Comment les zaricos? That's Cajun for "How are the snap beans?" If you know the answer is "Les zaricos est salés" (the beans are salty, so things are going well), you probably grew up South of I-10. Down there, a lot of the animals had a French name first. A choupique was never a bowfin. A sac-à-lait was never a crappie. And a maringouin was never a mosquito.

Those names were passed down the way most Cajun French was: out loud. LSU's French department points out that most Cajuns don't read and write French. As a result, the language never got the steadying effect a written standard gives. Different communities also ended up with their own dialects (LSU).

That's why the same animal shows up spelled two or three ways. Even two well known Cajun French books disagree. One spells the bullfrog "voivoiron" and the other "ouaouaron." One spells raccoon "chaouis" and the other "chaoui."

Here are 19 animals from our Cajun French shirts.

Les poissons: fish and seafood

Cheuvrette: shrimp. Same spelling in the book as on the shirt. Remember: never over boil ya shrimp, they tough to peel then.

Écrevisse: crawfish. Whatley and Jannise spell it "écrivisse." Mais, dey from the swamp or da rice field?

Choupique: bowfin. The book lists it as "cypress trout," one of the bowfin's many nicknames. The word comes from the Choctaw shupik, meaning "mudfish" (LSU Sea Grant). It's said "shoe-pick."

Goujon: yellow catfish, or mudcat. Both books have it. Whatley and Jannise translate it as yellow catfish, and Bruce and Gipson as mudcat.

Sac a lait: crappie. Literally "bag of milk," a nod to the fish's white meat (Houma Times).

Les oiseaux: birds and ducks

Gros Bec: night heron. "Big beak," for the heron's thick bill. Whatley and Jannise list it as "gros béc." The name goes back a long way. John James Audubon wrote that in lower Louisiana the night heron was called "Gros-bec" (Audubon).

Bec-croche: ibis. "Crooked beak," for the long bill that curves down. Mais, they ain't got a bec-croche season no more.

Poule Deau: coot. "Water hen." They still got a poule deau season.

Dos Gris: scaup. "Gray back." I don't think they taste like fish.

Canard Branchu: wood duck. Whatley and Jannise list the wood duck as "canard de bois." My family said canard branchu. My uncle had a third name for them: "rainbow teal." He'd swear, tonnere m'écrase (may lightning strike me), that made them fair game in teal season. Pure couyonade. Yall know only teal are legal in Louisiana's early teal season, but a hen wood duck can look a lot like a teal, so be sure before you shoot.

Farouche: swamp and woods

Cocodrile: alligator. This is a good example of the spelling problem. Whatley and Jannise write "cocodril" for the alligator. A few lines over in the same book, the alligator snapping turtle is "tortue cocodrie."

Chaouis: raccoon. Whatley and Jannise write "chaouis"; Bruce and Gipson write "chaoui." It comes from a Native American word: the Choctaw shaui, meaning raccoon, possibly by way of Mobilian, a trade language several tribes used (William A. Read and George M. Riser, Louisiana Place Names of Indian Origin, p. 102).

Chevreuil: deer. Like the bayou.

Ecureuil: squirrel. Both books put an accent on the first letter: "écureuil." I swear I seen an all white ecureuil before.

Loutre: otter. Like the pass.

Voivoiron: bullfrog. Whatley and Jannise write "voivoiron". Bruce and Gipson write "ouaouaron." It's a word for the noise they make.

Les insects: bugs

Maringouin: mosquito. Whatley and Jannise give both "moustique" and "maringouin." Like the town.

Chenille: caterpillar. Watch them stingers!

Guepe: wasp. It shows up in Whatley and Jannise's list of sayings, spelled "guêpe": "Elle est mauvaise comme ein guêpe." She's as mean as a hornet.

So which spelling is right?

The one your family used. Cajun French lived on porches, in boats and at the camp, not in schoolbooks. Each family wrote these words down, if they wrote them at all, the way they heard them. Whatley and Jannise even write ça as "sa" all through their sayings, as in "Mais, sa c'est bête" (Boy, that's silly). The spellings on our shirts are our interpretation.

Did your family have a different name for any of these, or one we left out? Email us at southofinterstateten@gmail.com. We'd like to hear it.

All 19 shirts are in the Cajun French collection, along with sayings like Dépêchez vous-autre, Taisez vous-autre and Bon Dieu te Benisse. All three are in Whatley and Jannise's list of useful expressions. Soignez vous-autres! (Take care, y'all.)

Sources

• Randall P. Whatley and Harry Jannise, Conversational Cajun French 1: lists of animals, birds, fish and insects, and useful expressions.
• Clint Bruce and Jennifer Gipson, Cajun French Dictionary & Phrasebook: fishing, hunting, and greetings and politeness phrases (pp. 93–94).
• LSU Department of French Studies: What is Cajun French?
• LSU Sea Grant, Lagniappe (March 2009): bowfin and the Choctaw origin of choupique
• Houma Times: sac-à-lait, "bag of milk"
• Audubon, Birds of America, Plate 236: Night Heron
• L'Observateur: scaup (dos gris) in Louisiana hunting regulations
• Louisiana Sportsman: only teal may be taken in the early teal season
• WWL-TV: hen wood ducks look like teal