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Cauchois (; ) is one of the eastern dialects of the
Cauchois (; ) is one of the eastern dialects of the Norman language
Norman or Norman French (, , Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a ''Langues d'oïl, langue d'oïl'' spoken in the historical region, historical and Cultural area, cultural region of Normandy.
The name "Norman French" is sometimes also used to des ...
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 cl ...
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-Inf� ...
department.
Status
The Pays de Caux is one of the remaining strongholds of the Norman language outside the Cotentin. 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 inRouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
, 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 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 (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.
See also
* List of Norman language writersReferences