Louisiana Creole Translations

[khaleesiofsnow]

I feel like this might be too off-the-wall to get many answers, but I'm building a modern fantasy world with a friend that's set on the bayou and while we're using preternatural creatures that are already established, we want to come up with names for the sub-species that sound local.

I used google and found this site which has helped me some -

Comments

[jordinothepizza]

If you're building a modern fantasy world, then the creatures you're talking about will probably end up having a "bastardized" name from whatever Creole/Cajun/Spanish/Haitian/French/etc have been put together with English.

I honestly don't know much about French or Cajun French because I didn't learn that in school, so I can't tell you how accurate that website is. However, I can say that we'd probably call Envy as Envie (partially because that's the name of a local beer).

Another example is "cher." Because the spelling is so different from the pronunciation, some of us spell it like "sha," because that's closer to how it's pronounced. Also, please, I beg of you, please, please, please do not put "cher" on every page of story. It's really not used that frequently, and only by certain generations/certain areas of the state.

I'd say just kind of make the words your own if you're not able to find a good local source. And if you're gonna have a modern fantasy story set in Louisiana, you should add Rougarou in there (Reply

[shanrina]

"Selkie" in French (and I assume Cajun French) appears to be just "la selkie," so maybe something like "la selkie-dentée," or "toothed selkie," would work.

[angelinw8ing13]

Why I can't be much help as we just moved to New Orleans less than two months ago my hubby's family has been here for generations. We just took a tour last night with his cousin (who is an official tour guide)to my understanding and I could be very wrong here and will ask his cousin as soon as I can but because you do have a lot of Irish, German, Spanish, and French here things were referred to by the cultural names not a mix. It's also very hard to "translate" some of these for you because the stories just don't really exist down here. For example my husband's family is Primary Irish/French. The Irish side did grow up in the Channel. And while I have heard a lot of family tales of ghost, voodoo, zombies, and even vampires I have not heard one tale of the Banshees. Yes they are Irish but I haven't heard any local tales here. St. Patty's Day is REALLY big here they have a parade and everything but no tales of Leprechauns. The one reference I did hear to Banshee and Leprechaun was actually around St. Patty's day and they were pronounced

[okaasan59]

You should also be aware that if your story is set on a bayou (in a rural area), the primary culture would be Cajun, not Creole.

Acadians (Cajuns) are descended from Canadian French who were forced out by the British and eventually settled in the swamps, bayous and plains of South Louisiana. You can google Cajun music and Cajun French (which differs from Parisian French) to get an idea of what it sounds like. A lot of Cajuns in southwest and south central Louisiana speak some Cajun French but most of the older generations which spoke it exclusively have died off.

Creoles are a bit harder to define and many groups claim different definitions. In Louisiana, the word Creole refers to someone of mixed ancestry, probably living in New Orleans. The term originally referred to French or Spanish immigrants who were born in Louisiana. It now also includes people with African and Native American ancestry.

Creole and Cajun food are different and the language is different, too. Most of the people I've known who identify as Creole are primarily

[okaasan59]

Sorry, I also wanted to add this site which has Cajun animal names that might be helpful to you:  https://quizlet.com/29919572/cajun-french-animals-flash-cards/