LA and NC 2014 Congressional Races

[minionofmidas]

Why Louisianans can't spell French, though, is beyond my ken. It really, really, really needs to be gaux rather than geaux, but it's too late to fix now.

[minionofmidas]

Is that so? I was under the impression that "eau" is used instead of "au" when it's at the end of the word (beau, seau, oiseau, chapeau...)

In all these words, the e has no effect on pronounciation and is there for reasons of historical linguistics, deriving from earlier bel, oisel etc. Gau vs Geau, on the other hand, does effect pronounciation.

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Because for some reason - no one is entirely sure why - Cajun surnames in -u (typically in -eau) were all pluralized at some point 200 years ago. "Geaux Tigers" etc is basically saying "Go Tigers (oh and btw we're from Louisiana and proud of it)".

[minionofmidas]

What would be the difference in pronunciation between Gau and Geau? I'd been pronouncing them the same.

And you claim to be Canadian? Go learn your country's language.

All the Romance languages from late Classical Latin on have two pronounciations for c and g, depending on whether it's followed by an i or e on the one hand, or an a, o, u or consonant on the other. And French inserts a silent e (Italian uses an i) if it wants the soft pronounciation before an a/o/u...