Casson French

Casson French is the variety of the French language spoken in Cassony and Simbois. It is largely based on the Parisian French of the Old World, though with a tendency towards contractions that are not present in Standard French and a large influence in vocabulary from Polish.

Grammar

Contractions

In Casson French, more words contract than in Standard French. This includes:

• un and une → n', e.g. n'oiseau "a bird"
• le and la → l', e.g. l'château "the castle"
• de and du → d', e.g. d'souhonnèche "of the sun"

In addition, de contracts before le, la and l' to make d'le, d'la and d'l', although d'l' may only occur before a vowel. Before a consonant it remains as de, for example d'l'arbre "of the tree", but de l'château "of the palace".

These contractions also occur in more circumstances than in Standard French:

• Before a vowel, e.g. l'arbre "the tree"
• Before a sonorant or fricative, e.g. l'château "the palace"

Lexis

While the majority of Casson French's lexis is shared with other varieties of French, there are some unique lexical items, many of which are influenced by or borrowed from Polish.

Casson French	Standard French	English gloss	Notes
souhonnèche	soleil	sun	from Polish słonecz(ny) "of the sun"