Nathalie Dajko


Audio
Clips of Louisiana French
Video

Trawling in Pointe-aux-Chênes, Terrebonne Parish
Ouragans
Ouragans sus les bayous
A movie about land loss and language loss
We are New Orleans
We are New Orleans 
English in the Crescent City
A
                                          short history of Independence
The History and Language of Independence, LA
English and Sicilian heritage in Independence, LA
More
CaneRiver
French in the Cane River Valley, Natchitoches Parish
Website with info and videos
ANTH4390
Languages of Louisiana
Online course




Welcome to my page!  I'm a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.  I'm a linguist, focusing on language variation.  My research focuses on the way people use language to express ethnic and place-based identity in both French and English.

My current project is an examination of New Orleans English, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.  Over the next four and a half years, my co-researcher Dr. Katie Carmichael (Virginia Tech) and I will conduct hundreds of interviews with native New Orleanians from all over the city and of varying backgrounds.  Our goal is to document variation in New Orleans and to investigate the relationship between language and spatial and ethnic affiliation as the city undergoes large-scale demographic changes due to gentrification and post-Katrina displacement.

I also specialize in Louisiana French, in particular the variety most often called Cajun French by its speakers (for the sake of clarity, in academic work it is generally referred to as Louisiana Regional French).  French has been spoken in Louisiana since the early 18th century, when the French colonized the region.  Over time, with immigration from different regions and the spread of French to groups not originally francophone, including the enslaved and indigenous populations of the colony, at least three varieties of French developed here.  Today, French is in grave danger of disappearing.  Most speakers are rural residents over the age of 60.  Unless something is done quickly, French will likely disappear from Louisiana within the next 50 years. 

I have conducted research on French all over Louisiana, including in Evangeline, Avoyelles, Natchitoches, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, St. Martin, St. Landry, Assumption, Iberville, and Jefferson Parishes (Grand Isle).  The bulk of my research, however, has been conducted in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes, where I have collected over 200 interviews documenting ethnic and regional variation across the area. 

My research across language varieties has positioned me at the nexus of research on multiple languages in a linguistically diverse state.  This has resulted in the upcoming publication (with the University Press of Mississippi) of a volume I have co-edited with Dr. Shana Walton (Nicholls State).  The book includes chapters by scholars as well as community members, bringing together research on more than one language variety in a single volume for the first time.  The book, Language in Louisiana:  Community and Culture, is scheduled to appear in mid-2019.

On this page you will find audio and video clips from different regions of Louisiana, showcasing French and English language and culture (French items subtitled/translated for non-French speakers!).  Stay tuned for future updates as the New Orleans project progresses!

 


Fieldwork Photos









Photos

Photos
Links

The best in erudite discussion
 of the paranormal...

The Bayou Website
Cajun culture and language down the
bayou and on Grand Isle, with sound files!

Tulane Department
of Anthropology
 

Tulane University
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