Kourí-Viní (Louisiana Creole)

Publication date: 2009
Number of pages: 153This brief essay deals solely with Creole language genesis in Louisiana. The linguistic backdrop of South Louisiana is fascinating and extremely complex. It is composed of a multitude of interwoven linguistic borrowings and sharing that have taken place over a two hundred year span, drawing contemporary academics to Louisiana to study the Creole and French languages for the past couple of decades. Admittedly though, Creole language in Louisiana has not benefited from any serious internal preservation efforts. Numbers of native speakers have been reduced to less than 100,000 and the language is in grave danger of being irrevocably lost. This brief essay will provide you with a better understanding of the Creole language in Louisiana. In fact, three historical events led to the development of the two varieties of French and of Creole spoken in Louisiana today.
Louisiana was first settled in 1699 by French and French-Canadian colonists in the lower Mississippi Delta. These colonists and their descendants speak what became known as Colonial French, typically spoken today in Saint-Landry, Iberia, Avoyelles, Pointe-Coupée, Orléans, Saint-Bernard, Iberville, Saint-Martin, Saint-Charles, Saint James (formerly called Saint-Jacques-de-Cabannocé) and Jefferson parishes. This French variant is often erroneously referred to as French-Creole as speakers of Colonial French often identify as French-Creoles. Linguistically, there is no major difference between Colonial French and standardized Parisian French. Colonial French greatly influenced Louisiana Creole and triggered its arrival. Colonial French has a distinct history from Cajun French. Today, most white speakers of Colonial French will tell you they speak Cajun French as the Cajun renaissance has ultimately divided those speaking ‗Creole‘ as people of color and all whites speaking French as speakers of Cajun.