Creole

“ From this son sprang the proud Creole family of De Charleu. It rose straight up, up, up, generation after generation, tall, branchless, slender, palm-like; and finally, in the time of which I am to tell, flowered with all the rare beauty of a century-plant, in Artemise, Innocente, Felicité, the twins Marie and Martha, Leontine and little Septima; the seven beautiful daughters for whom their home had been fitly named Belles Demoiselles. ”

“ I would also recommend those interested in such folklore to peruse the Creole novel of Dr. Alfred Mercier—Les Saint-Ybars, which contains excellent examples of the Louisiana dialect; and Baissac’s beautiful little stories, “Recits Créoles,” rich in pictures of the old French colonial life. The foreign philological reviews and periodicals, especially those of Paris, have published quite a variety of animal fables, proverbs, stories in various Creole dialects ”

“ The above ancient Creole ditty contains some curious information about the occupations which some of our old-fashioned colored Creoles alone follow, and of which they alone know the secrets. We are indebted therefor to a gentleman of this city who has made a rich collection of these songs. ”

“ Unique is getting to imply merely excellent or perhaps only unusual; its exact etymological value is departing forever. Creole, which should be applied only to Caucasian natives of tropical countries born of Latin parents, is beginning to carry with it in the vulgar tongue of to-day a vague suspicion of negro blood. ”

“ In a tier near the ground a man is standing and calling—standing head and shoulders above the rest—callimg in the Américaine tongue. Another man, big and red, named Joe, and a handsome little Creole in elegant dress and full of laughter, wish to stop him, but the flat-boatmen, ha-ha-ing and cheering, will not suffer it. ”

“ All who have ever entered a French Creole family have observed the gentle and respectful bearing of the children, their strict yet unconstrained observance of all the proprieties of their position, and also the affectionate intercourse between these and their parents, and toward each other—never an improper word ”

“ Get up to resume your promenade, and you hear a dozen languages in as many steps; while every nation, and tribe, and people—French, English, Irish, German, Spanish, Creole, Chinese, African, Quadroon, Mulatto, American—jostles you in good-humored confusion.
Some gigantic negresses, with gaudy kerchiefs, like turbans, about their heads, are selling fruits, and sit erect as palm-trees. They look like African or Indian princesses, a little annoyed at being separated from their thrones and retinues, but none the less regal "for a' that." ”

“ Even some of the spectators unaffected by the charms of the beautiful Creole, cannot restrain themselves from a certain feeling of envy; while others more deeply interested feel chagrined to the heart’s core, by what they are pleased to designate an impudent avowal! ”

“ A beautiful country and full of interest, if, forsooth, one might exist without a stomach. Everything is Creole—Creole cows, Creole milk, Creole eggs—even the ‘niggers’ are Creoles, and all speak French. My limited vocabulary of pure Parisian French has stood a heavy drain and has occasionally precipitated upon my hearers consequences which I feared would prove serious;—item—Night before last we stopped in a hamlet of shanties and at last found the ‘Hotel,’ kept by a talkative, voluble French idiot and his wife. ”

“ The proper meaning of the word “creole” is very different from that which we attach to it. It signifies a person of Spanish or French descent, born in Louisiana or in the southern or tropical countries. The great majority of the planters here are French creoles, and it is said they are kinder and better masters than Americans or Scotch, the latter being considered the most severe. Intelligent on most subjects, they are resolute in the belief that England must take their cotton or perish. ”

“ The Creole songs, according to Lafcadio Hearn, are 'Frenchy in construction but possess a few African characteristics of method.' 'There could neither have been creole patois nor creole melodies but for the French and Spanish blooded slaves of Louisiana and the Antilles. ”

“ A free Negro woman, Magdelaine Debern, further contested the matter, and in 1724, in the colony of Louisiana, won a decision exempting free Negroes and Mulattoes, and again placing them on the same footing with the Creole. The Creoles had a decided advantage, however, because through the favor of those in authority, there was always a disposition to exalt them.18
It is in the definition of the word Creole that another great difficulty arises. The native white Louisianian will tell you that a Creole is a white man, whose ancestors contain some French or Spanish blood in their veins. ”

“ To a stranger, the negro tongue is as difficult to write as it is to speak. In the different conversations given in that dialect, indulgence must be craved from my kind readers, both English and Creole, if they are not correctly written, observing at the same time that I write them as it seems proper to me, and in such a manner as they may be understood by those who read, not always the case when garnished by so many accentual marks. ”

“ The difference in type between the white creoles and the European races from whom they have sprung, a difference often considerable, is due principally to changed environment—especially to the tropical or semi-tropical climate of the lands they inhabit. The many patois founded on French and Spanish, and used chiefly by creole negroes, are spoken of as creole languages, a term extended by some writers to include similar dialects spoken in countries where the word creole is rarely used. ”

“ Where the final t—never pronounced in our own patois—is fully sounded, the several authorities upon Creole grammar have indicated the fact in various fashions: one spelling it cabritt; another cabrite, etc.
⁂
The grammatical peculiarities and the pronounciation of the several Creole dialects are matters which could not be satisfactorily treated within the compass of a small pamphlet. Some few general rules might, indeed, be mentioned as applying to most Creole dialects. It is tolerably safe to say that in no one of the West Indian dialects was the French “r” pronounced in former days ”

“ Mounn ouè défaut les-zautt, yo pas ni zié pou ta yo. (Les gens voient les défauts des autres, ils n’ont pas d’yeux pour les leurs.)
“Folks see the faults of others; they have no eyes for their own.” [88] — [Martinique.]
[88] This proverb, not being of true Creole origin, receives a place here as an illustration of effective patois. In Louisiana we never say ta yo, but so quenne....Were all proverbs used by the Creole-speaking people included in this collection, it would be considerably longer. Nearly all familiar English proverbs have received Creole adoption, with slight modifications ”

“ Turiault tells us that in the towns of Martinique, where the Creole is gradually changing into French, the Bitacos, or country negroes who still speak the patois nearly pure, are much ridiculed by their municipal brethren:—Ça ou ka palé là, chè, c’est nèg:—Ça pas Créole! (“What you talk is ‘nigger,’ my dear:—that isn’t Creole!”) In like manner a young Creole negro or negress of New Orleans might tell an aged member of his race: “Ça qui to parlé ça pas Créole: ça c’est gombo!” I have sometimes heard the pure and primitive Creole also called “Congo” by colored folks of the new generation. ”

“ There is a distinction to be made between Creole and genuine Romance. Belonging to the latter we have the French of Canada, the Spanish of Central and South America, the Portuguese of the Brazils. Speaking generally we may say that the particular languages retained the form of the language in the 16th and 17th centuries, that is to say that of the time of the immigration, and that they developed along the lines already established. Thus in Mexican Spanish the loss of d, g, between vowels, of s before consonants and as a final, has been carried further than in the mother-country. ”

“ The castes are confounded and have formed an American stock, in which we may distinguish the psychological traits of the Indian and the negro, while the shades of skin and forms of skull reveal a remote intermixture. If all the races of the New World were finally to unite, the Creole would be the real American.
He is idle and brilliant. There is nothing excessive either in his ideals or his passions; all is mediocre, measured, harmonious. ”

“ A love of literature, of science, of much that is beautiful and refined, contrasts piquantly with occasional glimpses of true Creole character, and of a son of 'the best horseman in South America,' who is too much at home among the fierce people whom he describes to fully assume the tone of a foreigner and amateur. ”

“ Reading, writing, and arithmetic are taught there in two languages, French and Spanish. There is also the house of the French nuns, who have some young girls as boarders, and who have a class for day students. There is also a boarding school for young Creole girls, which was established about fifteen months ago.... The Creole women lacking in general the talents that adorn education have no taste for music, drawing or, embroidery, but in revenge they have an extreme passion for dancing and would pass all their days and nights at it. ”

“ Nearly all the Creoles here—white—know English, French, and Spanish, more or less well, in addition to the patois employed only in speaking to children or servants. When a child becomes about ten years old, it is usually forbidden to speak Creole under any other circumstances.
But I do not suppose this will much interest you. I shall endeavour—this time I’m afraid to promise—to secure you some Mexican or Havanese music ”

“ I much doubt the Creole origin of any proverb relating to the beard. This one, like many others in the collection, has probably been borrowed from a European source; but it furnishes a fine sample of patois. In Louisiana Creole we would say to quenne instead of ta ou. The Spanish origin of the Creole quenne is obvious.
11. Babiez mouche, babiez viande. (Grondez les mouches, grondez la viande.)
“Scold the flies, scold the meat.”— [Hayti.]
12. Badnèn bien èpis macaque; main pouèngâde manyèn lakhé li. (Badinez bien avec le macaque; mais prenez garde de ne pas manier sa queue.) ”

“ See ITALY: A. D. 1154-1162. CREMONA: The Roman Colony. Siege by the Gauls. See ROME: B. C. 295-191. CREMONA: A. D. 69. Destruction by the Flavians. See ROME: A, D. 69. CREMONA: A. D. 1702. Defeat of the French. See ITALY (SAVOY AND PIEDMONT) : A. D. 1701-1713. {624} CREOLE. "In Europe it is very common to attach to the term Creole the idea of a particular complexion. This is a mistake. The designation Creole [in Spanish American regions] properly belongs to all the natives of America born of parents who have emigrated from the Old World, be those parents Europeans or Africans. ”

“ The Creole dialects are corruptions of French, Spanish and Portuguese. Mr. Cable's stories revealed to English readers the singularly quaint charm of the phraseology and manners of the Creoles of Louisiana, who are of French descent. Besides the American and Creole inhabitants, the population is made up of Germans, Irish, Italians, Spaniards, Scandinavians, Jews, Negroes, mixed races, Indians, Chinese and Malays. A large international trade is carried through New Orleans ”

“ Kind feelings exist between the populations, and the prejudices which have so effectually kept them apart for so long a time are giving way rapidly now, since most of the younger portion of the Creole-French population are educated in the United States, and away from New Orleans; consequently they speak the English language and form American associations, imbibe American ideas, and essay to rival American enterprise. ”

“ That it has also positive blemishes of organism--"
"Yes," interrupted the Creole, smiling at the immigrant's sudden magnanimity, "its positive blemishes; do they all spring from one main defect?"
"I think not. The climate has its influence, the soil has its influence--dwellers in swamps cannot be mountaineers."
"But after all," persisted the Creole, "the greater part of our troubles comes from--"
"Slavery," said Frowenfeld, "or rather caste."
"Exactly," said M. Grandissime.
"You surprise me, sir," said the simple apothecary. ”

“ Was there ever a Creole of Creoles, living in such an age, who could have entertained such ideas on social questions?
There are very curious chapters upon Voudooism in this book; and we cannot share the opinion of many that it is a mere "absurd superstition." We believe it to be, or at least to have been, a serious and horrible reality; and we know of most intelligent families among our French-speaking population who share this opinion. ”

“ Creoles, Tagals, Chinese, and Mestizoes. The Spaniards and the Tagals need no explanation, for the latter are the pure natives of the islands. Creole, I believe, is variously used in different locations; but it is a Spanish word, coming from criolla, which means grown up. They are one thing in the Spanish West Indies, another in Brazil.
"A more general definition is a person born in any country, but not of native blood. In the Philippines, Creoles are the children of Spanish fathers and native mothers. Mestizoes are children of Chinese parents on one side and natives on the other. ”

“ Refers especially to a man who marries without having made proper provision for the future. The Creole does not believe in our reckless proverb: “What will keep one, will keep two.” Non, non, chèr, lamisère à deux, Misère & Cie.!
163. Lapauveté napas éne vis, més li éne bien gros coulou. (La pauvreté n’est pas une vis [un vice] ; mais c’est un bien gros clou.)
“Poverty isn’t a screw; but it’s a very big nail.” The pun will be obvious to a French reader; but vice is not a true Creole word, according to Baissac.— [Mauritius.] ”