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Subject: [Melungeon] Re: from Curtis: Melungeon & French
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2000 17:20:26 EST

Sorry Curtis, you are mistaken abt the word origin of Melungeon. You are NOT
mistaken about the French connection to the Melungeons. We do have a French
background for many of our family lines. My Ramey/Remy line is tracable to
France. But not every family has that connection. Each family is different.

As I explained previously, words do NOT hand down linguistically in the way
that melange would have to do in order for it to be the root word of
Melungeon. Again, while I am not a professional linguist, I have had classes
in this very difficult subject, and I also have a friend who is a linguist.
There are certain ways and patterns that words hand down and
melange/Melungeon does NOT follow this pattern. Just because the meaning is
'mixed' does NOT make the word the origin of Melungeon. The first thing to
look at is the fact that the mixed/Melungeon is TOO convenient and
convenience does not happen linguistically.

You spoke of the term Cajun which is pronounced Kay-Juhn, as though it were a
French word. I don't believe it actually is. It is a corruption of the name
Acadian who were French and who were driven from their homes and ended in LA.
Notice how much different the spelling of the word is, and that the only
similarity is between the CA sound. Also notice that the word is shortened
rather than lengthened as the word Melungeon is from melange. The French do
not put endings on words the way that English do. Their words are changed
entirely or separate words are added to a base word. "MELAN-JYEN"
(Melungeon)" is the way that you have written this word change. IF the word
were from the French, the term would have been pronounced MAY-LAWHN- ZHUN,
not the way that you are showing it, and there is definitely no connect in
the pronounciation of Cajun and Melungeon. When we do not understand the way
that word origins happen and how they are handed down we can get into deep
do-do in making assumptions. Melange is NOT the root word of Melungeon.

I am so sorry that you do not agree with the Mediterranean origin of the
Melungeons including the Arabic. I believe that 'lost soul' or 'cursed soul'
is a much better choice for the term's origin. Dr. Kennedy does too.
Nancy S

This thread:

• [Melungeon] from Curtis: Melungeon & French by friend9 <>
  • Re: [Melungeon] from Curtis: Melungeon & French by

  • [Melungeon] Re: from Curtis: Melungeon & French by