- Cauchois
Cauchois (Norman: "Cauchais") is one of the eastern dialects of the
Norman language , spoken in, and taking its name from, thePays de Caux region of theSeine-Maritime départment.tatus
The Pays de Caux is one of the remaining strongholds of the Norman language outside the
Cotentin . Statistics give a wide range of interpretations as to numbers of speakers: between 0.3% [INSEE/INED, 1999] and 19.1% ["La Langue vivante", Thierry Bulot, 2006 ISBN 2296018823] of residents of Seine-Maritime identify themselves as speakers of Cauchois.Phonology
Among distinguishing features of Cauchois are:
*absence of aspirated h
*loss of /r/
*a greater tendency to metathesis than in western dialects; e.g. "ej" instead of "jé" (English: "I"), "eud" instead of "dé" ("of"), "euq" instead of "qué" ("that"), "eul" instead of "lé" ("the")Literature
The "Purin" literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, published in
Rouen , is the earliest Norman literature displaying Cauchois features. ["La Normandie dialectale", René Lepelley, Caen 1999, ISBN 2841330761] . However the Norman literary revival, which started in the Channel Islands and Cotentin in the 19th century, was not reflected in the Pays de Caux until the early years of the 20th century. From 1910 onwards a range of literature was produced; one of the features of Norman literature characteristic of Cauchois literature was the mixture of French and Norman. In Lower Normandy, Norman literature since the revival period has tended to be as exclusively Norman as possible. In the Pays de Caux, by contrast, alongside literature written exclusively in Cauchois, a genre of literature developed in which narrative is written in French and dialogue in Cauchois, or else dialogue is written in French or Cauchois according to the language of the character.Notable writers in Cauchois include
Gabriel Benoist (author of the "Thanase Pèqueu" stories), Ernest Morel, Gaston Demongé, Maurice Le Sieutre and Marceau Rieul. Jehan Le Povremoyne (pseudonym of Ernest Coquin) wrote stories of the mixed dialogue genre, as did Raymond Mensire.References
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