Missouri French

Missouri French () or Illinois Country French () also known as "français vincennois, français Cahok", and nicknamed "Paw-Paw French" often by individuals outside the community but not exclusively, is a variety of the French language formerly spoken in the upper Mississippi River Valley in the Midwestern United States, particularly in eastern Missouri. The language is one of the major varieties of French that developed in the United States and at one point was widely spoken in areas of Bonne Terre, Valles Mines, Desloge, De Soto, Ste. Genevieve, Old Mines, Saint Louis, Richwoods, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes as well as several other locations. Speakers of Missouri French may call themselves "créoles" as they are descendants of the early French settlers of Illinois Country.
Today the dialect is highly endangered, with only a few elderly native speakers. It is thought that any remaining speakers live in or around Old Mines, Missouri.
History.
French colonization of the region began in earnest during the late 17th century by "coureurs des bois" from what is now modern-day Canada. With French colonial expansion into the North American interior, various missions, forts and trading posts were established under the administration of New France.
One of the first settlements to be established in the region was that of Cahokia in 1696 with the foundation of a mission Quebecois missionaries. The town quickly became one of the largest in the region with booming commerce and trade to assist its growth. Jesuit missionaries also established a mission to the south along the Kaskaskia River in 1703, followed by a stone church in 1714. During that time, Canadien settlers had moved in and begun to farm as well as mine for lead west of the Mississippi River. The fertile land of the American Bottom was tended to by "habitants" that moved from Prairie du Rocher. Soon the meager French post of Kaskaskia became the capital of Upper Louisiana and Fort de Chartres was constructed nearby. Since its inception, the town possessed a diverse population, a majority of which were Illinois or other Native American groups with a minority French voyageurs. Many of the Canadiens and their descendants would eventually become voyageurs and coureurs des bois. Continued immigration of Canadien settlers and natives of Illinois Country as well as a need for other resources gave way to the establishment of Sainte-Geneviève in 1735.
In 1732, following a short-lived French trading post for buffalo hides, Vincennes was established as a French fur trading post for the Compagnie des Indes (Company of the Indies) under the leadership of François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes. Alongside the Miami, the settlement grew with the immigration of Canadiens to the post as well as marriages between the local Native Americans and French settlers.
Originally granted as a French trading post in 1763, St. Louis quickly developed into a settlement under Pierre Laclède. By this time, the French had established several footholds along the upper Mississippi River such as Cahokia, Kaskaskia, St. Philippe, Nouvelle Chartres, Prairie du Rocher, and Ste. Genevieve. Even so, after the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, many francophone residents of Illinois Country moved west of the Mississippi River to Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Additionally, following France's loss in the War, Louisiana was ceded to Spain in Treaty of Fontainebleau. Several hundred French refugees from the Midwest were resettled at Ste. Genevieve by the Spanish in 1797. From the end of the French and Indian War through the early 19th century, francophones began settling in the Ozark highlands further inland, particularly after French Louisiana was sold to the United States in 1803.
Mining.
It is speculated that Native Americans may have already begun to process lead in the Upper Louisiana Valley by the 18th century in part due to interaction with "coureurs des bois" and European expeditions. Nonetheless, French demand for lead quickly outstripped available labor despite francophone reliance on Native Americans, freelancer miners, and 500 enslaved black people sent from Saint-Domingue to work in the area of Mine à Breton under control of Philippe François de Renault in 1723. With large quantities of ore visible from the surface, entire Creole families moved inland to exploit such plentiful resources. The arrival of Moses Austin to Potosi, formally Mine à Breton, brought the establishment of serious mining operations into Missouri in 1797 and the accelerated growth of the francophone community in the area. Mining communities such as Old Mines (), Mine La Motte, and St. Michel (St. Michaels) that were established further inland remained well-connected to Ste. Genevieve through trade, familial ties, and a formed common identity.
Decline.
The Louisiana Purchase marked a distinct turning point in this relationship with francophones of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis assimilating more rapidly into American society while the inland mining communities remained isolated and maintained their French heritage. "Piocheurs" held fast to primitive techniques with the use of hand tools and simple pit mining, moreover, smelting was done over crude, chopped-wood fires. Soon, French families in St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve as well as American companies purchased the land occupied by the Creoles thereby creating a division between an increasingly anglophone authority and francophone labor. By the 1820s production of lead had declined in the area of Old Mines, and following the Civil War, new mining technologies left the community impoverished.
The eventual decline of Illinois Country French did not occur at the same rates as it inevitably did in other areas. Most attribute the survival of the language in Old Mines due mainly to its relative isolation as compared to other communities like St. Louis or Ste. Genevieve.
In 1809, the French street signs of St. Louis were replaced but the population remained largely French through the 19th century. Likewise, immigration of francophones from New Orleans, Kaskaskia, and Detroit bolstered the French population. Two French-language newspapers, "Le Patriote" () and "La Revue de l'Ouest" () went into circulation during the second half of the 19th century with an intended audience of the "French-language population of 'The West'" but the papers soon fell out of print before the turn of the century.
Outside of St. Louis, the language survived into the 20th century but the francophone population of settlements near the Mississippi River had dropped dramatically:
French did not fare far better in distant Vincennes where German immigration in the 1860s had severely weakened the French community and by 1930 there were only a small population of elderly francophones left.
In the 1930s and 1940s, use of new excavation equipment by mineral companies almost entirely pushed French-speaking Creoles from mining and without income. French became associated with poverty, lack of education and backwardness. Harassment and intolerance from English speakers left many Missouri French speakers ashamed of their language and hesitant to speak. Use of French on school property was prohibited and it was not uncommon for students to face corporal punishment by monolingual, English-speaking teachers for using the language.
In 1930, French professor W. M. Miller visited this area of rural Missouri, finding the largest remaining concentration of Missouri French speakers in a small pocket south of De Soto and north of Potosi. He estimated their population to be about 2,000, all bilingual although there were rumors that at least a few elderly, monolingual speakers remained, but few young people spoke the language and their children were all monolingual English speakers. From 1934 to 1936, Joseph Médard Carrière made several trips to the Old Mines area to study the Missouri French dialect as well as to collect folktales from local "conteurs". Carrière estimated a total of 600 families still used the dialect; furthermore, he noted the influence of English, particularly among younger speakers and felt this was a sign of eventual displacement.
In 1977, Gerald L. Gold visited the community to document how movement away from family and child labor in lead and baryte mining coincided with the loss of Missouri French as a maternal language. He suggests that the 1970 census statistic of 196 native French speakers in Washington county underrepresented the true number of speakers. In 1989, Ulrich Ammon estimated that only a handful of elderly speakers in isolated pockets remained. News reports in 2014 distributed that fewer than 30 Missouri French speakers remained in Old Mines with others being able to remember a few phrases.
Revival.
Periodic attempts have been made to preserve the dialect for the most part with minor results. At the turn of the 20th century a Belgian Creole Père Tourenhaut attempted to preserve French at the Ste. Genevieve Church but to no avail. "Tales from the French Folk-lore of Missouri" was published in 1937 by Joseph Médard Carrière which was a collection of 73 stories he had collected from the Old Mines area. The works of Miller and Carrière on the dialect helped to preserve some of Missouri French's lexical intricacies as well as document the influences of English as it inserted itself into the language. In 1941, Carrière published a study on the phonology of Missouri French and some of the archaic pronunciations it had preserved in its isolation.
The work "Folk Songs of Old Vincennes" was published in 1946, helping to preserve some of the culture and language that had linked francophones across Illinois Country.
Starting in 1977, serious efforts began to revive the language with classes offered in Old Mines assisted by eight native Missouri French speakers. By 1979, classes were held weekly with professional instruction and specific focus on Missouri French with eight core lessons; the course was regularly attended by 20 people. Three years later, the book "It's Good to Tell You: French Folktales from Missouri" was published and highlighted some of the greatest stories to come from the community as well as providing English translations.
In 2015 a handful of small classes were held in Ste. Genevieve and soon after, Illinois Country French Preservation Inc. was formed offering a five-week course in Missouri French.
Since 2013, Illinois Country French and culture classes have been offered by French Creole musician Dennis Stroughmatt at Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, IL. He has also taught periodic workshops for the Old Mines Area Historical Society. From near Vincennes, IN, Stroughmatt learned to play fiddle and speak the regional dialect in Old Mines and Festus, MO and Cahokia, IL in the 1990's.
Phonology.
Carrière described Missouri French as generally phonetically similar to other North American varieties, though with a number of distinguishing features. Other phonological elements are unique in North American French, sometimes retaining archaic elements:
Vocabulary.
As compared to other dialects of French in North America, Missouri French shares many lexical similarities. The language has influence mainly from English but also Spanish, Native American languages:
During his trips to Old Mines, Carrière found that Missouri French had been heavily influenced by English, with many English words and even entire idiomatic phrases borrowed or translated into the dialect due in large part to language attrition.