This week's thing

[rhienelleth]

And the obsession continues. No, not that obsession. I know, I know. Hard to keep up with what I'm into from one week to the next. Rest assured, the beading thing is not going away, I've just been momentarily arrested by things from my past.

First it was musicals (Ahem. The original cast recording of Into the Woods is currently playing on the iPod). Now, it's X-men. *points to icon*  I think this is largely due to my festering disappointment in X3. I keep looking for post movie fic that either a)introduces Gambit into the movie-verse, or b)has Jean dealing with the consequences of the events in the movie, only better than the movie would have done. Alas, I have yet to find any of either. I must admit to having the first scene of my own written, with the cursor blinking at me as it patiently waits for more words, but I'm experiencing this sinking feeling that I just don't have time to indulge in a novella length fic right now. I've got other things I need to be/ought to be writing. Lots of other things. *tries guiltily not to look at the Word icon for S&S on my desktop*

But in the interest of science, or possibly continuing the fic I shouldn't be writing, a couple of Q's:

1. Is Cajun French any different from France French? *feels stupid for asking* I mean, is there slang Gambit uses that a French-English online translator thing won't give me properly?

2. Gambit's accent. I have yet to hear a decent interpretation of it (in the cartoons). And I am so NOT going to write out his accent in painful detail. Number one, that makes dialogue difficult to read, and number two, it's simply bad writing to include every skipped syllable and transposed consonant, unless your name is Diana Gabaldon and you can inexplicably make it work.   A couple for flavor, for suggestion, but the reader should be able to "hear" the rest from those small inferences.  My problem?  Without an ear for it, I'm at a loss on how to write him.  My characters write their own dialogue, because I hear their voices in my head.  (Yes, I know how that sounds, but I really do.  Please don't call the men in white coats.)  I need to hear Gambit in order to write him.  Anyone have any idea how I can do that?  Who IRL sounds like him?  Anyone got a celebrity they can point to or somesuch so I can place the accent at least? 

Comments

[crankylex.livejournal.com]

I am not a speaker of French of any kind.

However, my family is Spanish, from Spain. The Spanish I learned as a child differs from the Spanish a) spoken in Central/South America and b) the Spanish currently taught in US schools.

So I can only infer that the French spoken in France has some significant differences to the French spoken by the Cajuns. They would probably be able to understand one another, but there are probably different pronouns, verb tense usage, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_French is what wikipedia has to say on the topic. :->

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

*feels stupid for not thinking of wikipedia, which regularly has the answer to everything in the known universe*

Thanks so much! :D

[rue10.livejournal.com]

I'm almost disappointed crankylex got here first-- my boyfriend's Cajun, and this would have been the first time I actually got to use one of the things he's been teaching me about Cajun language/culture. But-- and he'd probably be disappointed in me for this-- I don't have anything to add now. (sighs)

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

Really? What's his accent like?

Which is probably a foolish question, because how are you supposed to describe that? *sigh* I wish I could hear him talk.

How about this: what are some of the common french words/phrases that he uses in everyday speech?