Pays des Illinois American French Dialect Letters at Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day & Words of the World

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Today, with arthritic elan, we fling open the mailbag, and, finding that both wrists have fractured, meekly summon an ambulance. Herewith some emails and their e-responses.

Dear Bill,
Love your work. Which book should I buy that contains Québecois slang terms/phrases?
Many thanks,
Brad Miller
Vincennes, Indiana (once part of Quebec and Louisiana - we still speak our own hybrid 300+ year old Pays des Illinois French dialect)

Brad Miller

Dear Brad:

Thanks for the pleasant praise - always balm to what's left of an author's soul!

As to the Québec sayings explained, I haven't written the book yet. See note below.*

But, when it is published in a year or two, there will be news of how to buy it on my website and you will be able to order it from me.

I am fascinated about the Pays des Illinois French dialect!

Let me know about it. Maybe that's a book YOU should write.

All the best -

Bill Casselman

Ps:

* There is a long chapter on the origin of French Canadian food words and many references to Québec words in my book, Canadian Food Words

There are French Canadian sayings scattered throughout the 3 Canadian Sayings Books.

Any books not available online can be purchased from me. Mailing to Illinois will boost prices a bit. When you buy from me, I get to keep more of the royalty. Plus there is the eternal joy of a personal autograph by me, sometimes raising the value of the individual signed volume by as much as 5 cents.

From Brad Miller

Dear Bill,
Thank you for your reply. I will purchase your books soon.

Pays des Illinois also known as Old Upper Louisiana - Haute-Louisiane was the only area of significant French colonial population between Detroit and New Orleans.

West to East: Old/Vieille Mines (1690s), Ste. Genevieve (1735) & St. Louis (1769), Missouri; Prairie du Rocher (1720) & Cahokia (1699), Illinois, and Vincennes (1732), Indiana - all river towns.

Less than 100 people still speak the Pays des Illinois French Creole dialect fluently. Nearly all are located around the isolated Missouri Ozarks hamlets (e.g. Aux Arcs in French as the Arkansas tribe were known as les Arcs).

For example, we say "icitte" for ici and "froitte" for froid. Nearly all words ending in "et" are pronounced with a hard "t". While mostly French Canadian in accent, the vocabulary is influenced by two "river French" dialects: Métis from the north and Acadienne in the south as contact with Quebec was greatly curtailed following the American Revolution/1812 period. Also Spain controlled western Pays des Illinois until 1803 which added more new words to the mix.

I can assure you that today both les Québécois and Cajuns/Creoles are completely surprised to learn that "Midwestern French Creoles" are still alive and well around St. Louis. I am a 12th generation Vincennois. The town was named after the Montreal born explorer Sieur de Vincennes who was burned at the stake in 1735 by the Chickasaws.

The towns of Pays des Illinois still celebrate traditional French festivals. St. Louis hosts the 2nd largest Mardi Gras (not traditional) after New Orleans. Prairie du Rocher has celebrated the Guillannée every New Years Eve since 1720 without interruption. Some of our old French Canadian traditions like the Guillannée are now extinct in Quebec. We actually have more in common today with the isolated prairie Cajuns as their Courir de Mardi Gras tradition is the same as our New Year's Eve "Geoney". Even our fiddling style is a hybrid between French Canadian and Cajun/Creole!

I am short for time now, but please visit the following links - and I'll send more info when I return from Quebec next week.

First stop: Dennis Stroughmatt - the last Midwest French Creole fiddler (all his teachers passed away). Dennis studied French at U of QC-Chicoutimi and is a fluent speaker of Illinois Country French and contemporary Cajun. I have learned most of my Midwest French Creole knowledge from him.

http://www.creolestomp.com
http://www.creolefiddle.com
http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/stroughmatt.html

Old Mines: They sell a Pays des Illinois French textbook here:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~moomahs/

Ste. Genevieve: The largest collection of vertical post French Canadian cabins in NoAm...
http://www.ste-genevieve.com/histsite.htm

Prairie du Rocher: the Geoney tradition - currently celebrated in Quebec on December 5th
http://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/ihy960469.html

Vincennes: The only music festival in North America that includes performers from French Canada, French Louisiana and the French Midwest/Haute-Louisiane.
http://www.festivaldumardigras.com
http://www.spiritofvincennes.org/rendezvous/french/

Bill, I have enjoyed your Quebecois sayings website. Maybe you could include some of our "older Quebec" words in your forthcoming book as we view the current Quebec dialect as rather modern ; ).

Cheers
Brad

From: Linda Morris

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Hi Bill –

I feel I can call you Bill. I've listened to you so many times on CBC radio, I feel as though I know you! :-)

Anyway...had to say thanks...for the brilliant explanation of my maiden surname "Dingwall". (just re-read it on the net)

I may have even thanked you prior to this...but, regardless it's definitely deserving of another acknowledgment!

I'm so intrigued by the history of my name. The Viking side of it fascinates me. It might also explain my carnivorous appetite!

I love YOUR love of words. I share that passion with you!

Thanks again,

sincerely

Linda Marie Dingwall (now Morris)

From Bill Casselman:

Hi Linda!

Remember this about all writers: you can NEVER thank us enough.

Glad you enjoyed the origin of the surname Dingwall.

You can thank me truly by buying a few of my books in bookstores. They are all previewed on my website.

I have published one entitled What's in a Canadian Name? which contains two pages on the Dingwall name.

If you can't find it in bookstores, you can order it from me for $ 15.00 which includes shipping. You send a cheque. When it clears, I send a book. Imagine it! Your name analyzed in a book! Every Dingwall should have a copy! What about relatives? What about Christmas?

After all, I have to get to Fiji somehow next winter.

Have a great summer!

Bill Casselman

Dear Bill –

WOWOWOW I'm tickled pink that the book arrived so quickly!

I can't thank you enough...and that you signed it - way too cool!

Thank you SO very much for taking the time, and for being so quick about it all!

I am now the proud owner of TWO Casselman creations. I have Canadian Sayings as well.

Seriously… I totally dig what you do - and I wish you well!

Regards

Linda Marie Dingwall (now Morris)

Eating Mouse Tits? Squeeeeek !

From Don Ritchie

Dear Mr. Casselman,

Doing a little googling to find out more about some delightful greens I
purchased recently in Masstown, Nova Scotia, I stumbled upon your web page and not only discovered the greens in question, passe-pierre, but was also empowered with a new name for my favourite August shore green, tétines de souris. I look forward to feeding them to my Upper Canadian visitors and telling them they have just eaten a feast of mouse tits.

When I lived in Toronto in the seventies and eighties and could still
tolerate CBC Radio, I delighted in your reviews and other contributions to what was then a wonderful institution, especially the late, lamented "Radio Show" on Saturdays. It makes my skin crawl when I inadvertently turn my radio on of a Saturday and hear the crap that has replaced it.

So thank you for the mouse tits as well as the years of wonderful radio.

Best wishes,
Don Ritchie

Sandfire Greens, False Samphire or “Mouse Nipples”

Read my article on Acadian foods like passe-pierre and mouse tits.