Is Sherry from New Orleans? I wonder why she says "crawdad" then. Nobody I know from New Orleans says crawdad, except to be funny. I lived there from 1953-1959, and from 1975-1988, that's nineteen years, but I say I am "from" Baton Rouge, where I lived from 1959-1975, only seventeen years. Anyway, I lived in Louisiana for thirtysix years, and I never heard anyone say "crawdad" but a Yankee.
If you want to ask me about "Confederacy of Dunces," it was a good book, with the flaw you describe (poor editing, obviously a draft). The accents of New Orleanians are definitely not typical "honeychile" Southern accents. Few people in South Louisiana (except transplants) have that corn-pone accent, they're Cajun, or Yugoslavian (Dalmatian), or Hispanic, or black, or a mixture (lots of VietNamese these days, too). It's found in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Louisiana, Kentucky, etc. People in Baton Rouge have a soft Southern accent, they are kinda inbetween.
The phrase "where y'at" is a true lower-class New Orleanian greeting. Native lower-class New Orleanians call themselves "yats" accordingly. A true Yat sounds like he is from Brooklyn. They are descended from a melange of Italians, Germans, and Irish, who originally settled in an area called "the Irish channel," just a little upriver from the French Quarter, upriver from the Central Business District. New Orleans used to be a warehouse town, with a rough waterfront. Yats are tough, and like to fight. Their accents are very harsh. They love chihuahua dogs, and pink flamingoes, and mirror balls, and tacky lawn furniture. If you have ever seen a John Waters movie about Baltimore, please understand that he could have filmed his movies in New Orleans without missing a beat.
The French people in New Orleans, both black and white Creoles, I should add colored, ok all three, are higher class than Yats, and have much softer accents. They are cultured. They are the backbone of Carnival. They go to Tulane, and if they are black they may go to Xavier, and they become mayors, senators, and congressmen. Cokie Roberts' mother, Lindy Boggs, is quintessential creole. Not Cokie, who is a wonderful woman, but nothing like her mother. Ted Kennedy's second wife, while not Creole, and from Mississippi, seems to be cut from the same cloth as the Creole steel magnolia.
The contrast between rich and poor is very stark in New Orleans. There is almost no middle class. |
