also find loanwords like “papa”, “maman”, “croquignoles”..., as well as some complete sentences: “C’est pas Chrétien, tenez”. b) Some fragments in Creole: “Mo pa oua vou à tab c’te lanuite, mo cri vou pé gagni déjà là-bas; parole! Vou pas cri conte ça Madame Sylvie!”, “Vous pas bézouin tisane, Mamzelle Aglaé? Vous pas veux mo cri gagni docteur?” 30 2.3.3. Distribution of features across groups of characters On the basis of the non-standard traits observed in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, three groups have been identified and a brief description is offered in the following subsections: characters who speak Standard English, characters with codeswitching (from English to French and vice-versa), and more idiosyncratic streaks like Creole fragments and typical structures of Irish English. The final part of the section will also include the most predominant, uniform features; despite being exhibited in more heterogeneous characters. These are the most effective groups of personages according to their sociolinguistic level, with illuminating examples. However, all the characters, in varying degrees, may manifest phonological and morphological deviations from standard language. 2.3.3.1. Characters who speak Standard English However, it should be taken into account that there is a group of characters whose speech contains neither vernacular nor regional features; in other words, their discourse follows the standard rules. It is the case of Fitch, Wallace Offdean, Judge Blount (Bayou Folk), Miché, and Madame Valtour (A Night in Acadie). If we pay attention to the provided descriptions, we know that they belong to high society or they have a close, strong contact with elitism. Taking Fitch and Wallace Offdean as example, they are talking at the very beginning of Bayou Folk’s first story, A No- Account Creole. They go to a club in Canal Street because of their business, an interesting clue of their contact with refined activities. Analysing the character of Fitch, except the loss of the medial liquid sound /l/ in “a’ready”, the rest of his discourse has no dialecticisms. Besides this, we have read that Wallace Offdean received a vast academic formation and he attempted to belong to high society, by going to university, travelling and frequenting elegant places. This information proves and explains the absence of non-standard features in his speech, despite coming from New Orleans, something which could lead him to be influenced by French language like other characters. Judge Blount is the other character in the 31 story who speaks according to standard rules. Not much more information is available about him, but, working as a judge, we deduce that he has a remarkable mastery of the language. In A Night in Acadie’s Athénaïse, we are introduced to the figure of Miché – Athénaïse’s father. Curiously, he belongs to the working class, as he lived with his spouse and their children in the Old Gotrain place, running to a merchant in Alexandria; in any case, Miché is the exception in the family – the only member whose discourse has no regional characteristics. It is thought that Kate Chopin decided not to mark his speech as non-standard not only for that, but also for his social ideology: despite not being the owner of the house and living there as renter, he was attached to conventionalisms, like looking for his daughter’s husband in a desperate way, to assure a high position for her in society. The last character is Madame Valtour, who appears in A Night in Acadie’s A Dresden Lady in Dixie. It is already understood that she belongs to a higher social group, because she is the proprietary of the house where the events take place. 2.3.3.2. Characters with code-switching: from English to French and vice-versa The influence of French is very strong, with French words, expressions, or sentences; this could be noticed in Bayou Folk figures like A No-Account Creole’s Pierre Manton (“Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! I don’ know w’at all dat mean”), Euphrasie (“You know I love papa better, Placide, an’ Maman Duplan jus’ as well”), and black-skinned La Chatte (“I wants some croquignoles”), as well as Loka’s Tontine Padue (“Vrai sauvage ça”). Meanwhile, we could also confirm this theory in A Night in Acadie, more exactly in Athénaïse and the vast majority of their characters – like in A No-Account Creole, they are a working-class family living in New Orleans: Cazeau (“C’est pas Chrétien, tenez!”), Montéclin (“Cochon, sacré cochon!”), Madame Miché (“Tiens! Tu vas les garder”), and the protagonist Athénaïse (“Montéclin? Par exemple!”). The only exceptions are Miché, who speaks standard English; Madame Sylvie, their quadroon neighbour, and the gentle-mannered, middle-aged journalist Gouvernail, living among luxurious surroundings. Additionally, A Dresden Lady in Dixie includes a little girl called Agapie, the only child character in the five stories (“I tell you maman, it en’t so!”), of Acadian heritage. Their French names give us a clue of their ethnicity, their cultural 32 and social background: American people of Creole or European (French) descent, who probably borrowed the language from their ancestors. That is why they resort to codeswitching in English vernacular sentences. 2.3.3.2. Other idiosyncratic characters In the whole set of tales, there are at least three characters that deserve a special attention: on the one hand, Athénaïse’s Pousette; and on the other hand, Nég Créol’s Nég (born César François Xavier) and Brigitte. Pousette and Nég have something in common: their speech is only Creole, neither English nor French (you can find more information at the end, in tables IV and VI), although their utterances are closer to French rather than English. The most remarkable features of this Creole are, for example, deleting lexical verbs, like Nég does when he asks “Vous pas bézouin...?” (from French “Vous n’avez pas besoin”, which means “You don’t need”). Another thing that their Creole has in common with French is the nasalisation of vowels when they (Pousette’s “Mo pa...” comes from French “Mon pa”, which mens “My dad”). In the meantime, we have the figure of Brigitte, who was introduced as, probably, the most different of all the characters. She displays peculiar traits which evidence her Irish origins: one of the most striking features is the verbal structure “I’m after giving”, equivalent to the familiar “I’ve just” and typical in her native Ireland. These are the most effective groups of personages according to their sociolinguistic level, with illuminating examples. However, all the characters, in varying degrees, may manifest phonological and morphological deviations from standard language. 33 3. Conclusion and final remarks To sum up, we need to confirm the reasons which leaded us to choose this investigation. The concerns and aims, explained in the introduction, are also crucial. As I claimed at the very beginning, what prompted me to undertake this concrete activity was Kate Chopin's literary personality, very close to her human background: a diverse, mixed ancestry, in a diverse, mixed atmosphere. We can deduce that she was a quite empathic woman, able to create in her mind characters that could have lived like her: wearing the shoes of diversity. In this world, bare our feet and using other footwear is worth valuing, because there is always a risk of being pricked by shells. If these shells are minor varieties of English, the best way of working with them is embracing them. The notion of standard is not only applicable to linguistics, but to society. The sense of community displays a unique experience where a beautiful lesson can be learned: we are different, but we are the same: citizens of the world. This is one of my strongest beliefs in life, and if we are dealing with the varieties of a concrete language, we can also asseverate that we cannot classify varieties in “better” or “worse”. If this project is a good way of spreading this message, I would feel very honoured and satisfied. While reading Chopin’s Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, in terms of objectives, I hoped to offer a preliminary socio-cultural framework related to Local Colour Fiction, providing some facts about Kate Chopin’s life and gathering, more or less accurately, examples of the English varieties spoken there. That was our methodology of research. We think that we did an interesting job, due to the assortment of features. We used to meet every week or every two weeks and discuss every scheduled part to be done until then, as well as necessary and possible modifications in order to adequate our work to the established planning. By means of the pertinent articles and the full stories, found online, we fulfilled our mission: to offer a preliminary approach to readers who may not know so many things about the topic. According to our perspective, an overload of data would be self-defeating to the addressee, especially if his/her knowledge about the subject is rather limited – we guess that not every reader has vast skills in this discipline. It would sound a little pretentious to claim that we filled all the gaps concerning this issue, as we are aware of its minor contributions to 34 academic research and linguistic inquiry; accordingly, we did our best and we put our grain of sand, which was our target from the start. In brief, I think that our practice developed our experiences, thoughts, and the evolution of our ideas and processes. If we talk about the product, what emerged of these processes could be a written study, a set of teaching aids for classroom use, a design project, or even a strategy for further work. With nothing more to be added, I would like to thank you for your attention, for joining my trip around Kate Chopin’s literature and her use of non-standard varieties of English. My deep gratefulness to all the readers. 35 4. Reference list Abercrombie, David (1965). Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford U.P. Barnes Taeuber, Irene; Taeuber, Conrad & Social Science Research Council (1972). People of the United States in the 19th Century. University of Indiana: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Chapman, Raymond (1994). Forms of Speech in Victorian Fiction. London: Longman. Crystal, David (1992). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Cuddon, John Anthony (1984). A Dictionary of Literary Terms. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Disheroon-Green, Suzanne & Caudle, David (1999). Kate Chopin: An Annotated Bibliography of Critical Works. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Dubois, Sylvie & Horvath, Barbara Marie (2003). "Verbal Morphology in Cajun Vernacular English: A Comparison with Other Varieties of Southern English". Journal of English Linguistics, 31(1), 34–59. Dubois, Sylvie & Horvath, Barbara Marie (1999). "Let’s tink about dat: Interdental fricatives in Cajun English", 10 (1998), 245–261. Dubois, Sylvie & Horvath, Barbara Marie (2004). "The English Vernacular of the Creoles of Louisiana". Language Variation and Change, 15(03), 255–288. Fetterley, Judith & Pryse, Marjorie (2005). Writing out of Place. Regionalism, Women, and American Literary Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Hart, James David (1995). The Oxford Companion to American Literature (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Jobert, Manuel (2013). "Kate Chopin as a Vocal Colourist: Vocalscapes in Beyond the Bayou”. La Clé des Langues (Lyon: ENS LYON/DGESCO). Available on: <http://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/kate-chopin-as-a-vocal-colourist-vocalscapes-in- beyond-the-bayou--187057.kjsp> [Last accessed: May 2016]. Leith, Dick (1997). A Social History of English (2nd edition). London: Routledge. 36 Maupassant, Guy de (1988). "Night". In Thomas Bonner, Jr., The Kate Chopin Companion. New York: Greenwood Press, 199-202. Pérez Ramos, Raúl (2012). Cajun Vernacular English. A Study Over A Reborn Dialect. Doctural dissertation. Castellón: Universitat Jaume I. Romaine, Suzanne (2012). "English in Contact: Pidgins and creoles". In Bergs, Alexander and Brinton, Laurel eds. Historical Linguistics of English. Vol. I. Chapter 113. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1767-1781. Tagliamonte, Sali A (2013). Roots of English: Exploring the History of Dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trask, Robert Lawrence (1999). Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. London: Routledge. Méndez Naya, María Belén (2014). Variation in Multilingual Communities. Class lecture. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela. Méndez Naya, María Belén (2014). Ethnicity and Variability According to Use. Class lecture. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela. Méndez Naya, María Belén (2014). Social Patterns. Class lecture. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela. Méndez Naya, María Belén (2014). Linguistic Patterns. Class lecture. Santiago de Compostela: University of Santiago de Compostela. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin> (last consulted in April 2014). <http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/lcolor.html> (last consulted in April 2014). <http://www.katechopin.org/> (last consulted in April 2016). <http://www.knowla.org/entry/509/> (last consulted in March 2016). <http://www.loyno.edu/~kchopin/index.htm> (last consulted in November 2015). <http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/chopinbayou/bayou.html> (Bayou Folk, full text; last consulted in June 2016) <http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/chopinnight/chopin.html> (A Night in Acadie, full text; last consulted in June 2016) 43 "W'ere have you been, Placide?" "Am I glad? I don' know. W'at has that to do? You've come to see the work, of co'se. It's - it's only half done, Mr. Offdean. They wouldn' listen to me or to papa, an' you didn' seem to care." "I do not! W'at do you mean? How do you dare to say such things w'en you know that in two days I shall be married to Placide?" "Oh, there isn' anything to forgive. You've only made a mistake. Please leave me, Mr. Offdean. Papa is out in the fiel', I think, if you would like to speak with him. Placide is somew'ere on the place." "O God - O my God, he'p me!" Placide Euphrasie’s fiancé, of Creole origin. "No, you don't, Euphrasie. I didn' know myse'f how much tell jus' now." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Lengthening of the initial vocalic sound - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Person/tense/mode shift in verbs "Do you love anybody better?" he asked jealously. "Any one jus' as well as me?" " 'T ain't no one f'om town that I know. It's boun' to be some one f'om the city." "I tole you it wasn' yo' lookout f'om the firs', Euphrasie," "I don' like that man; I can't stan' him. Sen' me word w'en he's gone, Euphrasie." "The place isn't mine, and it's nothing to me," "See yere, Euphrasie, don't have too much 44 to do with that d - Yankee." "Then you ought to have managed it; you could have done so. It's - it's aggravating" "La Chatte, w'ich way did that man go? Quick, now!" "That's enough. I know now he's gone into the woods. You always was a liar, La Chatte." "Mr. Offdean, I was in my room 'w'ile ago, and yeared w'at you said to Euphrasie. I would 'a' killed you then if she hadn' been 'longside o' you. I could 'a' killed you jus' now w'en I come up behine you." "Because I wanted you to know who done it, an' w'at he done it for." "By - ! are you goin' to learn me how to love a woman?" "I don' want to shake han's with you. Go 'way f'om me." La Chatte A broad black woman with ends of white wool sticking out from under her tignon. "Dat young man, ef he want to listen to me, he gwine quit dat ar caperin' roun' Miss 'Phrasie." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation - Consonantic or "Dat all I got to say. Nobody don' know dem Sanchun boys bettah 'an I does. Didn' I done part raise 'em? W'at you reckon my ha'r all tu'n plumb w'ite dat-a-way ef it warn't dat Placide w'at done it?" "Dev'ment, pu' dev'ment, Rose. Didn' he come in dat same cabin one day, w'en he warn't no bigga 'an dat Pres'dent Hayes w'at you sees gwine 45 'long de road wid dat cotton sack 'crost 'im? He come an' sets down by de do', on dat same t'reelaigged stool w'at you's a-settin' on now, wid his gun in his han', an' he say: 'La Chatte, I wants some croquignoles, an' I wants 'em quick, too.' I 'low: 'G' 'way f'om dah, boy. Don' you see I's flutin' yo' ma's petticoat?' He say: 'La Chatte, put 'side dat ar flutin'-i'on an' dat ar petticoat;' an' he cock dat gun an' p'int it to my head. 'Dar de ba'el,' he say; 'git out dat flour, git out dat butta an' dat aigs; step roun' dah, ole 'oman. Dis heah gun don' quit yo' head tell dem croquignoles is on de table, wid a w'ite tableclof an' a cup o' coffee.' Ef I goes to de ba'el, de gun's a-p'intin'. Ef I goes to de fiah, de gun's a-p'intin'. W'en I rolls out de dough, de gun's a-p'intin'; an' him neva say nuttin', an' me a-trim'lin' like ole Uncle Noah w'en de mistry strike 'im." vocalic shifts - Reordering sounds - Addition of sounds MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs - Person/tense/mode shift in verbs - Analogy/levelling: regularisation of irregular plurals (“mans” for “men”) CODE-SWITCHING: - French words, expressions, or sentences "I don' reckon nuttin'; I knows w'at he gwine do, - same w'at his pa done." "G' 'long 'bout yo' business; you's axin' too many questions." "W'at man dat? I isn' studyin' 'bout no mans; I got 'nough to do wid dis heah washin'. 'Fo' God, I don' know w'at man you's talkin' 'bout " - "Ef you's talkin' 'bout 46 dat Noo Orleans man, I could 'a' tole you dat. He done tuck de road to de cocoapatch" "Dat his own lookout, de smoove-tongue' raskil. I done said he didn' have no call to come heah, caperin' roun' Miss 'Phrasie." Judge Blount He went ambling by on his gray pony "There's right smart o' folks don't know it, Santien" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants "I see Santien's got that no fence o' his painted. And a pretty piece o' work it is" Tit-Édouard A strolling maigreéchine of indefinite occupation. "Look lack Placide goin' pent mo' 'an de fence. I seen 'im, me, pesterin' wid all kine o' pent on a piece o' bo'd yistiday." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Lengthening of the initial vocalic sound - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs: “Placide (is) goin’...”, “I (have) seen ‘im, me...” Uncle Abner "I knows he gwine paint mo' 'an de fence. He gwine paint de house; dat what he gwine do. Didn' Marse Luke Williams orda de paints? An' didn' I done kyar' 'em PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial 47 up dah myse'f?" position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs: “...he (is) gwine (going) (to) paint...”, “he (is) gwine (going) (to) do...” - Tense/mode shift in verbs 48 Table 3: Loka (utterances) Character Description Utterance Feature Loka A half-breed Indian girl. The place where she lived is unknown. "I kin talk English good's anybody; an' lit' bit Choctaw, too." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation - Consonantic or vocalic shifts MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs, –ing endings in progressive forms and lack of prepositions: “we (have) been take (taking)...”, “You (are) go’n’ (going) (to) sen’ me ‘way?” - Person/tense/mode shift: past instead of infinitive form, like “I couldn’t lef’” for “I couldn’t leave” - Objective instead of subjective pronouns "Bibine an' me, we was lonesome - we been take lit' 'broad in de wood." "You go'n' sen' me 'way?" "Don' sen' me 'way frum Bibine," entreated the girl, with a note in her voice like a lament. "To-day," she went on, in her dragging manner, "I want to run 'way bad, an' take to de wood; an' go yonda back to Bayou Choctaw to steal an' lie agin. It's on'y Bibine w'at hole me back. I couldn' lef' 'im. I couldn' do dat. An' we jis' go take lit' 'broad in de wood, das all, him an' me. Don' sen' me 'way like dat!" Tontine, also known as Madame Padue (Baptiste Padue’s wife) A worker. A small, black-eyed, aggressive woman. "Ma foi, you kin fo'git yo' Choctaw. Soona the betta for me. Now if you willin', an' ent too lazy an' sassy, we'll git 'long somehow. Vrai sauvage ça" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial position - Non-rhotic "Bon!" she exclaimed. "Now w'ere is that Loka? 49 Ah, that girl, she aggravates me too much. Firs' thing she knows I'm goin' sen' her straight back to them ban' of lady w'ere she come frum." pronunciation - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation - Consonantic or vocalic shifts MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs - Lack of prepositions - Tense/modal shift: lack of –ing endings in progressive forms: “must be starve (starving)” CODE-SWITCHING: - French words, expressions, or sentences "Run, François, you, an' see to the crib," the mother commanded. "Bibine mus' be starve! Run to the hen-house an' look, Juliette. Maybe she's fall asleep in some corna. That'll learn me 'notha time to go trus' une pareille sauvage with my baby, va!" "Pas possible she's walk to Laballière, with Bibine!" "Go, go, Baptiste," she urged. "An' you, boys, run yonda down the road to ole Aunt Judy's cabin an' see." Baptiste Padue Madame Padue’s husband. "Mais don't git so excite, Tontine," he implored. "I'm sho she's yonda to the crib shellin' co'n, or somew'ere like that." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial position - Non-rhotic pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs - Double/multiple negation: “You didn’ know no betta...” - Analogy/levelling: “a” instead of “an” when the following word begins by vowel "You didn' know no betta 'an to take 'way Bibine like that? W'at Ma'ame Laballière mean, anyhow, to sen' me such a objec' like you, I want to know?" "Par exemple! Straight you march back to that ban' w'ere you come from. To give me such a fright like that! Pas possible." "Tontine," he began, with unusual energy, "you got to listen to the truth - once fo' all." He had evidently 50 determined to profit by his wife's lachrymose and wilted condition to assert his authority. "I want to say who's masta in this house - it's me," he went on. Tontine did not protest; only clasped the baby a little closer, which encouraged him to proceed. "You been grind that girl too much. She ent a bad girl - I been watch her close, 'count of the chil'ren; she ent bad. All she want, it's li'le mo' rope. You can't drive a ox with the same gearin' you drive a mule. You got to learn that, Tontine." He approached his wife's chair and stood beside her. "That girl, she done tole us how she was temp' to-day to turn canaille - like we all temp' sometime'. W'at was it save her? That li'le chile w'at you hole in yo' arm. An' now you want to take her guarjun angel 'way f'om her? Non, non, ma, femme," he said, resting his hand gently upon his wife's head. "We got to rememba she ent like you an' me, po' thing; she's one Injun, her." - Person/tense/mode shift in verbs - Singular instead of plural form of the name “arm” in “yo’ arm” CODE-SWITCHING: - French words, expressions, or sentences François Tontine and Baptiste’s son. "Ent that Loka 'way yon'a, jis' come out de wood? Climbin' de fence down by de melon patch?" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds 51 in initial/medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation 52 Table 4: Athénaïse (utterances) Character Description Utterance Features Cazeau Athénaïse’s husband. Tall, sinewy, swarthy and severe looking. He succeeded in commanding a good deal of respect, and even fear sometimes. "Dat beat me! on'y marry two mont', an' got de head turn' a'ready to go 'broad. C'est pas Chrétien, ténez!" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Lengthening of the initial vocalic sound - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Emphatic do CODE-SWITCHING: - French words, expressions or sentences "An' how about the night befo', an' las' night? It isn't possible you dance every night out yere on the Bon Dieu!" "Comment. Montéclin didn' tell you we were going to keep Athénaïse?" "Athénaïse, you are not ready?" he asked in his quiet tones. "It's getting late; we havn' any time to lose." "That brother of yo's, that Montéclin, is unbearable." "Yes, Montéclin," he reasserted. "He's developed into a firs'- class nuisance; an' you better tell him, Athénaïse, - unless you want me to tell him, - to confine his energies after this to matters that concern him. I have no use fo' him or fo' his interference in w'at regards you an' me alone." "I can't see w'at the Dortrand girls or Marianne have to do with it," he rejoined; adding, with no trace of amusement, "I married you because I loved you; because you were the woman I wanted to marry, an' the only one. I reckon I tole you that befo'. I thought - of co'se I was a fool fo' 59 pé gagni déja là-bas; parole! Vou pas cri conte ça Madame Sylvie?" Gouvernail "I think he looked strikingly like Montéclin, with the one idea of prolonging the conversation. "I meant to call your attention to the resemblance, and something drove it out of my head." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Non-rhotic pronunciations - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation CODE-SWITCHING: - French words (in bold) "Not to-day, but yesterday. He tells me that maman was so distracted with uneasiness that finally, to pacify her, he was fo'ced to confess that he knew w'ere I was, but that he was boun' by a vow of secrecy not to reveal it. But Cazeau has not noticed him or spoken to him since he threaten' to throw po' Montéclin in Cane river. You know Cazeau wrote me a letter the morning I lef', thinking I had gone to the rigolet. An' maman opened it, an' said it was full of the mos' noble sentiments, an' she wanted Montéclin to sen' it to me; but Montéclin refuse' poin' blank, so he wrote to me." 60 Table 5: A Dresden Lady in Dixie (utterances) Character Description Utterance Features Madame Valtour The proprietary of the house. "Who has been in the room during my absence?" Standard discourse "I'm so distressed, Madame Bedaut," Viny The house-maid. "Pa-Jeff comed in yere wid de mail - " PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonant clusters - Deletion of sounds in initial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Palatalisation of initial vocalic sounds - Alternative orthographies MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Analogy/levelling: regularisation of an irregular past (“comed” for “came”) "On'y Agapie w'at brung you some Creole aiggs. I tole 'er to sot 'em down in de hall. I don' know she comed in de settin'-room o' not." Séraphine Bedaut The planter’s wife. "You wan' say Agapie stole some'in' in yo' house!" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial or medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Lengthening of the initial vocalic sound "Come in; you got to come in, Ma'me Valtour. I sen' 'er to de house yistiddy wid some Creole aiggs," she went on in her rasping voice, "like I all time do, because you all say you can't eat dem sto' aiggs no mo.' Yere de basket w'at I sen' 'em in” "Yere all her things w'at she 'muse herse'f wid," "But Agapie, we fine it 61 in yo' box," - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation Agapie A chubby 12-year-old of Acadian origin. She went often to the house to play with the children and to amuse them. "It en't so! I tell you, maman, it en't so! I neva touch' it. Stop cryin'; stop cryin'!" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Lengthening of the initial vocalic sound - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation - Consonantic or vocalic shifts MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs - Person/tense/mode shift in verbs - Double/multiple negation CODE-SWITCHING: - French words, expressions or sentences "I tell you, Pa-Jeff, its neva been no thief in the Bedaut family. My pa* say he couldn' hole up his head if he think I been a thief, me. An' maman say it would make her sick in bed, she don' know she could ever git up. Sosthene tell me the chil'en been cryin' fo' me up yonda. Li'le Lulu cry so hard M'sieur Valtour want sen' afta me, an' Ma'me Valtour say no." *Abbreviated form of “papa” "Le' me go, Pa-Jeff. W'at (are)* you doin'! Gi' me my bucket!" *The auxiliary verb is missing Pa-Jeff An aged man who frequented Marse Albert. "Hole up yo' head, chile. God save us! W'at you kiarrin' on dat away?" he exclaimed in great distress. "You gwine to take a fit? Hole up yo' head." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position "War hit you w'at tuck 62 it?" he questioned in a whisper. "I isn' gwine tell; you knows I isn' gwine tell." - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Lengthening of the initial vocalic sound - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation - Consonantic or vocalic shifts - Reordering sounds MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs - Deletion of lexical verbs (especially be) - Person/tense/mode shift in verbs - Objective instead of subjective pronouns (“him an’ me”) - Emphatic do "She w'ite, I is black," he muttered calculatingly. "She young, I is ole; sho I is ole. She good to Pa-Jeff like I her own kin an' color." "Marse Albert," he said, "I is* come heah to-day fo' to** make a statement of de rights an' de wrongs w'at is done hang heavy on my soul dis heah long time. Arter you heahs me an' de missus heahs me an' de chillun an' ev'body, den ef you says: 'Pa-Jeff you kin tech yo' lips to dat glass o' wine,' all well an' right.' " *Replacing “have” **Double preposition "One day," he began, "w'en I ben hoein'* de madam's flower bed close to de fence, Sosthene he ride up, he say: 'Heah, Pa-Jeff, heah de mail.' I takes de mail f'om 'im an' I calls out to Viny w'at (is)* settin' on de gallery: 'Heah Marse Albert's mail, gal; come git it.' *The auxiliary verb is missing "Ev'thing do look putty, sho! De lace cu'tains was a-flappin' an' de flowers was a-smellin' sweet, an' de pictures a-settin' back on de wall. I keep on lookin' roun'. To reckly my eye hit fall on de li'le gal w'at al'ays sets on de een' o' de mantel-shelf. She do look mighty 63 sassy dat day, wid 'er toe a-stickin' out, des so; an' holdin' her skirt des dat away; an' lookin' at me wid her head twis'. "Come dat night I heah tell how dat li'le trick, wo'th heap money; how madam, she cryin' 'cause her li'le blessed lamb was use' to play wid cat*, an' kiar-on ov' it. Den I git scared. I say, 'w'at I (am)** gwine (to)** do?' An' up jump Satan an' de Sperrit awrastlin' again. *Singular instead of plural “cats” **Missing "Des w'en de day g'ine break, I creeps out an' goes 'long de fiel' road. I pass by Ma'me Bedaut's house. I riclic how dey says li'le Bedaut gal ben* in de sittin'-room, too, (the)** day befo'. De winda (was)*** war open. Ev'body sleepin'. I tres' in my head, des like a dog w'at shame hisse'f. I sees dat box o' rags befo' my eyes; an' I drops dat li'le imp'dence 'mongst dem rags. *Replaced auxiliary verb: “ben (been)” for “was” **The article is missing ***The verb is missing "No, suh; dey ben* desputin' straight 'long. Las' night dey come** nigh onto en'in' me up. De Sperrit say: 'Come 'long, I (am)*** gittin' tired dis heah, you g'long up yonda an' tell de truf an' shame de devil.' Satan 'low: 'Stay 64 whar you is; you heah me!' Dey clutches me. Dey twis'es an' twines me. Dey dashes me down an' jerks me up. But de Sperrit he win dat fight in de en', an' heah I is, mist'ess, master, chillun'; heah I is." *”Ben (been)” replaces “were”. **Present simple instead of past simple ***The auxiliary verb is missing Marse Albert The planter and Pa- Jeff’s fellow. "But Viny she answer, pert-like - des like Viny: 'You is got two laigs, Pa-Jeff, des well as me.' I ain't no hen' fo' disputin' wid gals, so I brace up an' I come 'long to de house an' goes on in dat settin'- room dah, naix' to de dinin'-room. I lays dat mail down on Marse Albert's table; den I looks roun'. PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of final consonants - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Plosivisation of fricatives - Non-rhotic pronunciation - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation - Consonantic or vocalic shifts - Reordering sounds MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of auxiliary verbs - Deletion of lexical verbs (especially be) - Person/tense/mode "I laff out. Viny mus' (have)* heahed me. I say, 'g'long 'way f'om dah, gal.' She keep on smilin'. I reaches out my han'. Den Satan an' de good Sperrit, dey begins to wrastle in me. De Sperrit say: 'You ole fool-nigga, you; mine w'at you about.' Satan keep on shovin' my han' - des so - keep on shovin'. Satan he mighty powerful dat day, an' he win de fight. I kiar dat li'le trick home in my pocket." *The auxiliary verb is missing "De Sperrit say: 'Kiar hit back whar it come 65 f'om, Pa-Jeff.' Satan 'low: 'Fling it in de bayeh, you ole fool.' De Sperrit say: 'You won't fling dat in de bayeh, whar de madam kain't neva sot eyes on hit no mo'?' shift in verbs - Objective instead of subjective pronouns (“him an’ me”) - Altered word order in interrogative clauses "Mebby yo' all t'ink Satan an' de Sperrit lef' me 'lone, arter dat?" 66 Table 6: Nég Créol (utterances) Character Description Utterance Features Mamzelle Aglaé She kept Chicot until she finished her prayers. "Pas d' sucre, Nég?" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of sounds in medial position - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL OR SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Inverted word order in a non-interrogative clause - Deletion of be as lexical verb CODE-SWITCHING: - French words, expressions or sentences "Will ye get down on yer knees, man, and say a prayer for the dead!" "You too good, Brigitte. Aïe - aïe - aïe! Une goutte d'eau sucré, Nég! That Purg'tory Marie, - you see hair, ma bonne Brigitte, you tell hair (to)* go say (a) li'le prayer là-bas au Cathédral. Aïe - aïe - aïe!" *The preposition and the article are missing César François Xavier A.K.A. « Chicot » or « Nég » A black Creole or “old negro”, he worked among the fishmongers at the French market. "Vous pas bézouin tisane, Mamzelle Aglaé? Vous pas veux mo cri gagni docteur?" - Creole fragment Brigitte (an Irishwoman) She had rolled sleeves. "It's a shtout shtick I'm afther giving her, Nég, and she do but knock on the flure it's me or Janie or wan of us that'll be hearing her." PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Shift from /s/ to /ʃ/ in “shtout shtick” and fricativisation of plosives, from /t/ to /θ/. She also pronounces “floor” and “door” like “flure” and “dure”. Typical in Irish English. - Alternative orthographies MORPHOLOGICAL OR SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: "Will ye get down on yer knees, man, and say a prayer for the dead!" commanded the woman. "The black h'athen!" the woman muttered. "Shut the dure, child." 67 - Structure “I’m after giving”, intended as “I’ve just”. Very common in Ireland. Matteo’s wife "You, Chicot!" cried Matteo's wife the next morning. "My man, he read in paper 'bout (a)* woman name' Boisduré, use' (to)* b'long to big-a famny. She die roun' on St. Philip - po', same-a like church rat. It's any (of) them (the) Boisdurés you alla talk 'bout?" PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES: - Deletion of sounds in initial/medial position - Deletion of final consonant clusters (“name’” for “named”) - Alternative orthographies, usually reflecting their pronunciation MORPHOLOGICAL OR SYNTACTICAL FEATURES: - Verbal tense shift Look, Chicot!" cried Matteo's wife. "Yonda go (to) the fune'al. Mus-a be that-a Boisduré woman we (were)* talken 'bout yesaday." *These prepositions are missing, as well as the auxiliary verb in “we (were) talken ‘bout yesaday.”