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

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.