Book review: Cajun Vernacular English: Informal English in French Louisiana, edited by Ann Martin Scott (original) (raw)

1995, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages

Cajun Vernacular English is comprised of eight articles authored or coauthored by eight different contributors, all of whom are linked, by virtue of upbringing, profession, or interest, to the linguistic landscape of "Acadiana," the historically Francophone parishes of South Louisiana. The genesis of the book goes back to a graduate seminar in sociolinguistics conducted in 1988 by editor-contributor Ann Martin Scott. The seminar was held at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, in the heart of Cajun country. The need for such an anthology became apparent when attempts by the seminar participants to establish a bibliography for the study of Cajun English "revealed a complete absence of published work" (p. i). It will detract little from the force of this statement to point out that at least one previously published lexical study did in fact exist: Babington and Atwood (1961). Also, as Eble (1993, pp. 172-173) has pointed out, the Linguistic atlas of the Gulf States: The basic materials (Pederson, Billiard, Leas, Bailey, & Bassett, 1981) provides important published documentation waiting to be exploited for the purpose of describing Cajun English. (See also Dillard & Rivers, 1989, published shortly after Scott's seminar.) Apart from such exceptions, however, the English of Acadiana remains "perhaps the least studied variety of contemporary American English" (Eble, 1993, p. 171). The original seminar papers were, therefore, readied for publication and comple-1) Libraries and scholars interested in obtaining copies of Cajun Vernacular English for research purposes are invited to contact the editor directly: