Rendez-vous de l'Alliance with Nathalie Dajko

In partnership with Xavier University.

French on Shifting Ground: Cultural and Coastal Erosion

For our April Rendez-vous de l’Alliance, we’re welcoming author and scholar, Nathalie Dajko. 

This event is completely free and open to the public and will be in English

Nathalie Dajko is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at Tulane University.  She is the author of French on Shifting Ground: Cultural and Coastal Erosion in South Louisiana and the co-editor (with Shana Walton) of  Language in Louisiana: Community and Culture.  Her research focuses on language variation in both French and English in Louisiana.

About the presentation:

Based on decades of fieldwork across Louisiana, this talk will present the development and continued importance of the French spoken in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Descended from both Acadian and non-Acadian varieties, its array of features makes it distinct from other varieties of French worldwide and its speakers’ origins immediately identifiable to other Louisiana francophones.  I’ll focus in particular on the way language both creates and is linked to place and to personal identity, showing the influence it has had on the English spoken locally and highlighting the importance it continues to hold for residents of the bayou country -- even those who do not speak it.