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Louisiana French

For the people, see French Louisianians.
Louisiana French
français louisianais
The flag of French Louisiana.
Native toUnited States
RegionFrench Louisiana (New Orleans, Cajun Country), southeastern Texas
EthnicityLouisiana French (Cajun, Creole)
Native speakers
200,000 to 300,000 (2012)[1]
Early forms
Official status
Official language in
 Louisiana
Language codes
ISO 639-3frc
Glottologcaju1236  Cajun French
ELPCajun French
Linguasphere51-AAA-iie
Blue indicates Louisiana parishes where French was commonly spoken in 2011.

Louisiana French (Louisiana French: français de la Louisiane; Louisiana Creole: françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisiana French is primarily used in the state of Louisiana, specifically in its southern parishes.

Over the centuries, the language has incorporated some words of African, Spanish, Native American and English origin, sometimes giving it linguistic features found only in Louisiana.[2][3][4][5] Louisiana French differs to varying extents from French dialects spoken in other regions, but Louisiana French is mutually intelligible with other dialects and is most closely related to those of Missouri (Upper Louisiana French), New England, Canada and northwestern France.

Historically, most works of media and literature produced in Louisiana—such as Les Cenelles, a poetry anthology compiled by a group of gens de couleur libres, and Creole-authored novels such as L'Habitation St-Ybars or Pouponne et Balthazar—were written in standard French. It is a misconception that no one in Louisiana spoke or wrote Standard French.[6] The resemblance that Louisiana French bears to Standard French varies depending on the dialect and register, with formal and urban variants in Louisiana more closely resembling Standard French.

The United States Census' 2007 American Community Survey estimated that 3.5% of Louisianans over the age of 5 spoke French or a French-based creole at home.[7] As of 2023, The Advocate roughly estimated that there were 120,000 French speakers in Louisiana, including about 20,000 Cajun French, but noted that their ability to provide an accurate assessment was very limited. These numbers were down from roughly a million speakers in the 1960s.[8] Distribution of these speakers is uneven, however, with the majority residing in the south-central region known as Acadiana. Some of the Acadiana parishes register francophone populations of 10% or more of the total, with a select few (such as Vermilion, Evangeline and St. Martin Parishes) exceeding 15%.[citation needed]

French is spoken across ethnic and racial lines by people who may identify as Cajuns, Creoles as well as Chitimacha, Houma, Biloxi, Tunica, Choctaw, Acadians, and French Indians among others.[6][9] For these reasons, as well as the relatively small influence Acadian French has had on the region, the label Louisiana French or Louisiana Regional French (French: français régional louisianais) is generally regarded as more accurate and inclusive than "Cajun French" and is the preferred term by linguists and anthropologists.[10][11][12][13] However, "Cajun French" is commonly used in lay discourse by speakers of the language and other inhabitants of Louisiana.[5]

Louisiana French should further not be confused with Louisiana Creole, a distinct French-based creole language indigenous to Louisiana and spoken across racial lines. In Louisiana, language labels are often conflated with ethnic labels, and Cajun-identified speakers might therefore call their language "Cajun French" even when linguists would identify it as Louisiana Creole.[14] Likewise, many Creoles of various backgrounds (including Cajuns) do not speak Louisiana Creole but rather Louisiana French.

Parishes in which the dialect is still found include Acadia, Allen, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Pointe Coupée, Vermilion, and other parishes of southern Louisiana.

  1. ^ Cockerham, Sean (July 6, 2012). "Louisiana French: L'heritage at Risk". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on January 19, 2015.
  2. ^ Carl A. Brasseaux, French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2005. Alcée Fortier. Louisiana Studies: Literature, Customs and Dialects, History and Education. New Orleans: Tulane University, 1894.
  3. ^ Thomas A. Klingler, Michael Picone and Albert Valdman. "The Lexicon of Louisiana French." French and Creole in Louisiana. Albert Valdman, ed. Springer, 1997. 145-170.
  4. ^ Christophe Landry. "Francophone Louisiana: more than Cajun." Louisiana Cultural Vistas 21(2), Summer 2010: 50-55.
  5. ^ a b Thomas A. Klingler. "Language labels and language use among Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana." Ed. T. Sanchez and U. Horesh. Working papers in linguistics 9(2), 2003. 77–90.
  6. ^ a b Valdman, Albert (2009). Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1604734034.
  7. ^ "Percentage Speaking a Language Other Than English at Home by English-Speaking Ability by State". 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20.
  8. ^ Stickney, Ken (2023-02-19). "Curious Louisiana: 'How many people speak Cajun French' in our state?". The Advocate. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  9. ^ Three Local Tribes Await Federal Decision, December 8, 2007, Houma Today.
  10. ^ Neumann-Holzschuh, Ingrid (2014). "Carrefour Louisiane". Journal of Language Contact. 7 (1): 124–153. doi:10.1163/19552629-00701006.
  11. ^ Klingler, Thomas A. (2009). "How much Acadian is there in Cajun?". In Mathis-Mosen, Ursula; Beschof, Günter (eds.). Acadians and Cajuns: The politics and culture of French minorities in North America. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press. pp. 91–103. ISBN 978-3902571939.
  12. ^ A., Klingler, Thomas (2003). If I could turn my tongue like that : the Creole language of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0807127797. OCLC 846496076.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Klingler, Thomas A. (2015). "Beyond Cajun: Toward an Expanded View of Regional French in Louisiana". In Picone, Michael D.; Evans Davies, Catherine Evans Davies (eds.). New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press. pp. 627–640. ISBN 9783110196351.
  14. ^ Klingler, Thomas A. (2003). "Language labels and language use among Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana". University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 9 (2).

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