Conclusion

The book concludes by uniting the themes developed throughout the volume. It introduces the concepts of the soundscape and of soundmarks to show how place may be both physical and aural, as argued in earlier chapters. Place creation is the mapping of a community’s boundaries onto its space, via storytelling, using landmarks to define the boundaries of physical space, and via the use of soundmarks to indicate the boundaries of aural space. Places reflect who we are, and they teach us how to be. They are intrinsically personal, and their loss felt profoundly. There are many reasons that we should be concerned about land and language loss, but it is precisely because the connection to land and to language is so very intimate, that they matter so much to the people whose lives shape and are shaped by them, that we should care when they are threatened.

Omens from the Past, Warnings for the Future

Chapter Eight considers the stories told in the process of place-making. It focuses on the history of land loss in the Lafourche Basin via personal accounts of recent storms and land loss and of the hurricanes that destroyed vibrant communities such as Last Island or Chenière Caminada. These are the stories people tell when they create place in Terrebonne-Lafourche; it has been so for generations. The stories are presented in the words of the residents themselves. The chapters shows how these stories invoke both land and language, and a subsequent showcasing of the stories told about language demonstrate that people speak of the disappearance of land and of the language in parallel ways; the disappearance of both has thrown this into sharp relief and demonstrates that place is both physical and aural space made meaningful.

French in the Lower Lafourche Basin

Chapter Four provides a detailed account of the French of the Lafourche basin, outlining particularities especially at the lexical and phonetic/phonological levels. It shows how the language varies by ethnic group (Indigenous vs Cajun), and illustrates the importance the language plays for both Cajun and Indian ethnic identity–indeed, French is an Indian language in Terrebonne-Lafourche. Using excerpts from recorded interviews, the chapter then shows that these documented the unique features of the region are often recognized, and that residents feel an attachment not just to French, but to a very local variety of it: it is this French that is at the heart of identity in Terrebonne-Lafourche. The language identifies them as authentic members of the community; no other dialect of the language could perform this role.