Sure, the short a exists in French: gaz, pâte. Even 'Place de la Concorde'; supposedly Place has the 'ah' sound, but when I listen closely to the French it sounds to me like the the first 'a' in the American pronunciation of Lafayette. (Well, sometimes like the American pronunciation. Oxford MS is in Luh FAYE ut county.)
I think you guys are arguing about different things. Cajun pronunciations are different from 'hexagonal' pronunciations, as are Quebecois, Caribbean French, and African French pronunciations, and numerous others. Heck, I've visited with people from different parts of France, and even the regional dialects can be wild (I had a guy who kept talking about 'paguis', or so I thought; it was 'Paris').
Nevertheless, the Cajuns pronounce Lafayette very similarly to the French... sometimes. I've observed Cajuns changing the pronunciation depending on whether they're speaking French or English, and depending on to whom they are speaking.
Yall do realize that Lafayette is a City in multiple states of America right?
Such as Indiana, Georgia, Colorado, just to name a few. I wonder how they pronounce it?
in Oxford, we live in la-fay ette county the rednecks in the country say laafet
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