Cauchois (Norman: ) is one of the eastern dialects of the

Norman language Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...

that is spoken in and takes its name from the

Pays de Caux The Pays de Caux (, , literally ''Land of Caux'') is an area in Normandy occupying the greater part of the French ''département'' of Seine Maritime in Normandy. It is a chalk plateau to the north of the Seine Estuary and extending to the cliffs o ...

region of the

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inféri ...

départment.

Status

The Pays de Caux is one of the remaining strongholds of the Norman language outside the

Cotentin The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...

. Statistics give a wide range of interpretations as to numbers of speakers: between 0.3% and 19.1% of residents of Seine-Maritime identify themselves as speakers of Cauchois.

Phonology

These are some distinguishing features of Cauchois from other Norman dialects: *the absence of /h/ *the loss of /r/ between vowels *a greater tendency to metathesis than in western dialects: instead of (English ''I''), instead of (''of''), instead of (''that''), instead of (''the'')

Literature

The ''Purin'' literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, published in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

, is the earliest Norman literature displaying Cauchois features.''La Normandie dialectale'', René Lepelley, Caen 1999, However, the Norman literary revival, which started in the Channel Islands and Cotentin in the 19th century, was not reflected in the Pays de Caux until the early 20th century. From 1910 onwards, a range of literature was produced; one of the features of Norman literature characteristic of Cauchois literature was the mixture of French and Norman. In Lower Normandy, Norman literature since the revival period has tended to be as exclusively Norman as possible. In the Pays de Caux, by contrast, alongside literature written exclusively in Cauchois, a genre of literature developed in which narrative is written in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and dialogue in Cauchois, or dialogue is written in French or Cauchois, according to the language of the character. Notable writers in Cauchois include

Gabriel Benoist Gabriel Benoist (11 July 1891 – 27 October 1964) was a French writer in the Cauchois dialect of the Norman language. He is best known for the Thanase Pequeu stories of which three volumes were published in the 1930s. He was born at Gournay-en- ...

(author of the stories), Ernest Morel, Gaston Demongé, Maurice Le Sieutre and Marceau Rieul. Jehan Le Povremoyne (pseudonym of Ernest Coquin) wrote stories of the mixed dialogue genre, as did Raymond Mensire.

References

Norman language Seine-Maritime Languages attested from the 17th century {{Normandy-stub

Status

Phonology

Literature

See also

References