Welcome to old and new friends who are interested in discussing Cajun and other diatonic accordions, along with some occasional lagniappe....



CAJUN ACCORDION DISCUSSION GROUP

 

General Forum
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Marion Marcotte--transcribing & refining additional stories

Couple of suggestions in all caps. Otherwise I agree with your transcription.


Si t’prenais la fourche à droite pour vingt et un miles, là c’était la troisième maison (à) l’aut(re) bord du vieux plaqueminier croche qu’avait la branche sec qui pointait [*cointait?] bord de CHEZ TANTE 'NA, c’est là c’était.

[If you went right at the fork for 21 miles, then it was the third house on the other side of the old crooked persimmon tree that had the dry branch that pointed (*leaned?) to the side of TANTE 'NA'S PLACE.

(TANTE 'NA WOULD BE SHORT FOR TANTE EDNA, OR ANY OTHER SIMILAR NAME THAT ENDS WITH NA.)

---------

Ils avaient d’la bonne musique à SOIR (THAT NIGHT). Ils avaient eu Gilroy Ghislain pour jouer* (*Marcotte pronounces the "j" a hard "g" here and omits the end of "jouer", so it sounds like “goo”) du violon, et Sylvain Canavez (CANARVAISE) l’avait accompagné avec un tambour.

---

La gourbe is the gout, I believe.

The one whose help you want is Daniel Blanchard of Baton Rouge, who posts on the L'Anse Grise Community board. He knows his Louisiana French well.

Re: Marion Marcotte--transcribing & refining additional stories

John, that is a great project. I love Marcotte's stories, but I can't understand all of them. He uses many little phrases that are either unique to him or to his area. There has been some transcribing of his stories, I know my dad and Christian Landry did a couple of them, Le Pategeau and L'eau Haute de '27. I can either post those here or email them.

Re: Marion Marcotte--transcribing & refining additional stories

Bryan, I have to say, you actually got me started on this though we've never met. I started translating "Hasitall" (Le Pedleur") from a CD project on Cajun transcriptions. After I saw some postings by you and Neal on this forum, I bought Marion Marcotte's tape on clearance at Flattown records because I had some hope of acquiring enough of a base in Marcotte's stories to work on some stories from scratch. I started slowing down the audio to work through your transcriptions. Since then, there have been some newer insights in the Dictionary of Louisian French, which had not been published when everyone's transcriptions were shared on this forum, so it's probably good to to through these again. I bought a copy of the (excellent) Dictionary of Louisiana French, but I also search terms on it electronically using Google books.com and that has really helped to speed up the process.

T’a raison, quéquefois les farces de M. Marcotte sont beaucoup dur à comprendre. Si le vieux monde francophone de la Louisiane pouvait nous donner un coup d’main?

Re: Marion Marcotte--transcribing & refining additional stories

My dad has a forum where there are some other folks pretty good at transcriptions, link #2. Problem with getting the old folk's help, not many on the forums.

AU BAL À NONC RAGGAUX (Marion Marcotte), part 1

Thanks, Bryan and Neal.

Incorporating some feedback, here's "Part 1"--right through the point where M. Marcotte swallows his chewing tobacco as he is overcame by outrage upon hearing the nefarious Huey Meaux taunt Marcotte's date. In part 2 (not yet fully transcribed), Marcotte will then get pummeled while chaos erupts in the dance hall.

AU BAL À NONC RAGGAUX, by Marion Marcotte (Part 1)

J’av(ais) ét(é) au bal à la salle de danse à pauvre defunt Nonc (=n’onc(le)) Raggaux, qui se trouvait dans la criée des cannes. Pour toi arriver là, i(l) fallait tu croise el* Bayou Lafourche dans la pirogue à pirou.

*(here, el = le. This is an example of Marcotte's occasional use of inversion is seen when a word like je, le, or ce is followed by a consonant.)

I had gone to the dance at the dance hall of poor late Uncle Raggaux, which was located in the backwoods. For you to get there, you had to cross Bayou Lafourche in a pirogue.

Et tu tournes à gauche pour seize miles, (ju)squ’à t’arrivait où l’chemin a fait-z une gran(de) fourche. Et dans la fourche i(l) n’avait un gros chicot qu’était brûlé, mais il était pus là.

And you turn left for 16 miles, until you got where there's a big fork in the road (the road makes a big fork). And in the fork there was a big stump that had burned, well, it was no longer there.

Si t’prenais la fourche à droite pour vingt et un miles, là c’était la troisième maison (à) l’aut(re) bord du vieux plaqueminier croche qu’avait la branche sec qui pointait ( or, is it "cointait"?) bord de chez Tante 'Na*, c’est là c’était.

*("Aunt 'Na", perhaps short for "Aunt (Ed)na")

If you went right at the fork for 21 miles, then it was the third house on the other side of the old crooked persimmon tree that had the dry branch that pointed (or, is it "leaned"?) to the side of Aunt 'Na's place.

C’était un beau bal à soir au commencement. Ils avaient servi d’la limonade en vinaigre* fait (av)ec d’l’eau du puit, et du café faible. Tant qu’à la limonade ça pouvait faire--mais tonnerre mes chiens, le café ils ont servi! Il était tellement faible (ju)squ’à la grègue a tombé en faiblesse dans les braises su(r) l’foyer.

It was a beautiful evening dance at the beginning. They had served lemonade in vinager [i.e., spiked lemonade) made with well water, and weak coffee. As for the lemonade it was ok, but gosh doggit [literally, "Thunder [strike] my dogs!"], the coffee they served! It was so weak that the coffee pot fainted [literally, "fell from weakness"] into the coals on the hearth.

Ils avaient d(e) la bonne musique à soir-là. Ils avaient eu Gilroy Ghislain pour jouer* (*Marcotte pronounces the "j" a hard "g" here and omits the end of "jouer", so it sounds like “goo”) du violon, et Sylvain Canarvaise l’avait accompagné avec un tambour.

They had some good music that night. They had Gilroy Giselin to play the fiddle and Sylvain Canarvaise accompanied him with the drums.

Ej’vas jam(ais) oublier l’nom d’cette valse ils étaient ap(r)ès* jouer quand j’ai rentré. Ça pouvait faire les ch’veux dresser su(r) la tête d'attendre** ça.

I will never forget the name of the waltz they were playing when I entered. It could have made your hair stand on end to hear that.

*Marcotte uses “apè” instead of après before an infinitive, a feature of créole French that some Cajuns also use. I transcribe this as ap ès to show the “r” is omitted in this verbal construction).

**Cajun French frequently uses attendre to mean "to hear" (=entendre in International French).

Euh, le nom c’était “Coco d’oeil dans le fond du puit”. Qu'on grand caille***, comme la pauv(re) vieille. Alle est (ét[ait]) assis sus un banc de (sic) un coin après écouter la musique. Quand alle a entendu ça, a(lle) s’y est flanquée à brailler. Alle a tellement pleuré, (ju)squ'alle a trempé quat(re) jupes. A(lle) s’essuyait les larmes de les yeux. A(lle) m’a dit que ça lui faisait penser à son pauv(re) vieux cinquième mari, qui était mort avec la gourbe* l’année d’avant.


Uh, the name was "Eyeball in the Bottom of the Well." How greatly we were stirred up*** [any translation suggestions welcome--is it something like "con[te] grand caille" or "qu’ont grand caillé"???*], like the poor widow. She was seated on a bench in a corner listening to the music. When she heard that, she launched into weeping. She cried so much, that she drenched four dresses. She was wiping the tears from her eyes. She told me that it made her think of her poor fifth husband, who had died from gout* [not sure what "la gourbe" means] the year before.

Tout allait bien au-z* bal à soir-là, (ju)squ’à les garçons à Monsieur Auguste Corusse sont rentrés. C’était une bande de malfecteurs. Il n’avait: Hilaire, Bélizaire, Clojaire, Méyère, Robert, Olivère et Pantère.

Everything was going well at the dance that night, until Mr. Auguste Corusse’s sons entered. They were a gang of troublemakers (literally, evildoers). There was: Hilaire, Bélizaire, Clojaire, Méyère, Robert, Olivère, and Pantère.

C’était tout le temps en chasse du train, et ça, il aimait casser les bals. Ça fait, c’est la première fois j’m’ai battu dans ma vie c’était ce même soir-là, mais c’était pas avec les garçons à Monsieur Auguste Corusse.


They were always chasing after trouble, and they liked to crash dances. So it’s the first time that I fought in my life, it was that same dance evening, but it wasn’t with the sons of Mr. Auguste Corusse.


C’était avec eç* (= ce, and inversion like Marcotte's use of "ej" rather than "je" before a word starting with a consonant) maudit Huey Meaux. Il était après danser avec ma belle, il l’a insulté. Il a dit, il dit: “Chère”, il dit, “danser avec toi c’est manière comme traîner eine herse dans les grands herbes, à force que t’es lourde. il n’aurait pas d’danger que t’attrappe un cochon graissé dans la porte d’un hangar avec des jambes cambrées comme ils sont”.


It was with that **** Huey Meaux. He was dancing with my girl, he insulted her. He said, he says: “Dear,” he says, “dancing with you is a bit like dragging a harrow through tall grass, you’re so heavy. There wouldn’t be any danger of you catching a greased pig in the door of a barn with legs bowlegged like these are.


Nèg, quand j’attendu ça… ça m’a foutu en feu. Ça m’a tellement fait fout(re) en colère (ju)sque j’ai envalé ma chique de tabac.

Bud, when I heard that... that burned me up (got me angry). That got me so riled up that I swallowed my wad of chewing tobacco.

END OF PART 1

Re: AU BAL À NONC RAGGAUX (Marion Marcotte), part 1

That's a good transcription, John! Thanks for taking it on.

Re: AU BAL À NONC RAGGAUX (Marion Marcotte), part 1

Without having Marcotte's stories in front of me and working only from memory, I'm almost positive anytime you hear "euh" he's actually inverting [consonant + e]...je = ej, le = el, re- = -er.

It sounds like "euh, je..." but it's rather "Ej..." or in this case "Euhje" etc.

This was and I think still is common in some oïl dialects in western France, as well as maybe some dialects of Acadian.

Also, the hard 'j' some people are hearing is more like our English 'h'. In Lafourche parish, some dialects regularly pronounce 'j' in this way. Again, I don't have Marcotte's recordings nearby but one example I recall clearly and which is repeated more than once in his stories is "touHours" for "toujours". In this word it almost sounds like the j is omitted, but it's just that it's not pronounced in the expected way.

I remember on local access television in Acadiana in the 80's there was a cooking segment in French hosted by Vicki Capelle (sp?) in which was featured Mme Alzina Toups from down on the Bayou. Actually, I think the program was called "en bas du bayou". One recipe called for 'des hambes haunes' and 'du hambon'. "hambes haunes" was chicken...'yellow legs'...and 'hambon' was ham.

I wish I had taped these, hearing this lady speak was like the most beautiful music to my ears.



Jamey Hall's most excellent Cajun Accordion Music Theory

Brett's all new Cajun Accordion Music Theory for all keys!

LFR1.gif - 1092 Bytes The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week

augusta.gif - 6841 Bytes

Listen to Some GREAT Music While You Surf the Net!!
The BEST Radio Station on the Planet!