Louisiana French
Encyclopedia
Louisiana French is the regional variety of the French language
spoken throughout contemporary Louisiana
in the south-eastern USA by individuals who today identify ethno-racially as Creole, French Creole, Spanish Creole, Mississippi Creole, Alabama Creole, Texas Creole, California Creole, African-American, Black, Chitimacha, Houma, Biloxi, Tunica, Choctaw, White, Cajun, Acadian, French, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Syrian, Lebanese, Irish and others. Individuals and groups of individuals through innovation, adaptation and contact, continually enrich the French language spoken in Louisiana, seasoning it with linguistic features that can sometimes only be found in Louisiana.
Tulane University
's Department of French and Italian's website declares in bold text: French is not a foreign language in Louisiana.
Figures from U.S. decennial censuses report that roughly 250,000 Louisianans claimed to use or speak French in their homes.
French on Louisiana radio stations:
French language periodicals, newspapers, and publications:
French language on Louisiana cable networks:
French language masses in Louisiana:
Recurring French language festivities/events:
French-language Public School Curriculum (French Immersion)
]
As of Autumn 2011, Louisiana has French-language total immersion or bilingual French and English immersion in ten (10) Parishes: Calcasieu, Acadia, St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia, Lafayette, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Orleans.
Students placed in the program, begin in Kindergarten or 1st grade and continue until High School.
The curriculum in both the total French-language immersion as well as in the bilingual program follows the same standards as all other schools in the Parish and State.
The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL)http://codofil.org recruits teachers locally and globally each year.
Les Amis de l'Immersion, Inc. http://lesamisdelimmersion.com is the parent-teacher organization for students in French immersion in the state. Les Amis organizes summer camps, fundraisers and outreach for teachers, parents and students in the program.
The immersion programs as of Autumn 2011 are as follows:
CODOFIL Consortium of Louisiana Universities and Collegeshttp://www.codofil.org/francais/education.html#universities
This Consortium unites representatives of French programs in Louisiana Universities and Colleges, and organizes post-secondary level Francophone scholastic exchanges and provide support for University students studying French language and linguistics in Louisiana.
Member institutions include:
GRAMMAR & SYNTAX
The grammar and syntax of Louisiana French is the same as that of French spoken elsewhere in the world. There are, however, some syntactical features that were once present in the French-speaking world, that remain present in Louisiana.
VOCABULARY
Lexically, Louisiana French differs only minutely from other varieties of French spoken in the world. However, there are several lexical treats stemming from many linguistic origins; some are unique to Louisiana French, while others are shared sporadically throughout the Francophone world.
PLACE NAMES
Place names in Louisiana French usually differ from those in International French.
For instance, locales named for American Indian tribes usually use the plural pronoun (les) before the name, instead of the masculine or feminine singular pronoun (le/la). Likewise, movement towards those locations necessitates the plural - aux - before the place name.
In informal Louisiana French, most US states and countries are pronounced in English and therefore require no pronoun (California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Mexico, Colorado, Mexico, Belgium, Morocco, Lebanon, etc.).
In formal Louisiana French, prefixed pronouns are absent, however the names of the states and countries usually are in French (Californie, Texas, Floride, Belgique, Liban).
CONTRACTIONS
In informal Louisiana French, often contractions are absent.
Examples:
(I learned from the grandparents).
Instead of J'ai appris des grand-parents.
(The skylight.)
Instead of La lumière du ciel.
CREOLE LANGUAGE INFLUENCES
Francophones and Creolophones have worked side-by-side, lived amongst one another and have enjoyed local festivities together throughout the history of the State. As a result, in regions where both Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are spoken (or once were), the inhabitants of the region often code switch, beginning the sentence in one language and completing it in another.
TAXONOMY
Taxonomies for classing Louisiana French have changed over time. Until the 1960s and 1970s, Louisianans themselves, when speaking in French, referred to their language as français, or créole. In English, they referred to their language as Creole French, and French, simultaneously.
In 1968, Lafayette native James Domengeaux, a US Congressman and State Representative, created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) http://codofil.org, whose mission was to oversee the promotion, visibility and expansion of French language usage in Louisiana. His mission is clear: (re)create a European French bastion in Louisiana by making all Louisianans bilingual International French and English. To accomplish his goals, he teamed up with political leaders in Canada and France, including former French President Georges Pompidou. Louisiana French, he found too limiting, so he imported Francophone teachers from Europe, Canada and the Caribbean to teach normative French in Louisiana schools. His penchant for International French caused him to lose support in Louisiana: Louisianans, if they were going to have French in Louisiana schools, wanted Louisiana French, not "Parisian French."
Simultaneously, an ethnic movement took root in South Louisiana led by Francophones like James Donald Faulk, Dudley Joseph Leblanc and Jules O. Daigle. James Donald Faulk, a French teacher in Crowley, Louisiana, introduced using the term Cajun French
, for which he created a Curriculum Guide or Teacher and Student Manual for institutionalizing the language in schools in 1977. Roman Catholic Priest Jules O. Daigle, who in 1984 published his Dictionary of the Cajun Language, followed him. Cajun French is intended to imply a variety of French spoken in Louisiana by descendants of Acadians, an ethnic qualifier rather than a linguistic relationship.
Linguists and social scientists then categorized Louisiana French into a tripartite system based on colonial class lines: Colonial French
or Plantation Society French, Napoleonic French, Acadian French
/Cajun French
and Louisiana Creole French
, though these academic terms did not last long before quickly fading away.
In 2009, Iberia Parish native and activist Christophe Landry introduced three terms representing lexical differences based on Louisiana topography: Provincial Louisiana French (PLF), Fluvial Louisiana French (FLF) and Urban Louisiana French (ULF).
That same year, the Dictionary of Louisiana of Louisiana French, subtitled "as spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian communities," was published. It was edited by a coalition of linguists and other activists. The title clearly suggests that the ethno-racial identities are mapped onto the languages, but the language, at least linguistically, remains shared across those ethno-racial lines.
These are the academic taxonomies applied to categorizations of Louisiana French. With nation-wide ethnicization came internal sub-divisions that, some of the state's inhabitants, insist are ancestral varieties. As a result, it is not odd to hear the language referred to as French, Canadian French, Acadian French, Broken French, Old French, Creole French, Cajun French and so on. Still other Louisiana Francophones will simply refer to their language as French, without qualifiers. Internally, two broad distinctions will be made: formal French ("good French" or "proper French") and informal French ("broken French").
FORMAL FRENCH is the language used in all administrative and ecclesiastic documents, speeches and in literary publications. This variety of French, also known as Urban Louisiana French (ULF), is spoken in the urban business centers of the state. These regions have historically been centers of trade, commerce and contact with speakers of French from Europe. This would include New Orleans and its environs, Bâton Rouge and its environs, St. Martinville (here, along class lines) and other once important Francophone business centers in the state. ULF sounds almost identical to Standard International French, with guttural Rs and intonation that varies from European to North American.
INFORMAL FRENCH
This variety of Louisiana French, also known as Provincial Louisiana French (PLF), Cajun French and Acadian French, or le cadien, has its roots in agrarian Louisiana, but is now also found in urban centers due to urbanization beginning in the 20th century.
Historically, along the prairies of Southwest Louisiana, Francophone Louisianans were cattle grazers and rice and cotton farmers.
Along the bayous and the Louisiana littoral, sugar cane cultivation dominated and in many parishes today, sugar cultivation remains an important source of economy (e.g. Iberia and St. Martin parishes).
In this variety of LF, the Rs are alveolar (not guttural, they’re flat), the AU in words becomes /aw/, the vowels at the beginning and end of words is usually omitted (Américain -> Méricain, Espérer -> Spérer). Likewise the letter O following an É frequently disappears in spoken informal LF all together (Léonide -> Lonide, Cléophas -> Clophas).
The nasality and pitch in PLF is akin to pitch and intonation associated with provincial speech in Québec. In terms of nasality, Louisiana French is not far different from French spoken in Brussels, Paris and Dakar (Senegal). Among these three varieties, and others, there is, however, a difference in stress (inflection, accentuation), rhythm (cadence and lilt), articulation, timbre (character and quality of each phoneme, or sound), form and sound fluctuations (modulation), and tone (intonation). The pitch of PLF and Provincial Quebec French (PQF) share a predominantly agricultural history, close contact with pre-Columbian peoples and relative isolation from urbanized populations.
BAYOU LAFOURCHE FRENCH
Particular mention should be made to the Francophones of Bayou Lafourche. There’s an interesting linguistic phenomenon here that is absent everywhere else in Louisiana. Some Francophones along Bayou Lafourche pronounce the G and J in French as the English letter H (as done in Spanish), and others pronounce these two letters in the ordinary manner of other Francophones.
Two theories exist to explain this unique feature.
On the one hand, some activists and linguists attribute this feature to an inheritance of Acadian French spoken in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and other Canadian maritime provinces, a theory based entirely on observation of shared vocal features rather than the communities being linked by migration.
On the other hand, it has been suggested that there may be a linguistic link to the Creole Hispanophones living at the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche junction, who were more numerous than the Acadians who lived in the immediate vicinity.
Interesting side note: the Louisiana Creole spoken in Lafourche Parish in and around Kraemer, Choctaw, Bayou Bœuf and Chackbay contains the letters G and J, but they are voiced as they are in LC spoken elsewhere in the state, and as the French spoken elsewhere – not as the aspirated Hs in Lower Bayou Lafourche French.
MUSIC
Musically, Louisiana French is and has been the traditional language for singing music now referred to as Cajun, Zydeco, and Louisiana French Rock.
Today, Cajun, Creole Stomp, and Louisiana French Rock remain the only three genres of music in Louisiana utilizing French instead of English.
In Zydeco, most artists interject expressions and phrases in French in songs predominantly sang in Louisiana English.
HEALING PRACTICES
Medicine men and women, or healers, called traiteur/traiteuse in French, are still found throughout the state. During their rituals for healing, it is often French that is employed to summon the gods for a speedy recover to normalcy.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Signage, packaging and documentation in French language exist throughout the state.
Beginning in the 1990s, when cultural and ethnic tourism proved a lucrative enterprise, luring large numbers of Francophones to Louisiana, State and local tourism bureau commissions were influential in convincing city, parish and state officials to produce bilingual signage and documentation. French and English bilingual signage is therefore usually confined to the old districts of cities, like the French Quarter in New Orleans, downtown Lafayette, New Iberia (trilingual with Spanish), St. Martinville, Breaux Bridge, and several other cities. Locals continue to refer to the place names in English and for postal services the English version is generally preferred.
To meet the demands of a growing Francophone tourist market, Tourism Bureaus and Commissions throughout the state, but particularly in South Louisiana, have information on tourist sites in both French and English (as well as in other major languages spoken by tourists).
Similarly, the State government passed measures in 2011 to provide Louisiana French Language Services at the governmental level, with particular mention to cultural tourism and local culture and heritage. The legislative act was drafted and presented by Francophone and Francophile Senators and Representatives. It asserts that the French language is vital to the economy of the state. Accordingly, the bill sets forth that each branch of the State government shall take necessary action to identify employees who are proficient in French. Each branch of the State government shall also take necessary steps in producing services in the Louisiana French language for both locals and visitors. This bill is, however, an unfunded State mandate.
And finally, a Louisiana-owned business called FrancoLouisiane: Infiné http://francolouisiane.com, in 2009 began with Francophone Carencro native Stephen Juan Ortego. FrancoLouisiane is both a localized translating business as well as a facilitator for living in French in Louisiana. Its website reads: "Francolouisiane.com is your connection to bilingual services — Louisiana French and English — through a directory that celebrates the first official language of Louisiana. If you want to live in French in Louisiana, just experience the French-speaking culture of Louisiana, or practice your French in an American context, francolouisiane.com is the place for you. Take action and visit our members or become a member yourself!"
CITATIONS & REFERENCES
RELATED ENTRIES
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
spoken throughout contemporary Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
in the south-eastern USA by individuals who today identify ethno-racially as Creole, French Creole, Spanish Creole, Mississippi Creole, Alabama Creole, Texas Creole, California Creole, African-American, Black, Chitimacha, Houma, Biloxi, Tunica, Choctaw, White, Cajun, Acadian, French, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Syrian, Lebanese, Irish and others. Individuals and groups of individuals through innovation, adaptation and contact, continually enrich the French language spoken in Louisiana, seasoning it with linguistic features that can sometimes only be found in Louisiana.
Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
's Department of French and Italian's website declares in bold text: French is not a foreign language in Louisiana.
Figures from U.S. decennial censuses report that roughly 250,000 Louisianans claimed to use or speak French in their homes.
French on Louisiana radio stations:
- KRVS 88.7: Radio Acadie, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana http://krvs.org
- KBON 101.1 FM: Louisiana Proud, Eunice, Louisiana http://kbon.com
- KLEB 1600 AM: Golden Meadow, Louisiana
- KLRZ 100.3 FM: Larose, Louisiana http://klrzfm.com
French language periodicals, newspapers, and publications:
- Les éditions Tintamarre, Centenary College, Shreveport, Louisiana.http://www.centenary.edu/editions/index.html
- La revue louisianaise, University of Louisiana Lafayette.
- La revue de la Louisiane, now defunct, was the journal launched by James Domengeaux.
French language on Louisiana cable networks:
- TV5 Monde http://tv5.fr
- Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) http://LPB.org
- Rosaries in French, KLFY TV10, Lafayette, Louisiana http://klfy.com
French language masses in Louisiana:
- Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church, Lafayette, Louisiana http://fatimalafayette.org
- St Martin de Tours Roman Catholic Church, Lafayette, Louisiana
Recurring French language festivities/events:
- Festival International de Louisiane, April, Lafayette, Louisiana http://festivalinternational.com
- Festivals Acadiens Et Créoles, October, Lafayette, Louisiana http://festivalsacadiens.com
- ALCFES (Association louisianaise des clubs français des écoles secondaires) http://alcfes.info
- Francophone Open Microphone, Houma, Louisiana
- La table française, Dwyer's Café, Jefferson Street, Lafayette, Louisiana
- La table française, Arnaudville, Louisiana
- La table française, La Madeleine, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- French film: Nuit blanche à Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Center for French and Francophone Studies, Baton Rouge, Louisiana http://appl003.lsu.edu/artsci/cffsweb.nsf/index
- Rendezvous des Cajuns, Liberty Theater, Eunice, Louisiana http://www.eunice-la.com/libertyschedule.html
French-language Public School Curriculum (French Immersion)
]
As of Autumn 2011, Louisiana has French-language total immersion or bilingual French and English immersion in ten (10) Parishes: Calcasieu, Acadia, St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia, Lafayette, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Orleans.
Students placed in the program, begin in Kindergarten or 1st grade and continue until High School.
The curriculum in both the total French-language immersion as well as in the bilingual program follows the same standards as all other schools in the Parish and State.
The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL)http://codofil.org recruits teachers locally and globally each year.
Les Amis de l'Immersion, Inc. http://lesamisdelimmersion.com is the parent-teacher organization for students in French immersion in the state. Les Amis organizes summer camps, fundraisers and outreach for teachers, parents and students in the program.
The immersion programs as of Autumn 2011 are as follows:
| School | Grades | City | Parish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Church Point Elementary | K-4 | Church Point | Acadia |
| Pierre Part Primary | K-4 | Pierre Part | Assumption |
| Pierre Part Middle | 5-8 | Pierre Part | Assumption |
| Belle Rose Primary | K-2 | Belle Rose | Assumption |
| Assumption High | 9 | Napoleonville | Assumption |
| Winbourne Elementary | K | Baton Rouge | East Baton Rouge |
| Henry Heights Elementary | K-5 | Lake Charles | Calcasieu |
| Gillis Elementary | K-5 | Lake Charles | Calcasieu |
| Prien Lake Elementary | K-5 | Lake Charles | Calcasieu |
| Moss Bluff Middle | 6-8 | Lake Charles | Calcasieu |
| S.J. Welsh Middle | 6-8 | Lake Charles | Calcasieu |
| Alfred M. Barbe High | 9-12 | Lake Charles | Calcasieu |
| Daspit Elementary | K-6 | New Iberia | Iberia |
| North Lewis Street Elementary | K-6 | New Iberia | Iberia |
| S. J. Montgomery Elementary | K-3 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Myrtle Place Elementary | K-3 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Prairie Elementary | K-5 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Evangeline Elementary | K-2 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Vermilion Elementary | K-1 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Edgar Martin Middle | 6-7 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Paul Breaux Middle | 6-8 | Lafayette | Lafayette |
| Audubon Montessori | K-8 | New Orleans | Orleans |
| Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans | Nursery-6 | New Orleans | Orleans |
| Hynes Elementary | K-3 | New Orleans | Orleans |
| International High School of New Orleans | 9-10 | New Orleans | Orleans |
| International School of Louisiana | K-8 | New Orleans | Orleans |
| Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orleans | Pre-K3-K | New Orleans | Orleans |
| Park Vista Elementary | K-2 | Opelousas | St. Landry |
| South Street | K-3 | Opelousas | St. Landry |
| Cecilia Primary | K-3 | Cecilia | St. Martin |
| Teche Elementary | 4-6 | Breaux Bridge | St. Martin |
| Cecilia Junior High | 7-8 | Cecilia | St. Martin |
| Cecilia High School | 9-12 | Cecilia | St. Martin |
CODOFIL Consortium of Louisiana Universities and Collegeshttp://www.codofil.org/francais/education.html#universities
This Consortium unites representatives of French programs in Louisiana Universities and Colleges, and organizes post-secondary level Francophone scholastic exchanges and provide support for University students studying French language and linguistics in Louisiana.
Member institutions include:
- Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport, LA http://www.centenary.edu/french/
- Delgado Community College, New Orleans, LA http://www.dcc.edu/
- Dillard University, New Orleans, LA http://www.dillard.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=89
- Grambling State University, Grambling, LA http://www.gram.edu/academics/majors/arts%20and%20sciences/departments/foreign%20language/
- Louisiana College, Pineville, LA http://www.lacollege.edu/academics/programs/french
- Louisiana State University (Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Eunice, Shreveport) http://appl003.lsu.edu/artsci/frenchweb.nsf/index
- Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA http://www.latech.edu/tech/liberal-arts/english/html/language/index.shtml
- Loyola University, New Orleans, LA http://chn.loyno.edu/languages-cultures/french
- McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA http://www.mcneese.edu/enfl/degrees-offered
- Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA http://nicholls.edu
- Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA http://www.nsula.edu/
- Our Lady of Holy Cross College, New Orleans, LA http://www.olhcc.edu/
- Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA http://www.selu.edu/
- Southern University at Baton Rouge, LA http://web.subr.edu/
- Southern University at New Orleans, LA http://suno.edu
- Tulane University, New Orleans, LA http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/french-italian/
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette http://languages.louisiana.edu/
- University of Louisiana at Monroe http://www.ulm.edu/languages/
- University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA http://forl.uno.edu/frenchprogram.html
- Xavier University, New Orleans, LA http://www.xula.edu/languages/french.php
GRAMMAR & SYNTAX
The grammar and syntax of Louisiana French is the same as that of French spoken elsewhere in the world. There are, however, some syntactical features that were once present in the French-speaking world, that remain present in Louisiana.
VOCABULARY
Lexically, Louisiana French differs only minutely from other varieties of French spoken in the world. However, there are several lexical treats stemming from many linguistic origins; some are unique to Louisiana French, while others are shared sporadically throughout the Francophone world.
PLACE NAMES
Place names in Louisiana French usually differ from those in International French.
For instance, locales named for American Indian tribes usually use the plural pronoun (les) before the name, instead of the masculine or feminine singular pronoun (le/la). Likewise, movement towards those locations necessitates the plural - aux - before the place name.
In informal Louisiana French, most US states and countries are pronounced in English and therefore require no pronoun (California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Mexico, Colorado, Mexico, Belgium, Morocco, Lebanon, etc.).
In formal Louisiana French, prefixed pronouns are absent, however the names of the states and countries usually are in French (Californie, Texas, Floride, Belgique, Liban).
CONTRACTIONS
In informal Louisiana French, often contractions are absent.
Examples:
- J'ai appris de les grand-parents.
(I learned from the grandparents).
Instead of J'ai appris des grand-parents.
- La lumière de le ciel.
(The skylight.)
Instead of La lumière du ciel.
CREOLE LANGUAGE INFLUENCES
Francophones and Creolophones have worked side-by-side, lived amongst one another and have enjoyed local festivities together throughout the history of the State. As a result, in regions where both Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are spoken (or once were), the inhabitants of the region often code switch, beginning the sentence in one language and completing it in another.
TAXONOMY
Taxonomies for classing Louisiana French have changed over time. Until the 1960s and 1970s, Louisianans themselves, when speaking in French, referred to their language as français, or créole. In English, they referred to their language as Creole French, and French, simultaneously.
In 1968, Lafayette native James Domengeaux, a US Congressman and State Representative, created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) http://codofil.org, whose mission was to oversee the promotion, visibility and expansion of French language usage in Louisiana. His mission is clear: (re)create a European French bastion in Louisiana by making all Louisianans bilingual International French and English. To accomplish his goals, he teamed up with political leaders in Canada and France, including former French President Georges Pompidou. Louisiana French, he found too limiting, so he imported Francophone teachers from Europe, Canada and the Caribbean to teach normative French in Louisiana schools. His penchant for International French caused him to lose support in Louisiana: Louisianans, if they were going to have French in Louisiana schools, wanted Louisiana French, not "Parisian French."
Simultaneously, an ethnic movement took root in South Louisiana led by Francophones like James Donald Faulk, Dudley Joseph Leblanc and Jules O. Daigle. James Donald Faulk, a French teacher in Crowley, Louisiana, introduced using the term Cajun French
Cajun French
Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
, for which he created a Curriculum Guide or Teacher and Student Manual for institutionalizing the language in schools in 1977. Roman Catholic Priest Jules O. Daigle, who in 1984 published his Dictionary of the Cajun Language, followed him. Cajun French is intended to imply a variety of French spoken in Louisiana by descendants of Acadians, an ethnic qualifier rather than a linguistic relationship.
Linguists and social scientists then categorized Louisiana French into a tripartite system based on colonial class lines: Colonial French
Colonial French
Colonial French or Colonial Louisiana French is one of the three dialects into which Louisiana French is typically divided . Formerly spoken widely in what is now the U.S...
or Plantation Society French, Napoleonic French, Acadian French
Acadian French
Acadian French , is a regionalized dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets...
/Cajun French
Cajun French
Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
and Louisiana Creole French
Louisiana Creole French
Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.-Geography:...
, though these academic terms did not last long before quickly fading away.
In 2009, Iberia Parish native and activist Christophe Landry introduced three terms representing lexical differences based on Louisiana topography: Provincial Louisiana French (PLF), Fluvial Louisiana French (FLF) and Urban Louisiana French (ULF).
That same year, the Dictionary of Louisiana of Louisiana French, subtitled "as spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian communities," was published. It was edited by a coalition of linguists and other activists. The title clearly suggests that the ethno-racial identities are mapped onto the languages, but the language, at least linguistically, remains shared across those ethno-racial lines.
These are the academic taxonomies applied to categorizations of Louisiana French. With nation-wide ethnicization came internal sub-divisions that, some of the state's inhabitants, insist are ancestral varieties. As a result, it is not odd to hear the language referred to as French, Canadian French, Acadian French, Broken French, Old French, Creole French, Cajun French and so on. Still other Louisiana Francophones will simply refer to their language as French, without qualifiers. Internally, two broad distinctions will be made: formal French ("good French" or "proper French") and informal French ("broken French").
FORMAL FRENCH is the language used in all administrative and ecclesiastic documents, speeches and in literary publications. This variety of French, also known as Urban Louisiana French (ULF), is spoken in the urban business centers of the state. These regions have historically been centers of trade, commerce and contact with speakers of French from Europe. This would include New Orleans and its environs, Bâton Rouge and its environs, St. Martinville (here, along class lines) and other once important Francophone business centers in the state. ULF sounds almost identical to Standard International French, with guttural Rs and intonation that varies from European to North American.
INFORMAL FRENCH
This variety of Louisiana French, also known as Provincial Louisiana French (PLF), Cajun French and Acadian French, or le cadien, has its roots in agrarian Louisiana, but is now also found in urban centers due to urbanization beginning in the 20th century.
Historically, along the prairies of Southwest Louisiana, Francophone Louisianans were cattle grazers and rice and cotton farmers.
Along the bayous and the Louisiana littoral, sugar cane cultivation dominated and in many parishes today, sugar cultivation remains an important source of economy (e.g. Iberia and St. Martin parishes).
In this variety of LF, the Rs are alveolar (not guttural, they’re flat), the AU in words becomes /aw/, the vowels at the beginning and end of words is usually omitted (Américain -> Méricain, Espérer -> Spérer). Likewise the letter O following an É frequently disappears in spoken informal LF all together (Léonide -> Lonide, Cléophas -> Clophas).
The nasality and pitch in PLF is akin to pitch and intonation associated with provincial speech in Québec. In terms of nasality, Louisiana French is not far different from French spoken in Brussels, Paris and Dakar (Senegal). Among these three varieties, and others, there is, however, a difference in stress (inflection, accentuation), rhythm (cadence and lilt), articulation, timbre (character and quality of each phoneme, or sound), form and sound fluctuations (modulation), and tone (intonation). The pitch of PLF and Provincial Quebec French (PQF) share a predominantly agricultural history, close contact with pre-Columbian peoples and relative isolation from urbanized populations.
BAYOU LAFOURCHE FRENCH
Particular mention should be made to the Francophones of Bayou Lafourche. There’s an interesting linguistic phenomenon here that is absent everywhere else in Louisiana. Some Francophones along Bayou Lafourche pronounce the G and J in French as the English letter H (as done in Spanish), and others pronounce these two letters in the ordinary manner of other Francophones.
Two theories exist to explain this unique feature.
On the one hand, some activists and linguists attribute this feature to an inheritance of Acadian French spoken in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and other Canadian maritime provinces, a theory based entirely on observation of shared vocal features rather than the communities being linked by migration.
On the other hand, it has been suggested that there may be a linguistic link to the Creole Hispanophones living at the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche junction, who were more numerous than the Acadians who lived in the immediate vicinity.
Interesting side note: the Louisiana Creole spoken in Lafourche Parish in and around Kraemer, Choctaw, Bayou Bœuf and Chackbay contains the letters G and J, but they are voiced as they are in LC spoken elsewhere in the state, and as the French spoken elsewhere – not as the aspirated Hs in Lower Bayou Lafourche French.
MUSIC
Musically, Louisiana French is and has been the traditional language for singing music now referred to as Cajun, Zydeco, and Louisiana French Rock.
Today, Cajun, Creole Stomp, and Louisiana French Rock remain the only three genres of music in Louisiana utilizing French instead of English.
In Zydeco, most artists interject expressions and phrases in French in songs predominantly sang in Louisiana English.
HEALING PRACTICES
Medicine men and women, or healers, called traiteur/traiteuse in French, are still found throughout the state. During their rituals for healing, it is often French that is employed to summon the gods for a speedy recover to normalcy.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Signage, packaging and documentation in French language exist throughout the state.
Beginning in the 1990s, when cultural and ethnic tourism proved a lucrative enterprise, luring large numbers of Francophones to Louisiana, State and local tourism bureau commissions were influential in convincing city, parish and state officials to produce bilingual signage and documentation. French and English bilingual signage is therefore usually confined to the old districts of cities, like the French Quarter in New Orleans, downtown Lafayette, New Iberia (trilingual with Spanish), St. Martinville, Breaux Bridge, and several other cities. Locals continue to refer to the place names in English and for postal services the English version is generally preferred.
To meet the demands of a growing Francophone tourist market, Tourism Bureaus and Commissions throughout the state, but particularly in South Louisiana, have information on tourist sites in both French and English (as well as in other major languages spoken by tourists).
Similarly, the State government passed measures in 2011 to provide Louisiana French Language Services at the governmental level, with particular mention to cultural tourism and local culture and heritage. The legislative act was drafted and presented by Francophone and Francophile Senators and Representatives. It asserts that the French language is vital to the economy of the state. Accordingly, the bill sets forth that each branch of the State government shall take necessary action to identify employees who are proficient in French. Each branch of the State government shall also take necessary steps in producing services in the Louisiana French language for both locals and visitors. This bill is, however, an unfunded State mandate.
And finally, a Louisiana-owned business called FrancoLouisiane: Infiné http://francolouisiane.com, in 2009 began with Francophone Carencro native Stephen Juan Ortego. FrancoLouisiane is both a localized translating business as well as a facilitator for living in French in Louisiana. Its website reads: "Francolouisiane.com is your connection to bilingual services — Louisiana French and English — through a directory that celebrates the first official language of Louisiana. If you want to live in French in Louisiana, just experience the French-speaking culture of Louisiana, or practice your French in an American context, francolouisiane.com is the place for you. Take action and visit our members or become a member yourself!"
CITATIONS & REFERENCES
RELATED ENTRIES
- Cajun FrenchCajun FrenchCajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
- Colonial FrenchColonial FrenchColonial French or Colonial Louisiana French is one of the three dialects into which Louisiana French is typically divided . Formerly spoken widely in what is now the U.S...
or Plantation Society French
Further reading
- Picone, Michael D. "Enclave Dialect Contradiction: An External Overview of Louisiana French." American SpeechAmerican SpeechAmerican Speech is a quarterly academic journal of the American Dialect Society, established in 1925 and published by the Duke University Press...
. > Vol. 72, No. 2, Summer, 1997.