| Louisiana Creole | |
|---|---|
| Kouri-Vini | |
| kouri-vini,[1]kréyòl,[2]fransé[3] | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Southern Alabama and Louisiana, (particularlySt. Martin Parish,Natchitoches Parish,St. Landry Parish,Jefferson Parish,Lafayette Parish, Calcasieu Parish,Pointe Coupee Parish, LouisianaNew Orleans, andMobile); also inCalifornia (chieflySouthern California),Illinois,Arkansas, and inTexas (chieflyEast Texas). |
| Ethnicity | Louisiana French (Cajun,Creole) |
Native speakers | <10,000 (2023)[4] |
Creole
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Louisiana |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lou |
| Glottolog | loui1240 |
| ELP | Louisiana Creole |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAC-ca |
 Creole-speaking parishes in Louisiana | |
Louisiana Creole,[a] also known by theendonymKouri-Vini[1] (Louisiana Creole:kouri-vini), among other names,[b] is aFrench-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the U.S. state ofLouisiana.[4] Today it is spoken by people who may racially identify aswhite,black,mixed, andNative American, as well asCajun andCreole. It should not be confused with its sister language,Louisiana French, a dialect of theFrench language. ManyLouisiana Creoles do not speak the Louisiana Creole language and may instead useFrench orEnglish as everyday languages.
Due to its rapidly shrinking number of speakers, Louisiana Creole is considered anendangered language.[5]
Louisiana wascolonized by the French beginning in 1699, as well as byAcadians who wereforced out ofAcadia around the mid-18th century.[6][7] Colonists were large-scale planters, small-scale homesteaders, and cattle ranchers; the French needed laborers, as they found the climate very harsh. They began to import enslaved Africans, as they had done in their Caribbean island colonies.[7] Two-thirds of the slaves brought to Louisiana originated in theSenegambian region, speakingMalinke,Sereer,Wolof,Pulaar, andBambara. The largest group from Senegambia was theBambara, who spoke mutually intelligible dialects of theMalinke language.[8]
Also, the monopoly held by the Company of Indies in bothSenegal andLouisiana may also have contributed to the Africans' relative ancestral homogeneity. Because of this homogeneity, retention of the Africans' indigenous languages may have hindered the development of a Creole in Louisiana. In fact, the Pointe Coupee slave revolt in 1731 was organized by the Bambara who were purportedly speaking their ancestral languages to plan the coup. Ultimately, Louisiana Creole did develop, with West African languages becoming thesubstrates to a varied Frenchlexifier.[8] The importation of enslaved people by the French regime continued until 1743.[7]
The language developed in 18th-century Louisiana from interactions amongspeakers of the lexifier language—Standard French—and several substrate oradstrate languages from Africa.[9][7] Prior to its establishment as a creole, the precursor was considered apidgin language.[10] The social situation that gave rise to the Louisiana Creole language was unique, in that the lexifier language was the language found at the contact site. More often the lexifier is the language that arrives at the contact site belonging to the substrate/adstrate languages. Neither the French, the French-Canadians, nor the enslaved Africans were native to the area; this fact categorizes Louisiana Creole as a contact language that arose between exogenous ethnicities.[11] Once the pidgin tongue was transmitted to the next generation as alingua franca (who were considered the firstnative speakers of the new grammar), it could effectively be classified as acreole language.[7][9]
No standard name for the language has existed historically. In the language, community members in various areas of Louisiana and elsewhere have referred to it by many expressions, thoughkréyol/kréyòl has been the most widespread. Until the rise of Cajunism in the 1970s and 80s, many Louisiana francophones also identified their language asCréole, since they self-identified as Louisiana Creoles. In Louisiana's case, self-identity has determined how locals identify the language they speak. This leads to linguistic confusion. To remedy this, language activists beginning in the 2010s began promoting the termKouri-Vini, to avoid any linguistic ambiguity withLouisiana French.[1]
The boundaries of historical Louisiana were first shaped by the French, then, instatehood after 1812, took on its modern form. By the time of theLouisiana Purchase by the U.S. in 1803, the boundaries came to include most of the Central United States, ranging from present-day Montana; parts of North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado; all of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; part of Southeast Texas; all of Oklahoma; most of Missouri and Arkansas; as well as Louisiana.[12]
In 1978, researchers located a document from a murder trial in the colonial period that acknowledges the existence of Louisiana Creole.[7][12] The documentation does not include any examples of orthography or structure.[7][12]
In an 1807 document, a grammatical description of the language is included in the experiences of an enslaved woman recorded by C.C. Robin. This was prior to arrival in Louisiana of French-speaking colonists and enslaved Africans fromSaint-Domingue; the whites and free people of color (also French-speaking) were refugees from theHaitian Revolution, which had established thefirst empire in theWestern Hemisphere. The statements collected from Robin showed linguistic features that are now known to be typical of Louisiana Creole.[7]
The termCriollo ("Creole") appears in legal court documents during theSpanish colonial period (1762–1803); the Spanish reference to the language stated that it was used among enslaved people and whites.[12]
The importation of enslaved Africans increased after France ceded the colony to Spain in 1763, following France's defeat byGreat Britain in theSeven Years' War in Europe.[13] Some Spaniards immigrated to the colony, but it was dominated by French language and culture. Like South Carolina, Louisiana had a "minority" population of Africans that greatly outnumbered the European settlers, including those white Creoles born in the colony.[7]
In the case of Louisiana Creole, adiglossia resulted between Louisiana Creole and Louisiana French. Michael Picone, a lexicographer, proposed the term "Plantation Society French" to describe a version of French which he associated with plantation owners, plantation overseers, small landowners, military officers/soldiers and bilingual,free people of color, as being a contributor to Louisiana Creole's lexical base. Over the centuries, Louisiana Creole's negative associations with slavery stigmatized the language to the point where many speakers are reluctant to use it for fear of ridicule. In this way, the assignment of "high" variety (or H language) was allotted to standard Louisiana French and that of "low" variety (or L language) was given to Louisiana Creole and to Louisiana French.[14]
The social status of Louisiana Creole further declined as a result of theLouisiana Purchase. Americans and their government made it illegal for francophones to speak their language. In 1921, the State of Louisiana mandated that public education take place in English only.[15] Children and adults were often punished by corporal punishment, fines, and social degradation. By the 21st century, other methods were enforced. The promise of upward socioeconomic mobility andpublic shaming did the rest of the work, prompting many speakers of Louisiana Creole to abandon their stigmatized language in favor of English.[16] Additionally, the development of industry, technology and infrastructure in Louisiana reduced the isolation of Louisianacreolophone communities and resulted in the arrival of more anglophones, resulting in further exposure to English. Because of this, Louisiana Creole exhibits more recent influence from English, includingloanwords,code-switching andsyntactic calquing.[17][18][19]
Today, Louisiana Creole is spoken by fewer than 6,000 people.[1][4] Though national census data includes figures on language usage, these are often unreliable in Louisiana due to respondents' tendencies to identify their language in line with their ethnic identity. For example, speakers of Louisiana Creole who identify asCajuns often label their language 'Cajun French', though on linguistic grounds their language would be considered Louisiana Creole.[20]
Efforts torevitalize French in Louisiana have placed emphasis onCajun French, to the exclusion of Creole.[21]Zydeco musicianKeith Frank has made efforts through the use of social media not only to promote his music, but preserve his Creole heritage and language as well, most notably through the use of Twitter. Additionally, Frank developed a mobile application in 2012 titled the "ZydecoBoss App", which acts as a miniature social network linked to a user's Facebook and Twitter accounts, allowing users to provide commentary in real time amongst multiple platforms. Aside from social media activism, Frank also created a creole music festival in 2012 called the "Creole Renaissance Festival", which acts a celebration of Creole culture.[22]
A small number of community organizations focus on promoting Louisiana Creole, for example CREOLE, Inc.[23] and the "Creole Table" founded by Velma Johnson.[24] Northwestern State University developed the Creole Heritage Center, designed to bring people of Louisiana Creole heritage together, as well as preserve Louisiana Creole through their Creole Language Documentation Project.[25] In addition, there is an active online community of language learners and activists engaged in language revitalization, led bylanguage activist Christophe Landry.[26]
These efforts have resulted in the creation of a popular orthography,[27] a digitalized version of Valdman et al.'sLouisiana Creole Dictionary,[28] and a freespaced repetition course for learning vocabulary hosted onMemrise created by a team led by Adrien Guillory-Chatman.[29] A first language primer was released in 2017[30][31] and revised into a full-length language guide and accompanying website in 2020.[2] 2022 saw the publication of an anthology of contemporary poetry in Louisiana Creole, the first book written completely in the language.[32] A December 2023 article inThe Economist highlighted revitalization efforts with the headline "Louisiana Creole is enjoying a modest revival," focusing in particular on language activists Jourdan Thibodeaux and Taalib Pierre-Auguste.[15]
Speakers of Louisiana Creole are mainly concentrated in south and southwest Louisiana.St. Martin Parish is the heart of the Creole-speaking region. Other sizeable communities exist alongBayou Têche inSt. Landry,Avoyelles,Iberia, andSt. Mary Parishes. There are smaller communities onFalse River inPointe-Coupée Parish, inTerrebonne Parish, and along the lower Mississippi River inAscension,St. Charles Parish, andSt. James andSt. John the Baptist parishes.[33]
There once were creolophones in Natchitoches Parish onCane River and sizable creolophone communities in adjacentSoutheast Texas (Beaumont,Houston,Port Arthur,Galveston)[12][34] and theChicago area. Natchitoches, being the oldest colonial settlement in Louisiana, proved to be predominantly creole since its inception.[35] Native inhabitants of the local area Louisiana Creole speakers in California[clarification needed] reside inLos Angeles,San Diego andSan Bernardino Counties and in Northern California (theSan Francisco Bay Area andSacramento,Plumas,Tehama,Mono, andYuba Counties).[18] Historically, there were Creole-speaking communities in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama (onMon Louis Island); however, it is likely that no speakers remain in these areas.[36]
The phonology of Louisiana Creole has much in common with those of otherFrench-based creole languages. In comparison to most of these languages, however, Louisiana Creole diverges less from thephonology of French in general andLouisiana French in particular.
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Plosive/ | voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ||
| Tap | ɾ | ||||
| Lateral | l | ||||
The table above shows the consonant sounds of Louisiana Creole, not includingsemivowels/j/ and/w/. In common withLouisiana French, Louisiana Creole featurespostalveolar affricates/tʃ/ and/dʒ/, as in/tʃololo/ ‘weak coffee’ and/dʒɛl/ ‘mouth’. The nasal palatal/ɲ/ usually becomesnasal palatal approximant/j̃/ when between vowels, which results in the preceding vowel becoming nasalized. At the end of a word, it typically is replaced by/n/ or/ŋ/.[37]
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||||
| Close | oral | i | y | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ø | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | œ | ɔ | ||
| nasal | ɛ̃ | œ̃ | ɔ̃ | ||
| Open | ɑ̃ | ||||
| oral | a | ||||
The table above shows the oral and nasal vowels of Louisiana Creole as identified by linguists.[7]
Speakers of the language may use rounded vowels[y],[ø] and[œ] where they occur in French. This is subject to a high degree ofvariation with the same region, sociolinguistic group, and even within the same speaker.[19][18][38] Examples of this process include:
Theopen-mid vowel[ɛ] may be lowered to the near-open vowel[æ] when followed by[ɾ], e.g.frè~frær ([fɾɛ]~[fɾæɾ]) 'brother'.[7]
In common withLouisiana French, Louisiana Creole vowels arenasalized where they precede anasal consonant, e.g.jènn[ʒɛ̃n] 'young',pomm[pɔ̃m] 'apple'. However, unlike most varieties of Louisiana French, Louisiana Creole also exhibits progressive nasalization: vowels following a nasal consonant are nasalized, e.g.konnin[kɔ̃nɛ̃] 'to know'.[39]
Louisiana Creole exhibitssubject-verb-object (SVO) word order.[18]
In 19th-century sources, determiners in Louisiana Creole appear related tospecificity.Bare nouns are non-specific. As for specific nouns, if the noun is presupposed it took a definite determiner (-la, singular;-la-ye, plural) or by an indefinite determiner (en, singular;de or-ye, plural). Today,definite articles in Louisiana Creole vary between thele,la andlê, placed before the noun as inLouisiana French, andpost-positional definite determiners -la for the singular, and -yé for the plural.[37] This variation is but one example of the influence ofLouisiana French on Louisiana Creole, especially in the variety spoken along theBayou Têche which has been characterized by some linguists asdecreolized, though this notion is controversial.[19][18][37]
Some speakers of that variety display a highly variable system ofnumber andgenderagreement, as evidenced inpossessivepronouns.[38]
| [37] | Subject | Objective | Possessive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | mo | mò/mwin | mô; (mâ (sg. fem.); mê (pl.)) |
| 2nd person | to | twa | tô; (tâ; tê) |
| 3rd person | li | li | sô; (sâ; sê) |
| 1st plural | nou, no, nouzòt | nouzòt | nou, nô, nouzòt |
| 2nd plural | vouzòt, ouzòt, zòt, zo | vouzòt, zòt | vouzòt |
| 3rd plural | yé | yé | yê |
Possession is shown by noun-noun possessum-possessor constructions (e.g.lamézon mô papa 'house (of) my grandfather') or with the prepositiona (e.g.lamézon a mô papa 'house of my grandfather').[37]
Older forms of Louisiana Creole featured only one form of each verb without anyinflection, e.g.[mɑ̃ʒe] 'to eat'. Today, the language typically features two verb classes: verbs with only a single form (e.g.bwa[bwɑ] 'to drink') and verbs with a 'long' or 'short' form (e.g.manjé[mɑ̃ʒe],manj[mɑ̃ʒ] 'to eat').[7]
Like other creole languages, Louisiana Creole features preverbal markers oftense, aspect and mood as listed in the table below.
| Form | Classification | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| té | Anterior | Paststate of adjectives andstative verbs;pluperfect orhabitual past of non-stative verbs[39] | |
| apé, ap, é | Progressive | Ongoing actions | Formé is only used in Pointe Coupée[18] |
| a, va, alé | Future | Future actions | |
| sa | Futurestates | ||
| sé | Conditional | Actions or states which might take place | |
| bin | Remote past | "an action or state that began before, and continued up to, a subsequent point in time"[18] | Likely a borrowing fromAfrican-American English[38] |
The vocabulary of Louisiana Creole is primarily of French origin, as French is the language'slexifier. Some local vocabulary, such as topography, animals, plants are ofAmerindian origin. In the domains offolklore andVoodoo, the language has a small number of vocabulary items fromWest andCentral African languages.[40] Much of this non-French vocabulary is shared with otherFrench-based creole languages of North America, and Louisiana Creole shares all but a handful of its vocabulary withLouisiana French.[41]
Louisiana Creole has never had a standard, universalorthography. For example,/tʃwe/ ('to kill') could variably be renderedtchué,tchwé,chwé, and so on. Historically, Louisiana Creole was often written in French-based or "pan-Creole" orthographies, the latter reminiscent ofHaitian Creole writing. In the most recent popular orthographic system (described below), the Louisiana Creolealphabet consists of twenty-threeletters of theISO basic Latin alphabet (excludingc,q, andx) and several special letters anddiacritics.[42]
| Letter | Name[43] | Name (IPA) | Diacritics | Phoneme correspondence[44][27] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a | /a/ | Á á, (À à), â | /a/ |
| Æ æ | æ | /æ/ | /æ/ | |
| B b | bé | /be/ | /b/ | |
| Ç ç | çé | /se/ | /s/ | |
| D d | dé | /de/ | /d/ | |
| E e | e | /ə/ | É é,È è,Ê ê | /ə/; é =/e/; è =/ɛ/ |
| F f | èf | /ɛf/ | /f/ | |
| G g | gé | /ɡe/ | /ɡ/ | |
| H h | hash | /haʃ/ | /h/ | |
| I i | i | /i/ | Í í,Ì ì,Î î | /i/; ì =/ɪ/ |
| J j | ji | /ʒi/ | /ʒ/ | |
| K k | ka | /ka/ | /k/ | |
| L l | èl | /ɛl/ | /l/ | |
| M m | èmm | /ɛ̃m/ | /m/ | |
| N n | ènn | /ɛ̃n/ | /n/ | |
| Ñ ñ | ñé | /ɲe/ | /ɲ/ | |
| O o | o | /o/ | Ó ó,Ò ò,Ô ô | /o/; ò =/ɔ/ |
| Œ œ | œ | /œ/ | /œ/ | |
| P p | pé | /pe/ | /p/ | |
| R r | ær, èr | /æɾ/,/ɛɾ/ | /r/ | |
| S s | ès | /ɛs/ | /s/ | |
| T t | té | /te/ | /t/ | |
| U u | u | /y/ | Û û | /y/ |
| V v | vé | /ve/ | /v/ | |
| W w | double-vé | /dubləve/ | /w/ | |
| Y y | igrèk | /iɡɾɛk/ | /j/ | |
| Z z | zèd | /zɛd/ | /z/ |
| Digraph | Name | Name (IPA) | Phoneme correspondence |
|---|---|---|---|
| ch | ché | /tʃe/ | /tʃ/ |
| dj | djé | /dʒe/ | /dʒ/ |
| ou | ou | /u/ | /u/ |
| sh | shé | /ʃe/ | /ʃ/ |
| Nasals | |||
| an, am, en, em | /ɑ̃/ | ||
| in, im | /ɛ̃/ | ||
| on, om | /ɔ̃/ | ||
| un, um | /œ̃/ |
| Number | Louisiana Creole | IPA | Louisiana French | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | un, in | /œ̃,ɛ̃/ | un (ein) | /ɛ̃/ |
| 2 | dé | /de/ | deux | /dø/ |
| 3 | trwa, trò | /tɾwa,tɾɔ/ | trois | /tɾwa/ |
| 4 | kat | /kat/ | quatre | /kat(ɾ)/ |
| 5 | sink | /sɛ̃k/ | cinq | /sɛ̃k/ |
| 6 | sis | /sis/ | six | /sis/ |
| 7 | sèt | /sɛt/ | sept | /sɛt/ |
| 8 | wit | /wit/ | huit | /ɥit/ |
| 9 | nèf | /nɛf/ | neuf | /nœf/ |
| 10 | dis | /dis/ | dix | /dis/ |
| 11 | onz | /ɔ̃z/ | onze | /ɔ̃z/ |
| 12 | douz | /duz/ | douze | /duz/ |
| 13 | trèz | /tɾɛz/ | treize | /tɾɛz/ |
| 14 | katòrz | /katɔɾz/ | quatorze | /katɔɾz/ |
| 15 | kinz | /kɛ̃z/ | quinze | /kɛ̃z/ |
| 16 | sèz | /sɛz/ | seize | /sɛz/ |
| 17 | dis-sèt | /disɛt/ | dix-sept | /disɛt/ |
| 18 | diz-wit | /dizwit/ | dix-huit | /dizɥit/ |
| 19 | diz-nèf | /diznɛf/ | dix-neuf | /diznœf/ |
| 20 | vin | /vɛ̃/ | vingt | /vɛ̃/ |
| 30 | trent | /tɾɑ̃t/ | trente | /tɾɑ̃t/ |
| 40 | karant | /kaɾɑ̃t/ | quarante | /kaɾɑ̃t/ |
| 50 | sinkant | /sɛ̃kɑ̃t/ | cinquante | /sɛ̃kɑ̃t/ |
| 60 | swasant | /swasɑ̃t/ | soixante | /swasɑ̃t/ |
| 70 | swasant-dis | /swasɑ̃tdis/ | soixante-dix | /swasɑ̃tdis/ |
| 80 | katré-vin | /katɾevɛ̃/ | quatre-vingts | /katɾəvɛ̃/ |
| 90 | katré-vin-dis | /katɾevɛ̃dis/ | quatre-vingt-dix | /katɾəvɛ̃dis/ |
| 100 | sen | /sɑ̃/ | cent | /sɑ̃/ |
| 1,000 | mil | /mil/ | mille | /mil/ |
| Louisiana Creole | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| Bonjou! | Bonjour! | Hello! |
| Konmen lê zafær? | Comment ça va? | How are things? |
| Komen ça va? / Komen ç'apé kouri? | Comment ça va? | How are you doing? |
| Mo byin, mærsi. | Je vais bien, merci. | I'm good, thanks. |
| Wa (twa) pli tar. | À plus tard. | See you later. |
| Mo linm twa. | Je t'aime. | I love you. |
| Swènn-twa / swiñ-twa. | Prenez soin de vous/toi. | Take care. |
| Bonjou / Bonmatin. | Bonjour. | Good morning. |
| Bonswa. | Bonsoir. | Good evening. |
| Bonnwi / Bonswa. | Bonne nuit. | Good night. |
Catholic prayers are recited in French by speakers of Louisiana Creole. Today, some language activists and learners are leading efforts to translate the prayers.[45][unreliable source?]
Nouzòt Popá, ki dan syèl-la
Tokin nom, li sinkifyè,
N'ap spéré pou to
rwayonm arivé, é n'a fé ça
t'olé dan syèl; parèy si latær
Donné-nou jordi dipin tou-lé-jou,
é pardon nouzòt péshé paréy nou pardon
lê moun ki fé nouzòt sikombé tentasyon-la,
Mé délivré nou depi mal.
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