Tag Archives: New Orleans

Link

Second Line

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang- associated Customary, tradition, dance, celebration

English

United States of America

Context:a line of people dancing to traditional New Orleans music while waving handkerchiefs and following a leader with an umbrella. Originally performed  on the way back from a jazz funeral after the deceased has been interred and is meant as a celebration of the deceased’s life and their acceptance into the afterlife. Has developed into a New orleans celebration, seperate from the morbid beginnings and is synonomous with the city and celebrations in general.

Transcript:

“New Orleanians will use any excuse to throw a party, have a parade or have a ‘second line’, during a second line participants will dance  and sing to New Orleans tunes following a line that weaves throughout  the restaurant out onto the street, following a person with a second  line umbrella and waving handkerchiefs. New Orleanians will honor their deceased musicians by throwing them a jazz funeral, that includes a second line.”

Collectors Commentary: The word second line itself, some from a decription of people returning to their homes after a funeral, it is the “second line” that forms as they begin to sing and dance and play music in celebration of the deceased. Now, the religious tones of the tradition have been reduced and second lines are not strictly limited to occuring after funerals, but have instead developed into a celebration and tradition associated with the city and the culture of Jazz and celebration. The slang word is used in speach as a thing synonomous with the culture of the city an is unique as folk speach because it does not exist elsewhere.

Key words: New Orleans, second Line, jazz funeral, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, celebration, dance

 

“Shotgun House”

Shotgun House

Infromant: Brian Flint, age 23, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Verbal Lore: folk speach, slang- associated: urban legend, Material

English

United States of America

Context: a long narrow house with no hallway and interconnecting rooms found in many neighborhood in New Orleans.

Transcript:

“ The next is a ‘shotgun house.’ That means it is a very long, narrow, house in which there is no  hallway and all the rooms are connected by a doorway. It’s thought of that you could shot a- shoot a shotgun all the way through from one end to the other. There is a lot of myths surrounding the etymology of that one but, that story definitely is what most people will jump to.”

 

Infromant: Erin Fell, age 21, New Orleans, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Transcript: “Next is “Shotgun”, as in not the arm, not the fire weapon but a shotgun house. A shotgun house is a long, narrow house where there are generally no hallways, just a big line of rooms in the house. Shotgun houses are super common in certain neighborhoods in New Orleans.”

Collectors Commentary: This item is associated with material lore of the houses in certain N.O. neighborhoods being built a certain way. There is probably an interesting reason why these houses were designed this way that would be good to explore next.

Keywords: New Orleans, Shotgun House, long, narrow, house, no hallways

“Rally Possum”

Rally Possum

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang, – associated:urban legend, material, tradition, ritual, superstition, charm

English

United States of America

Context: A Rally Possum is in reference to an event that happened several weeks ago, where a possum wandered out onto a baseball field where LSU ( Louisiana State University) was losing to Arkansas by 8 or 9points. the delay caused by the possum, allowed the LSU team to rally and eventually go on to win the game and the next 11 games after that. The team and the fans began using the term in reference to the possum because they believed it to be a charm for good luck and have quickly developed a ritual of carrying around stuffed possums or wearing  rally possum shirts and and it is turning into a tradition.

Transcript:

“Lastly, new traditions are always being developed. New Orleanians and Louisana-ans are crazy about their sports teams, now the LSU baseball team has a ‘rally possum’. It seem that during a recent LSU game agains Arkansas, LSU was trailing by  8 or 9 runs. A possum got out onto the field, causing a delay in play. After the game resumed  LSU rallied and won that game and went on  to win the next  11 subsequent  games. Thus now the players carry around a stuffed possum in the dugout and fans can buy  ‘rally possum’  shirts.”

Collectors commentary: As mentioned above, the Rally Possum phenomenon is a mix of multiple folklores, even if we are specifically trying to focus on the folk speach term itself. Regardless of the mixture of types and genres it is a very new development and may fall into obscurity by this time next year, but at the moment, the term and the superstition, ritual and tradition, is on every LSU baseball fan’s mind and tongues right now. Rally Possum has been transmitted orally from fan to fan and even orally across the TV, it has also been written about in News outlets, but their is no specific author to the term or originator of the rituals, it is merely a folklore that is unique to the folk group of LSU baseball fans, many of whom live in and are from New Orleans.

Key words: New Orleans, Rally Possum, LSU, Arkansas, baseball

Link

Verbal Lore: folk speach, slang- associated, Material, food lore

English

United States of America

Context:  A New Orleans sandwich served on french bread and traditionally containing some sort of meat, mayonaise, lettuce and tomato. Similar to a submarine sandwich. Name originally was “poor boy” then shortened to po’boy.

Informamnt:Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Transcript:

“ New Orleanians have many unique word related to their food. The ‘poboy sandwich’ is a submarine sandwich made on French bread, termed that because  a whole sandwich could feed a poor family.”

 

Informant:Brian Flint, age 23, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Transcript:

“The next one is ‘po’boy sandwich’, so that’s basically a New Orleans Style sandwich. They would have  these sandwiches served to- actually got their names from some streetcar drivers that were on strike and needed something to  eat and the local restaurants served them theses sandwiches and they took the name because they felt pity for them, so they called them  the ‘poor boy sandwich’ which became po’boy.”

 

Informant: Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Transcript:

“The fourth bit of slang is food slang- so a ‘po’boy.’ A po’boy is a type of sandwich, it is on, it is a, very similar to a sub, it is on French bread which is very crispy and crunch on the outside, very very soft and fluffy on the inside. White bread.. it usually has mayonnaise on it, and some sort of meat, whether that meat is some sort of deli meat, or cooked roast beef, or fried fish or even grilled fish. Honestly it depends on which particular shop you are buying to po’boy from. Po’boys are a traditional New Orleans Food, its basically a sandwich, but there are little twists that make it a little bit different. The original phrase po’boy is basically a shortening of the two words ‘poor’ ‘boy’ so in some restaurants you will see it advertised as a ‘poor boy’, but that is a lot more difficult to say, especially if you are speaking with a genuine New Orleans accent. Which I don’t actually possess. A po’ boy, originally it comes from when, immigrants to new Orleans, decided they wanted to start making and selling food that was easy to hold while they worked, like most sandwich stories, they took meat and vegetable and put it in between soft baguettes- French bread- and then they made a sandwich. And because it was being sold to the working class they were called ‘poor boys’ that obviously then devolved into po’boy, and so po’ boys are a quintessential New Orleans thing, My personal type of po’boy is grilled shrimp with mayonnaise lettuce, Tomato, and hot sauce.”

 

Informant: Erin Fell, age 21, New Orleans, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone

Transcript: Next is “Po’boy.” It comes from the words “poor boy.” It was a sandwich with lots of toppings on it that was very cheap for people to buy. Um, it is similar to a Subway sandwich or a hoagie, but um, it is made with French bread. This is typical to the Louisiana tradition. A Po’boy, if it’s dressed, that means that it has the typical toppings on it like lettuce and tomato and all that good stuff. A debris Po’boy from Mother’s, it’s a restaurant on Poydras Street. That means that that means that it’s the little bits of pork and meats that come off of the main roast while you’re cooking. It’s those little juicy bits at the bottom of the pan. That’s a debris po’boy.

Informant info: (Left to Right) Sadhana Puri, age 20, Jessica Link, age 20, Alex Ledoux, age 21 all from New Orleans, LA

 

Transcript:

“Jessica: po’boy

Alex: Segway to po’boy.

Jessica: Dressed.

Sadhana: Po’boy and dressed, yeah.

Katelyn: Yeah, those two.

Alex: Yeah, dressed is really an important word to say.  So I actually find that

Sadhana: We should actually talk about po’boys, what are they?

Alex: Po’boys are sandwiches like but on French Bread

Sadhana: But where-

Jessica: But

Sadhana: But where did it originate, so it was originally poor boy

Jessica: my mom and my grandma still say poor boy.

Alex: Yeah my grandmother still says poor boy.

Sadhana: Some people do.

Sadhana: I thought it was just people who were from out of state  who come to New Orleans and say poor boy.

Jessica: No no it’s definitely like ah-

Alex: That’s like-

Jessica:  It’s called that because like that’s what the poor boys ate.  When there were poor boys in the olden days.

Sadhana:  It’s a really simple sandwich

Jessica: It’s like

Alex: It’s usually made with like the left overs

Sadhana:  That’s also the other thing.

Jessica:  Yeah it’s like French Bread and meat and stuff. I remember I got mad because there was a New York Times quiz last year that was trying to determine where you’re from,  because it was a quiz.  Um by what you say.  And it was like what do you call a long sandwich.

Sadhana: It was like a hoagie

Jessica: And it was like a sub a hoagie or a po’boy.  And of course I chose po’boy, but to me a sub and a po’boy are different. .

Alex: Yeah.

Jessica: Like a  po’boy is a very specific type of sub

Alex: Like a po’ boy is only on French bread.  Where as like a sub can be like on all those fancy things at subway.  Like wheat.

Jessica: exactly, yeah.

Sadhana: And they’re also dressed a certain way.

Alex: They’re dressed.  Oh yeah, i have a little story, so dressed.  So I had some friends form Dartmouth who were going to go down to New Orleans.  And they were like tell us all the non-touristy places to go.  So I told them to go to Parkway, which is actually where I met both of them for the first time.

Jessica: Oh my god that is…

Sadhana:   That is true, we ate po’boys for the first time we met.

Alex:  It’s one of those

Sadhana:  I had mine dressed

Alex: It’s one of those more famous po’boy places, yeah.  And I was like you need to ask to get it dressed.  And dressed means like you have everything.

Jessica: Yeah you just have all the toppings,

Alex: You have all the toppings, what are the toppings.  Mayonnaise lettuce tomato

Sadhana: Mayonnaise, tomato

Jessica: Mayonnaise, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes,

Alex:  Then whatever if you want like fried shrimp or like fried oysters.  What else do they have? I always get friend oysters.

Sadhana: Well that’s not considered dressed, that’s just what the po’boy is.

Alex: Yeah I know but like whatever meat.

Jessica:  roast beef is my favorite.

Sadhana: Yeah so there is fried oyster and roast beef.  Uh my favorite is fried oyster.  Only available on Mondays and Wednesdays at parkway,

Jessica: I didn’t know that.

Sadhana: The only days I go there.  That’s m favorite sandwich.

Jessica: But you can say like dressed without the pickles because I say that. And that’s interpreted, they understand that.

Sadhana: Like my dad says dressed without the mayonnaise.  He really doesn’t like mayonnaise.”

Collectors Commentary:

Keywords: New Orleans, po’boy, poboy, poor boy, sandwich, dressed, debris

“NOLA”

NOLA

Informant: Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA. Collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang- associated material lore

English

United States of America

context: NOLA is an Acronym for New Orleans, LouisianA that has been turned into a word. It simply means the city of New Orleans

Transcript:

“ And the last  bit of slang that I was going to mention is the term ‘Nola’ N-O-L-A.  Nola is short for New Orleans , Louisiana.  Its not uses particularly often, it is used in a lot of cases to refer to the city by locals, there is in fact a nola.com which is a very popular news site for the city, especially for anyone who, like me, does not live in the city right now, for gaining knowledge.  In a lot of cases it is used by the Tourist industry to push forward tourism.  I imagine that is how it first began, but the locals started using it themselves to refer to the city. So, often you will hear Nola as being described by people who are out of state when taking about the city or when talking about hurricanes. But don’t hear it a lot when you are actually in the city, but it is used by New Orleans locals.”

Collectors Comentary: Nola was originally an acronym that was shortened for easy usage in everyday speach. As such it is a unique bit of folk speach and slang. The term itself may have been born from evolving folk speach, but it has been propagated through usage by the tourism industry and the proliferation of items, like shirts, hats, art, that incorporate the word an thus spread its usage far beyond the city limits. It is unique to NO because it specfically refers to the city and is used mostly by locals and former residents as opposed to people from elsewhere.

Keywords: New Orleans, NOLA, tourism, Louisiana

 

“Parish”

Parish

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang- associated Customary, ritual, tradition, other

English

United States of America/(Medieval European nations)

context: In Louisiana the term parish is used to denote a small geographical region for administrative purposes. It is synonomous with the word ‘county’, which is used in the other 49 states.

Transcript:

Parish is the Louisiana term for County”

Informant info: (Left to Right) Sadhana Puri, age 20, Jessica Link, age 20, Alex Ledoux, age 21 all from New Orleans, LA

Transcript:

“Jessica: A parish like as opposed to a county.

Sadhana: I feel that’s important yeah.

Katelyn: Yeah that’s different.

Jessica: A parish is a county that’s literally it.

Sadhana:  That’s a religious influence.

Katelyn: Is there any reason it’s called a parish?

Jessica: What?

Katelyn: Like why is it called a parish instead of a county?

Jessica: I think because of, my guess is because of it used to be like um, because of religion.  Like Catholic parishes.

Alex: Because Louisiana was-

Jessica: I think it was French

Sadhana: Catholic influence from the French and Spaish.  French probably, yeah.

Jessica: They called their, the word was parish in French.  And they just kept that because yeah.

Sadhana: Parish (said with a a sort of French accent.)”

Commentary: The term Parish was originally used to denote the geographical and administrative regions surrounding a specific christian or catholic church. In New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, the French and later the Spanish enforced catholicism and used the catholic demarcations of parish for the geographical regions, as opposed to using the English term county. After 1803 and the Louisiana purchase the term country was adopted in the majority of the Louisiana territory, but the city of New Orleans and the newly established state of Louisiana decidec to keep using Parish instead of county. The term is folk speech and slang that has been reinforced by beurocratic policies and rulings, but it is entirely unique to the state of Louisiana.

Keywords: New Orleans, parish, county

“Neutral Ground”

Neutral Ground

Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang- associated: legend

English

United States

Context:  The median between two opposing lanes of traffic, sometimes made solely of concrete, sometimes has trees grass or a canal in the middle.

Infromant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Transcript:

“Your second line might extend down into the’ neutral ground’. Many of the street in new Orleans have median strips, grassy areas in between both lanes, these are called ‘neutral grounds’ rather than medians, this tem derives from the 1800’s during that time the French and Spanish creoles settled  down river in what area is now called the French quarter, Uptown from this area, the Anglos settled, there was a grassy strip in between which originally was a drainage area, but became Canal street. There was animosity between the Anglos and the creoles and this area between the two was called a ‘neutral area’ or ‘neutral ground.’ Since then Neutral ground has come to mean any median and neutral grounds are a popular area to park your car in during  heavy rainstorms   cause they tend to be a little bit higher than the street. So you don’t get your car flooded.”

 

Informant:Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Transcript:

“The First Slang Word is the term ‘Neutral Ground.’ Neutral ground is a phrase for the area in between the two- in the middle of the street, very similar to a median. The difference between a regular median and a neutral ground is where a median is usually concrete, a neutral ground usually has, in a lot of cases, grass or trees or a canal or a streetcar running through it. So it tends to be larger. I also only tend to associate neutral grounds with New Orleans.  Don’t use the phrase in any other city. Originally the phrase comes from historically from the rather large space- spaces in between the two direction streets  of Canal street. Which separates the French Quarter of the city where the creoles and the French and Spanish descendants lived and where the American, white Anglo-Saxon Americans lived. And so since canal street was this dividing line between the two neighborhood it was considered a ‘neutral ground’ hence the phrase is used to describe all similar geographical features.”

 

Infromant: Brian Flint, age 23, Metairie, LA, Collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

Transcript:

“ The next is ‘neutral ground’. That can be thought of as the grassy area between two lanes of traffic going opposite ways on your roads. This comes from Canal Street, which was a major division in New Orleans, which actually had a Canal in it until they filled it in, but it separated the Spanish creoles, French creoles population in New Orleans from the Americans, and they Had a Neutral ground in the middle.”

 

Informant info: (Left to Right) Sadhana Puri, age 20, Jessica Link, age 20, Alex Ledoux, age 21 all from New Orleans, LA

Transcript:

“Jessica: a neutral ground is a median.

Alex: It’s a median, but it’s called neutral ground because like once upon a time New Orleans was like half French half Spanish and they were like split down the middle of like the street. I think it was Canal Street.

Jessica: Well yeah it was Canal Street, but t wasn’t for the Spanish, it wasn’t the French and Spanish, it was the Creoles and Americans. So the Americans were moving into the cb.  I’m pretty sure this is what it is.  So the Americans were moving into cbd uptown which was on the other side of canal, so like the French lived in the French quarter and also the Spanish I guess too maybe.  But mostly the French and like so that street was the neutral ground like in between them.

Alex: They called it the neutral ground because no one group had control over it.

Jessica: Yeah, I think.

Alex: I think that’s what it was.

Jessica: And Canal Street yeah

Katelyn: So you’re saying it was the Creoles-

Jessica: The French and the Americans

Katelyn: or the French and the

Jessica: When I say French I mean the Creoles

Alex: Ok so like the way it works the French and the creoles, actually I talked about this in my history class, well me history of music class because I was doing Jazz.  And it was like the French and the Creoles which was like Aristocratic, they were like the fancy New Orleans peoples, and then like recently freed African American slaves who lived on the other side.  And yeah they tended be like not affluent and the Creoles looked down on them.  But I guess like, I don’t know why I thought he Spanish, I might have made that up.

Jessica: Well it’s confusing because like

Katelyn: So no this is cool because like another thing is that some peoples’ stories will be different and that’s something that is interesting to explore

Alex: OK

Jessica: Yeah, explore that

Alex: there was definitely conflict between the French and Spanish peeps who lived there in New Orleans, but maybe that had nothing to do with that.

Jessica: The French really hated the Americans, that was like a problem at the time in the 1800s. Who were moving in, because they were bringing English and stuff.  Stupid language.”

 

Collectors Commentary: This particular term is mentions by multiple informants as being a traditional New Orleans word that is unique to the city specifically because of its connection to urband legend/ legend/ history. While, there may actually be a history that explains the origins of the word Neutral ground in detail, none of the informants actually had researched the topic, so all of their information for the bakground and context of the term was transmitted orally, this also goes on to explain both the similarities and the slight variations in the stories. Therefore, the back story can be considered legend or urban legend. It is a slang word because it is a word unique to New orleans and popularly used in every day conversation.

Key words: New Orleans, French, Spanish, Creoles, Americans, Canal Street, Median, Blacks, neutral ground

 

 

Link

mama n’dem/ mam n’dem

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk speech, slang

English

United States of America

Context: your relatives, your extended family, usually including your mother and usually spoken by adults.

Transcript:

“ If you are going to go visit your relative on the weekend instead you would say ‘I’m gonna go down by my mama an’dem.”

Informant info: (Left to Right) Sadhana Puri, age 20, Jessica Link, age 20, Alex Ledoux, age 21 all from New Orleans, LA

Transcript:

“Jessica: Ya mom’n’em

Sadhana: ya mom’n’em

Jessica: I don’t hear that, but that’s on a shirt

Sadhana: People say that as a joke sometimes.

Jessca: But it comes from a real

Sadhana: Just a quirk.  It comes from a real thing.

Alex: I’ve definitely heard people say it. Like I don’t speak like that, but if somebody said that I would know what they are talking about.”

 

Collectors Commentary:

Keywords: New Orleans, Mam n’dem, mama n’ dem, mom, mother

 

 

“Maw Maw”

Maw maw

Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk Speech, slang -associated: material

English

United States of America

Context: a term for Grandmother, also an adjective to describe something that is old, frumpy or dowdy.

Transcript:

“A grandmother is referred to as a ‘Maw Maw’ but ‘maw maw’ has also evolved into an adjective. If  something looks older, dowdy, or frumpy it looks ‘maw maw.’ As in ‘That dress looks maw maw so I won’t buy it.’”

Collectors commentary: The adjective form of the word is derived from the association of certain styles with grandmother fihures. These styles tend to be older, dowdier, and frumpier. The word is unique to NO and southern Louisiana because the usage of Maw Maw for grandmither is isolated to NO and the surrounfing state and southern region, because it is derived from the Louisianas and NO accents saying “ma ma” or “maman.” It is unique NO slang because it is not used as a title or an adjevtive anywhere else.

Keywords: Maw Maw, grandma, maman, frumpy, old, dowdy, New Orleans

” Making Groceries”

making Groceries

Informant:Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.

Verbal Lore: Folk Speech, slang

English

United States of America

Context: to go out and buy or pick up groceries

Transcript:

“ Some of the older people  down here will talk about ‘ making groceries’ when they go to the grocey store to buy food. I think the derivation for that term is a direct – a direct translation  from the French of going to the store.”

 

Informant; Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.

transcript:

“ The phrase’ Making Groceries’ is the next slang word. It is not one that I use particularly often, but I know several others who use it. I’m not  sure what the etymology of it is, or why people say it, but to ‘make groceries’ is to go visit the grocery store and pick up your groceries. To use it in a sentence ‘ Oh Grandma is going down —grandma is currently in town making groceries, she will be back to cook at 4’ and so that would be that.”

 

Collectors commentary: Both Informants admit to not using the word tehmeslevs, but knowing people who do. While the older woman knows many in older generation who use it, the younger cannot give any specifica example, this implies tha it is not a popular phrase with the yunger generation, and if it is a derivative of the french translation, as Libby suggests then that would make sense, because the younger generation is less likely to know French, due to the intense americanization and globalization of te ypounger generation in the internet age. The term is unique to NO slang because it is an almost direct english translation of a French Phrase and is not used in any other formerly French cities in the United states.

Key words: Making Groceries, New Orleans, French