Missouri French facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Missouri French |
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| Paw Paw French français du Missouri |
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The flag of the French colony of Upper Louisiana.
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| Native to | Missouri, Illinois, Indiana |
| Region | French settlements along Mississippi River of Upper Louisiana |
| Native speakers | Unknown; fewer than a dozen (2015) |
| Language family | |
Counties where Missouri French is or was formerly spoken.
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Missouri French (also called French: français du Missouri) is a special kind of French that was spoken in the central United States. It was mainly used in eastern Missouri, along the Mississippi River. People sometimes called it "Paw-Paw French."
This language was one of the main types of French that grew in the United States. It was once widely spoken in many towns. These included Ste. Genevieve, Old Mines, St. Louis, Prairie du Rocher, and Vincennes. The people who spoke Missouri French were often called "créoles". They were descendants of early French settlers in the Illinois Country.
Today, Missouri French is an endangered language. This means very few people still speak it. Only a handful of older native speakers remain. Most of them live in or near Old Mines, Missouri.
Contents
History of Missouri French
French people started settling in this area in the late 1600s. Fur traders, known as coureurs des bois, came from what is now Canada. As France expanded its colonies in North America, they built missions, forts, and trading posts.
One of the first French towns was Cahokia, started in 1696. It quickly grew into a busy trading center. Missionaries also built a church in Kaskaskia in 1714. French settlers, called Canadiens, moved in to farm. Some also mined for lead west of the Mississippi River. Kaskaskia became the capital of Upper Louisiana.
Many French settlers and Native Americans lived in Kaskaskia. More Canadiens moved to the area. In 1735, some settlers started Sainte-Geneviève on the Missouri side of the Mississippi.
In 1732, Vincennes, Indiana, became a French fur trading post. It was very successful, attracting more Canadiens. French settlers often married women from local Native American tribes. These marriages helped create strong alliances and trading partnerships.
St. Louis was founded as a trading post in 1763. By then, the French had several settlements along the Mississippi River. After the British won the French and Indian War in 1763, many French speakers moved west. They went to places like Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis. France also gave Louisiana to Spain in 1762. Hundreds of French refugees moved to Ste. Genevieve in 1797. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, French speakers moved further inland into the Ozark mountains.
Mining and the French Language
Native Americans may have already been processing lead in the area. French settlers needed a lot of lead. They used Native Americans, freelance miners, and enslaved Africans to work in the mines. Entire French Creole families moved inland to mine for lead.
In 1797, Moses Austin started serious mining operations in Potosi. This helped the French-speaking community grow. Mining towns like Old Mines (French: La Vieille Mine) stayed connected to Ste. Genevieve. They shared trade, family ties, and a common identity.
Decline of Missouri French
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 changed things. French speakers in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis started to blend in with English-speaking Americans. This happened faster because of new settlers. But the mining communities inland remained more isolated. They kept their French heritage longer.
Miners, called piocheurs, continued to use old mining methods. They used hand tools and simple pit mining. Soon, English-speaking companies bought the land where the Creoles lived. This created a gap between English-speaking bosses and French-speaking workers.
Lead production in Old Mines went down after the 1820s. After the Civil War, new mining technologies made the community poorer. The French language survived longer in Old Mines because it was so isolated.
In St. Louis, French street signs were replaced in 1809. However, many people in St. Louis were still French through the 1800s. French speakers from other cities also moved there. French newspapers were published, but they stopped before the 1900s.
Outside of St. Louis, French lasted into the 1900s. But the number of French speakers near the Mississippi River dropped a lot. In Vincennes, German immigrants weakened the French community. By 1930, only a few elderly French speakers were left there.
In the 1930s and 1940s, new mining machines pushed French-speaking Creoles out of mining jobs. This left them without money. French became linked to poverty and a lack of education. English speakers sometimes made fun of or were mean to French speakers. This made many Missouri French speakers ashamed to use their language. Schools even banned French, and students were sometimes punished for speaking it.
In 1930, a professor named W. M. Miller visited Missouri. He found about 2,000 Missouri French speakers in a small area. Most of them spoke both French and English. By 1989, only a few elderly speakers remained. In 2014, news reports said fewer than 30 Missouri French speakers were left in Old Mines.
Efforts to Save the Language
People have tried to save the Missouri French dialect. In the early 1900s, a priest tried to keep French alive at the Ste. Genevieve Church, but it didn't work.
Joseph Médard Carrière published Tales from the French Folk-lore of Missouri in 1937. This book collected 73 stories from the Old Mines area. His work helped save some of the unique words and sounds of Missouri French. In 1941, Carrière also studied how Missouri French sounds.
In 1946, a book called Folk Songs of Old Vincennes was published. It helped preserve the culture and language that connected French speakers across the Illinois Country.
Serious efforts to revive the language began in 1977. Classes were offered in Old Mines with help from native speakers. By 1979, 20 people regularly attended weekly classes. In 1982, the book It's Good to Tell You: French Folktales from Missouri was published. It shared stories from the community with English translations.
Revival in the 21st Century
Since 2013, French Creole musician Dennis Stroughmatt has taught classes. He teaches Illinois Country French and culture at Wabash Valley College. He also holds workshops for the Old Mines Area Historical Society. Stroughmatt learned the dialect in Old Mines and Festus, Missouri.
In 2015, small classes were held in Ste. Genevieve. Soon after, a group called Illinois Country French Preservation Inc. was formed. They offered a five-week course in Missouri French.
Vocabulary
Missouri French has many words similar to other types of French in North America. It has also been influenced by English, Spanish, and Native American languages. For example, some words are different from standard French:
- beaujour (Missouri French) means "hello" or "good morning," while standard French uses bonjour.
- brindgème (Missouri French) means "eggplant," while standard French uses aubergine.
- chat-chouage (Missouri French) means "raccoon," while standard French uses raton laveur.
- metche (Missouri French) means "match," which comes from the English word.
Many English words and phrases were borrowed into Missouri French. This happened as the language started to disappear.
Examples
Here is an example of Missouri French from a folktale, with its English translation: "C'est bon d'vous dzire eune fouès c'étaient ein vieux rouè pis eune vieille reine. 'L ontvaient eune fille qu'était mariée et qui I'avait ein mouèyen p'tsit garçon. Pis dans c'te ville-là, 'I avait ein homme qui s'app'lait Som'pson. l' restait dans I'bois, lui. I'avait pas d'dzifférence quoi 'rouè faisait, i' l'détruisait, lui, i' l'démanchait. L'rouè avait fait perdre ein tas des hommes pour essayer d'faire détruire Sam'son. II a offert eune bonne somme d'argent pour n'importe qui y'aurait donné ein avis pour attraper Sam'son."
"It's good to tell you that once upon a time there were an old king and an old queen. They had a daughter who was married, and she had a little boy. In that town, there was also a man named Samson, who lived in the woods. No matter what the king did, Samson destroyed it. The king had lost many men trying to get rid of Samson. He offered a good sum of money to anyone who could give him an idea that would work to catch Samson."
