George DeMello

Dialect Death. The Case of Brule Spanish

In the last decade of the 18th century, Spain recruited Canary Islanders to settle areas of Louisiana and later abandoned them when Louisiana was transferred to French and then American ownership. Two groups were established, the Zslefios, in St. Bernard parish (county), and the Bidis, further inland, in Ascension parish. The author presents a study of the Spanish spoken by the latter group, the Brules (pronounced [‘bru lis], from French brirli, ‘burned’ since the land was burned in preparation for new farms), a very small number of whose descendants still speak a vestigial dialect of Spanish which “bears remarkable similarities to its sister dialect ... and to the modern counterparts of its Canary Island ancestors,” although “it is clearly distinguishable from each of these” (p ix ) . Since the remaining speakers of this dialect number less than ten and are advanced in years, the Brule dialect will soon be lost, and the author’s primary goal is to document its linguistic characteristics before it disappears. Holloway encountered difficulties in his attempt to secure and interview informants and record data. Brule speakers are so recognized not as a factor of language (no one habitually uses Brule Spanish even at home), but rather through kinship, inasmuch as practically all Brule dwellers are blood relatives. Although several community members were able to provide valuable historical or sociocultural information, it was particularly difficult to locate consultants who still retained some knowledge of the dialect. The final group of informants numbered eight, composed of three “rememberers” (never fully competent in Brule Spanish and remembered only isolated words and fixed phrases), four “serni-speakers” (substantial comprehension skills but restricted speaking competence), and one “bilingual” (ability to understand and produce both English and Brule Spanish). Conversational and direct elicitation techniques were used in brief tape-recorded interviews, each with one or t\vo informants (rarely more than tivo), carried out in numerous visits to the Brule area over a ten-month period. One of the inforniants was particularly .valuable in establishing contacts and in encouraging the other informants to speak more openly and fully within the limits of their Brule Spanish.