Keisha from Lafayette, Louisiana, grew up speaking Cajun French in Acadiana and was struck anew by honte, used for acute embarrassment or shame—as in someone feeling deeply honte after an awkward public mishap. It’s not the English haunt and has nothing to do with ghosts; it’s French honte, meaning shame or embarrassment. One notable Cajun feature is the pronounced initial h, unlike the silent h in mainstream European French. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cajun French “Honte” for “Shame” Sounds Like English “Haunt””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Keisha calling from Lafayette, Louisiana.
How are you?
Doing well.
How are you doing, Keisha?
I’m well, thank you.
What can we do for you?
I grew up in this area, you know, of Acadiana, and grew up speaking Cajun French and such. But there’s one word that really just kind of hit me over the head, I guess, whenever I moved back because I hadn’t heard it in so long. And it’s the word haunt, which means extreme embarrassment and shame. For instance, you know, like if someone walks down the street and doesn’t realize, you know, the fly is open, say, oh, that guy’s got to be so haunt his fly is open or something like that. And I’m just kind of wondering how on earth did that even come up?
Haunt.
Haunt.
And how would you say that in Cajun French?
Haunt.
Same thing.
Okay.
It’s the same thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sadly, it’s not really a written language.
Yeah.
Well, there are some Cajun French dictionaries, just so you know. And actually, one of them does include this word. And it isn’t the English word haunt. It’s not H-A-U-N-T. It’s the French word, H-O-N-T-E, which means shame or embarrassment.
Right.
And so what’s really interesting about that is the Cajun French kept the pronunciation of the H at the beginning of the word. It comes through a variety of dialect channels and stuff. Whereas mainstream French, like you would learn in school or that would be spoken in Paris, doesn’t pronounce the H at the beginning of the word honte, H-O-N-T-E. But it’s a direct borrowing from the French into English with this particular French dialect pronunciation kept. And because of other transformations made to sound a little bit more like English and a little less like French. It’s a fascinating thing.
There are a few Cajun French dictionaries that are trying to be printed and some that are out there. And I think what’s happening is that the generation that I grew up with, my great-grandmother speaking it and such, and I honestly didn’t learn English until I actually had to start school and go to school where English was spoken. And it’s one of these things that’s just absolutely fascinating, and I wish there was more of a written form of it to go ahead and pass on to the kids because the generations that were speaking it so fluently and every day are, you know, sadly passing on.
What you want is pedagogical materials, right? You want classroom lessons and the kind of thing that you might have, you know, kindergarten all the way through high school, different levels of lessons planned so they can learn it alongside English, right?
Right.
Something to that effect, yes. And I know there are movements and things like that that are happening. They’re trying to incorporate much more francophone into the schools. But unfortunately, you know, public school funding and things like that, it’s not very, probably not very feasible at the moment. But it’s something that they can learn about their heritage in this area, which is very rich.
Sure.
And are you keeping up your Cajun French?
Just a little bit.
Well, it is a delight to talk to you about this, Keisha, and thanks for sharing this word. I think that you’re right. We are losing that older generation of speakers. And what’s left, because this is the way that language works, when the old language goes, there’s a residue. And it’s the names for relatives. And it’s the polite words. And it’s the words that have the strongest meaning in the other language that aren’t fully covered in the mainstream language. So you’re going to keep running across words like haunt that are borrowed from French, but they’re fully immersed in an English context.
Right.
Or there’s the Fringlish, I suppose, the hybrid.
Yeah, the Franklish as well.
Well, thank you very much for giving us a call. We really appreciate it.
No, thank you so very much for the insight. I love your show.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Keisha.
Au revoir.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
And it’s interesting, the idea of haunt as being something embarrassing, right? Or that you feel embarrassed, right?
Well, the word means in French, French-French, mainstream French means embarrassment or shame. So you have shame or you have embarrassment.
Oh, okay.
And so it has nothing to do at all with ghosts and haunting or anything like that.
That’s so cool.
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