# -eaux
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{{Short description|French language noun plural form suffix}}
{{Italic title}}
{{use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2023}}
[[File:Harold & Belle's to Geaux.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[Louisiana Creole restaurant](/source/Louisiana_Creole_cuisine) food truck in California using the "geaux" spelling as a partial replacement of "to go."]]
'''''{{nbh}}eaux''''' is the standard [French language](/source/French_language) plural form of nouns ending in ''{{nbh}}eau'', e.g. {{lang|fr|eau}} → {{lang|fr|eaux}}, {{lang|fr|château}} → {{lang|fr|châteaux}}, {{lang|fr|gâteau}} → {{lang|fr|gâteaux}}. In the [United States](/source/United_States), it often occurs as the ending of [Cajun](/source/Cajuns) surnames, as well as a replacement for the long "O" ({{IPAc-en|oʊ}}) sound in some English words as a marker of Cajun, or more broadly Louisiana, identity.[{{Cite book |last=Dajko |first=Nathalie |title=Language Variety in the New South: Contemporary Perspectives on Change and Variation |date=2018 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-3881-2 |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |pages=156–157 |chapter=The Continuing Symbolic Importance of French in Louisiana |oclc=1029104648 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l29RDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA156}}]
==French Louisiana surnames==
Compared to spelling conventions elsewhere in the French-speaking world, ''{{nbh}}eaux'' is an extremely common ending for [Cajun](/source/Cajuns) and Creole surnames that end in the long "O" sound ({{IPAc-fr|o}}), e.g., [Arceneaux](/source/Arceneaux), Babineaux, Boudreaux, Breaux, Comeaux, Desormeaux, Marceaux, Meaux, Primeaux, [Robicheaux](/source/Robicheaux), Simoneaux, Thibodeaux, etc. While the same surnames in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada are generally spelled without a terminal ''x'',[{{Cite web |last=Boudreau |first=Jacinthe |title=Boudreau One-Name Study |url=https://one-name.org/name_profile/boudreau/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506140407/https://one-name.org/name_profile/boudreau/ |archive-date=6 May 2024 |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=Guild of One-Name Studies}}] only relatively few Louisiana surnames make use of alternate representations of this sound, such as Billeaud, Guilbeau, Rougeau, Soileau, and Thériot, with many of these latter names indeed spelled with a final ''{{nbh}}eaux'' by some families.
Although there is debate about the exact emergence of the ''{{nbh}}eaux'' spelling in Louisiana, it has been claimed that the spelling originated in the 18th and 19th centuries when French Louisianians, for the most part illiterate and supposedly unable to sign their own name, often resorted to making an [X mark](/source/X_mark) at the end of their printed name in order to sign legal documents. Because many Cajun and Creole surnames of French origin already ended in ''{{nbh}}eau,'' these names' endings eventually became standardized as ''{{nbh}}eaux.''[{{Cite news |title=Speaker takes mystery out of Cajun x-factor Cajun surnames |url=http://www.acadian-cajun.com/cmanew5e.html |url-status=dead |publisher=American Press |first=Chris |last=Segura |date=1999-08-05 |accessdate=2006-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206223903/http://www.acadian-cajun.com/cmanew5e.html |archive-date=2006-12-06}}]
This claim has been disputed by the historian [Carl Brasseaux](/source/Carl_Brasseaux), who insists that the ''{{nbh}}eaux'' ending was one of many possible ways to standardize Louisiana surnames ending in an {{IPAc-fr|o}} sound. Brasseaux credits St. Martin Parish Judge Pierre Paul Briant for standardizing the ''{{nbh}}eaux'' spelling of these names during his oversight of the [1820 U.S. Census](/source/1820_United_States_census).[{{Cite journal |last=Rule |first=John C. |date=1965 |title=Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain et Maurepas: Reflections on His Life and His Papers |jstor=4230863 |journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=365–377 |issn=0024-6816}}]
==English-language use in Louisiana==
{{anchor|United States spelling and use}}
thumb|A Louisiana campaign rally sign encouraging people to "go vote."
The use of ''{{nbh}}eaux'' as a replacement for {{IPAc-en|oʊ}} in English-language contexts can be considered a [salient](/source/Salience_(language)) feature of English usage in [Louisiana](/source/Louisiana).[{{Cite journal |last=Kang |first=Sang-Gu |date=2021-12-31 |title=Symbolic Use of Language as a Means to Demonstrate Accommodation |url=https://kiss.kstudy.com/Detail/Ar?key=3923718 |journal=Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=45–58 |doi=10.25256/PAAL.25.2.3|s2cid=245777184 |url-access=subscription }}] It is used in [Louisiana](/source/Louisiana) as a marker of Cajun (or more broadly Louisiana) heritage, particularly at collegiate and professional sporting events, typified as "Geaux [Tigers](/source/LSU_Tigers)", "Geaux [Cajuns](/source/Louisiana%E2%80%93Lafayette_Ragin'_Cajuns)", or "Geaux [Saints](/source/New_Orleans_Saints)" being pronounced as "Go Tigers", "Go Cajuns", and "Go Saints". [Louisiana State University](/source/Louisiana_State_University) trademarked the phrase "Geaux Tigers" in 2005,[{{cite news|last=Branch|first=Chris|title=Postcard From L.S.U.: Geaux? Just Go With It|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/postcard-from-l-s-u-geaux-just-go-with-it/?mcubz=2|accessdate=2023-06-02|work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|date=2011-11-01}}] and [University of Louisiana at Lafayette](/source/University_of_Louisiana_at_Lafayette) similarly trademarked "Geaux Cajuns" in 2014.[{{Cite news |author= |date=2014-05-29 |title='Geaux Cajuns' earns federal trademark registration |url=https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/acadiana/2014/05/29/geaux-cajuns-earns-federal-trademark-registration/9728977/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506141227/https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/acadiana/2014/05/29/geaux-cajuns-earns-federal-trademark-registration/9728977/ |archive-date=6 May 2024 |access-date=2023-06-04 |work=The Daily Advertiser |location=Lafayette, Louisiana}}] There was also a racehorse named [Geaux Rocket Ride](/source/Geaux_Rocket_Ride).
However, in the [French language](/source/French_language), a letter "e" or "i" that immediately follows a "g" will cause the "g" to become soft. Therefore, the pronunciation of "geaux" is actually {{IPAc-fr|ʒ|o}}, and not {{IPAc-en|g|oʊ}}. Preserving the hard g-sound would either require removing the "e" (resulting in ''gaux'') or inserting a silent "u" after "g" (''gueaux'').