What happened to the French colonists in the US. ?
What happened to the French colonists in the US. ?
Something stunning when travelling to the US is the number of cities called some something Ville, Nashville, Jacksonville and all the small ville you'll see when going at a random place on google maps, let alone a state called "vert mont" which can't sounds more french.
So there is definitely evidence for a significant french influence in former Louisiana. However, the french-influence seems very diluted in modern US, especially when looking at the cliché regarding American pretending to be Irisish/Italian because of one ancestor from that country. Moreover, US isn't really famous for their wine/bread/cheese
So i am curious to learn how these colonist merged with the anglo-saxon and what's left of their heritage in modern US .
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You're overthinking it. Yes, we have immigrants from just about everywhere, but not every French-sounding city was founded by Francophones. Especially in the 19th century, non-English place names added a hint of poshness, because Americans of the time considered Europe to be the cultural center of the world.
Louisiana and northern Idaho being exceptions.
There are plenty of French-sounding place names that are due to francophones, e.g., Vermont was part of New France... but most "ville" suffixed towns have nothing to do with Frsnce, to your point.
In fact I think you'd be hard pressed to find 19th century Americans (or 21st, for that matter) that recognized ville as a particularly French suffix at all.
Yeah, even though I know it's French inspired, in practice it's no different than the -ton suffix, or -berry/-bury, -boro, -burg, or adding "City" at the end.
Yeah, I think it just sounded foreign and exotic to them.
I think it may have been more deliberately pro-French, since it only started after the Revolutionary War (e.g., Louisville was named for King Louis XVI in 1780 specifically in thanks, which may have created a bit of a template).
Oh, hey, that makes a lot of sense.