Memo to Jamie Aron, AP Dallas sports writer:

Point 1: Seriously, get a new schtick to describe the voice of Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson:

“When [former coach Don] Nelson returned, he realized his players were responding to Johnson’s Cajun twang better than his Midwestern tone.”

“Johnson came away from a film session with some raspiness to his Cajun twang.”

“The answers will come not from their billionaire owner or their German superstar, but in the Cajun twang of their coach, Avery Johnson, aka ‘The Little General.’”

Point 2: Avery Johnson does not have a Cajun twang.

First, Avery is from New Orleans, where they speak with a completely different accent than Cajuns do. New Orleans accents sound like Brooklyn shipyards of the early 1900s more than than they sound like Cajuns — who live more on rural prairie land over 100 miles away, with a big honkin’ swamp separating them. While the popular imagination thinks of New Orleans culture as “Cajun culture,” they’re really quite separate — each lovely in its own way, but different. The only things Cajun about New Orleans are the signs put up for tourists in the French Quarter.

Second, Avery is black. Cajuns are the descendants of white Frenchmen kicked out of Canada 250 years ago. There is no definition of the word under which Avery would qualify as Cajun. And even many blacks who do (unlike Avery) come from the Cajun part of the state resist being lumped in with “Cajun culture.” See, for instance, this NYT article on two black groups (Creole Inc. and the Un-Cajun Committee) who aim to differentiate themselves from Cajuns:

”Almost all you hear is Cajun, Cajun, Cajun,” said Adofo Harmon, the Lafayette tax accountant who founded the committee, which claims several dozen members, all blacks. Among them are some top officers of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. ”I’m not a Cajun, never had any of my ancestors intermix with them or anybody else,” Mr. Harmon said. ”I’m all African descent, and I’m insulted.”

Third, Avery just doesn’t sound Cajun. He sounds weird, but not Cajun weird. This is Avery:

This is a strong Cajun accent:

13 December 2007

Comments

Post a comment

Name (required):

Email (required, not shown):

URL:
    Remember Me? Yes No

Comments: