Kyoo, This Word Sounds Weird: A Case Study of a Cajun English Interjection

Abstract

The interjection kyoo/ kaw is used in the English and French of Cajun heritage speakers in Louisiana to express surprise and has not been previously documented. Anecdotally, Cajuns and non-Cajuns alike comment that it sounds “weird,” as if the word is “not English.” A survey confirmed that the interjection was perceived as atypical sounding when compared to mainstream English words, even more so for the palatalized pronunciation variant (kyoo) than the non-palatalized variant (kyoo). A hypothesis examined next was that this perception could stem from acoustic characteristics of the interjection consistent with linguistic identity markers in Cajun speakers, attributable to Cajun French influence or to the Cajun English vernacular. Acoustic analyses showed that the interjection-initial /k/ was not unaspirated, its vowel was not nasalized, and it had spectral quality similar to /ɔ/ in mainstream English words. These results suggest the perception of anomalous sounds in this interjection may not be attributed to acoustic characteristics indicative of French influence. An alternative explanation to the acoustic-phonetic characteristics of kyoo / kyoo lies in social representations of Cajun English in a historically bilingual and multi-dialectal community, where perceived oddness of a non-standard linguistic expression can be easily attributed to the influence of another language.