Cauchois
Encyclopedia
Cauchois is one of the eastern dialects of the Norman language
, spoken in, and taking its name from, the Pays de Caux
region of the Seine-Maritime
départment.
The Purin literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, published in Rouen
, is the earliest Norman literature displaying Cauchois features.. 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.
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
, spoken in, and taking its name from, the Pays de Caux
Pays de Caux
The Pays de Caux is an area in Normandy occupying the greater part of the French département of Seine Maritime in Haute-Normandie. It is a chalk plateau to the north of the Seine Estuary and extending to the cliffs on the English Channel coast - its coastline is known as the Côte d'Albâtre...
region of the Seine-Maritime
Seine-Maritime
Seine-Maritime is a French department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre...
départment.
Status
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% and 19.1% of residents of Seine-Maritime identify themselves as speakers of Cauchois.Phonology
Among distinguishing features of Cauchois from other Norman dialects are:- absence of aspiratedAspiration (phonetics)In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
h - loss of Intervocalic /r/
- a greater tendency to metathesisMetathesis (linguistics)Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
than in western dialects; e.g. e(u)j instead of jé (English: I), eud instead of dé (of), euq instead of qué (that), eul instead of lé (the)
Literature
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, is the earliest Norman literature displaying Cauchois features.. 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
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
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
Gabriel Benoist
Gabriel Benoist was a French writer in the Cauchois dialect of the Norman language. He is best known for the Thanase Pequeu stories of which three volumes were published in the 1930s....
(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.