Louisiana French - Language - Bayou Lafourche French

Bayou Lafourche French

Particular mention should be made to the Francophones of Bayou Lafourche. There’s an interesting linguistic phenomenon here that is absent everywhere else in Louisiana. Some Francophones along Bayou Lafourche pronounce the G and J in French as the English letter H (as done in Spanish), and others pronounce these two letters in the ordinary manner of other Francophones.

Two theories exist to explain this unique feature. On the one hand, some activists and linguists attribute this feature to an inheritance of Acadian French spoken in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and other Canadian maritime provinces, a theory based entirely on observation of shared vocal features rather than the communities being linked by migration.

On the other hand, it has been suggested that there may be a linguistic link to the Creole Hispanophones living at the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche junction, who were more numerous than the Acadians who lived in the immediate vicinity.

Interesting side note: the Louisiana Creole spoken in Lafourche Parish in and around Kraemer, Choctaw, Bayou Bœuf and Chackbay contains the letters G and J, but they are voiced as they are in LC spoken elsewhere in the state, and as the French spoken elsewhere – not as the aspirated Hs in Lower Bayou Lafourche French.