Nathan Wendte | National Coalition of Independent Scholars (original) (raw)
Papers by Nathan Wendte
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 2024
Misconceptions about the ethnolinguistic relationship between Haiti and Louisiana persist to the ... more Misconceptions about the ethnolinguistic relationship between Haiti and Louisiana persist to the present. Central to this debate is whether Louisiana Creole (LC) is a variety of French, an independent language, or a variant of the better-known and more widely spoken Haitian Creole (HC). In this paper, I present data from residents of Louisiana and the greater Gulf South who invoke Haiti in reference to who and what are Creoles. Haiti surfaces in two primary ways: as a site of origin and authentication or as a site of difference and denaturalization. Haiti's indexical value and authenticating potential vary according to a speaker's ethnolinguistic identity. These complexities are particularly important for understanding the history and trajectory of the current reclamation movement for the Louisiana Creole language (aka "Kouri-Vini").
Language Documentation and Description, 2024
Louisiana Creole is an exogenous, French-based creole of the Americas and the only such creole to... more Louisiana Creole is an exogenous, French-based creole of the Americas and the only such creole to have had its genesis in what would become the United States. Records of the language date back to the later half of the 18th century, and at one time it was widely used by speakers of various races and ethicities in South Louisiana and the greater Gulf South region. A series of events that includes the Sale of Louisiana (1803), the Civil War (1861), compulsory public schooling (1921), and two world wars (1917, 1941) all contributed to the shift away from the language in favor of English. Although the language has effectively ceased to be transmitted intergenerationally, it persists in small pockets of ever-aging mother-tongue speakers. Additionally, an established revitalization movement is underway that has produced a sizeable number of competent younger speakers. This snapshot pays particular attention to an underdescribed regional dialect of the language spoken along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish (Louisiana).
Études Francophones, 2022
Contact Languages and Music, 2022
From "Contact Languages and Music" (ed. Hollington, Farquharson, and Jones, Jr.), UWI Press. ISBN... more From "Contact Languages and Music" (ed. Hollington, Farquharson, and Jones, Jr.), UWI Press. ISBN: 978976640923
Southern Journal of Linguistics, 2018
Conference Presentations by Nathan Wendte
Establishing a DLI Community of Science, 2024
Tunica is a language isolate formerly spoken in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Today, members of t... more Tunica is a language isolate formerly spoken in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Today, members of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe are reawakening this language through intensive language education and cultural practice. This talk focuses on the activities of the Tunica Ethnobotany Working Group, which seeks to reclaim not only the lexical resources for describing plants, but also the importance of fostering relationships with plants.
Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, 2024
Taking a closer look at data from Northshore Creole (Louisiana Creole spoken in and around Lacomb... more Taking a closer look at data from Northshore Creole (Louisiana Creole spoken in and around Lacombe, LA, St. Tammany Parish), there appears to be additional evidence for an early presence of long-short verb alternation in the language.
SECOL 89, 2022
The Louisiana Creole dialect formerly spoken along the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Ta... more The Louisiana Creole dialect formerly spoken along the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish has been recognized as somewhat divergent from other varieties of the language (Klingler and Dajko 2006). Northshore Creole–referred to elsewhere as St. Tammany Creole–does not benefit from a full grammatical description. On the basis of a sample of previously unanalyzed data, this paper gives a preliminary account of some linguistic peculiarities of the dialect and compares them with the better described Louisiana Creole dialects of Bayou Teche (Neumann 1981) and Pointe Coupee Parish (Klingler 2003). The data come from interviews conducted by Dr. Thomas A. Klingler in the mid-1990s. The audio was extracted from the interviews (originally recorded on Betamax tapes) and transcribed by Creole community members thanks to a grant from the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS).
LSA 2022
Defining Creole Eschewing a discussion of the historical development of the term's semantics, suf... more Defining Creole Eschewing a discussion of the historical development of the term's semantics, suffice it to say that Creole has enjoyed a long legacy of use as both an ethnic and a linguistic label in Louisiana and the Gulf South region. However, the exact meaning of this ethnoglossonym has been-and is today-highly context dependent (Klingler 2003). For linguistic analytical purposes, I use the acronyms LC (Louisiana Creole) and LRF (Louisiana Regional French) to distinguish between the two primary French-lexified speech varieties in use in Louisiana today. This is not, however, meant to imply that my use of these terms matches the labelling practices of participants themselves.
Louisiana Creoles are often described via euphemistic reference to things like "gumbo" and the "m... more Louisiana Creoles are often described via euphemistic reference to things like "gumbo" and the "melting pot." While such metaphors may capture the inherently heterogeneous nature of Creoleness in the Gulf South, they can also seem to suggest that "anything goes" when it comes to Creoles and their cultural practices. In this talk, I suggest using the notion of the chronotope (Bakhtin 1981; Blommaert and De Fina 2017) to better explain the contested nature of Creole identity today while avoiding essentializing Creoles as somehow uniquely constituted on the basis of their mixedness. I focus on a particular index of Creole ethnolinguistic identity--associated language variety (Eastman and Reese 1981)--and trace how this trait has evolved over time and space. This evolution, rather than delegitimizing Creoleness, highlights the various time-space frames (i.e., chronotopes) through which Creole identity can be viewed. The enduring practice of delimiting Creoleness, irrespective of the mechanisms used, provides Louisiana Creoles with discursive and ideological continuity despite the co-existence of contradictory criteria for group membership.
Approaches to Migration, Language, and Identity, 2021
In the Gulf South region of the United States, Creoles have historically been defined by distinc... more In the Gulf South region of the United States, Creoles have historically been defined by distinct cultural and linguistic practices (Istre 2018). As an ethnolinguistic identity label, “Creole” encompasses and presumes certain linguistic behaviors and competencies. Although most often associated with the state of Louisiana, a steady stream of Creole migrants for more than a century has resulted in a large diaspora living across the border in Texas. This diaspora, however, does not uniformly retain their Creole identity. Like all identity categories, “Creole” is an ideologically informed, discursively constructed, and contextually dependent phenomenon (Bucholtz and Hall 2005). Despite the relatively short migration distance between them, Texas and Louisiana represent markedly different cultural contexts. Drawing from qualitative interviews conducted with Texas-resident (n=32) and Louisiana-resident Creoles (n=28), this paper explores the variable role that language practices—and the discourses surrounding them— play in Creoles becoming Texan.
These interviews were collected over a period of four years in association with the author’s dissertation fieldwork. I extracted those interview segments which concern language practices and discovered that language loss in and of itself was not sufficient to explain why Texas-resident Creoles may choose to stop identifying as Creoles. Instead, it is the choice to dissociate ideologically with aspects of Louisiana (notably past rural origins) that drives people to abandon Creole identity. Such choices are perceived by both Texas-resident and Louisiana resident Creoles to be reflected in individual language practices.
ICLDC, 2021
The web of relationships encompassed by language revitalization is often simplified according to ... more The web of relationships encompassed by language revitalization is often simplified according to linear models and binary oppositions. This paper presents the authors’ experiences navigating the nested, multi-party relationships associated with Kouri-Vini (aka “Louisiana Creole”), a French-based creole traditionally spoken in the Gulf South region of the United States.
Presented at the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, 2020.
Poster presented at the American Dialect Society, 2020
Carencro, Louisiana is situated in a liminal zone of southern Louisiana that was historically typ... more Carencro, Louisiana is situated in a liminal zone of southern Louisiana that was historically typified by intense language contact between different, French-lexified speech varieties. On the basis of linguistic description, these varieties can be grouped into two broad categories: Characteristic Louisiana Creole (CLC) and Characteristic Louisiana French (CLF). The language ideologies of speakers themselves, however, often downplay the differences between these varieties. Instead, united by a shared ethnonym (i.e., “Creole”), individuals typically refer to the totality of their non-English speech forms by the same name. Such ethnoglossic isomorphism masks the diversity inherent in speech labeled as “Creole.” This paper analyzes data from five participants to demonstrate the linguistic diversity of the Creole repertoire(s) in Carencro, Louisiana. The settlement history of the region is also explored as a potential explanatory variable for such heterogeneity.
T-Col, 2019
Tunica, a language isolate of the Southeastern United States, has been undergoing a revitalizatio... more Tunica, a language isolate of the Southeastern United States, has been undergoing a revitalization for the past few years. As the number of L2 speakers continues to grow, the opportunities to expand the language’s domains of use have also increased. Like many indigenous tribes of the region, the Tunica formerly made use of a great many plant resources in their immediate surroundings. Unfortunately, as the language ceased to be spoken, much of this knowledge became dormant. Thanks to earlier documentation efforts among the Tunica and neighboring groups, the Kuhpani Yoyani Luhchi Yoroni (Tunica Language Working Group) have begun to reclaim and revitalize an indigenous knowledge of Tunica ethnobotanical knowledge. This paper presents the methods by which this undertaking has proceeded and the goals we hope to accomplish in the near future.
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 2024
Misconceptions about the ethnolinguistic relationship between Haiti and Louisiana persist to the ... more Misconceptions about the ethnolinguistic relationship between Haiti and Louisiana persist to the present. Central to this debate is whether Louisiana Creole (LC) is a variety of French, an independent language, or a variant of the better-known and more widely spoken Haitian Creole (HC). In this paper, I present data from residents of Louisiana and the greater Gulf South who invoke Haiti in reference to who and what are Creoles. Haiti surfaces in two primary ways: as a site of origin and authentication or as a site of difference and denaturalization. Haiti's indexical value and authenticating potential vary according to a speaker's ethnolinguistic identity. These complexities are particularly important for understanding the history and trajectory of the current reclamation movement for the Louisiana Creole language (aka "Kouri-Vini").
Language Documentation and Description, 2024
Louisiana Creole is an exogenous, French-based creole of the Americas and the only such creole to... more Louisiana Creole is an exogenous, French-based creole of the Americas and the only such creole to have had its genesis in what would become the United States. Records of the language date back to the later half of the 18th century, and at one time it was widely used by speakers of various races and ethicities in South Louisiana and the greater Gulf South region. A series of events that includes the Sale of Louisiana (1803), the Civil War (1861), compulsory public schooling (1921), and two world wars (1917, 1941) all contributed to the shift away from the language in favor of English. Although the language has effectively ceased to be transmitted intergenerationally, it persists in small pockets of ever-aging mother-tongue speakers. Additionally, an established revitalization movement is underway that has produced a sizeable number of competent younger speakers. This snapshot pays particular attention to an underdescribed regional dialect of the language spoken along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish (Louisiana).
Études Francophones, 2022
Contact Languages and Music, 2022
From "Contact Languages and Music" (ed. Hollington, Farquharson, and Jones, Jr.), UWI Press. ISBN... more From "Contact Languages and Music" (ed. Hollington, Farquharson, and Jones, Jr.), UWI Press. ISBN: 978976640923
Southern Journal of Linguistics, 2018
Establishing a DLI Community of Science, 2024
Tunica is a language isolate formerly spoken in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Today, members of t... more Tunica is a language isolate formerly spoken in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Today, members of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe are reawakening this language through intensive language education and cultural practice. This talk focuses on the activities of the Tunica Ethnobotany Working Group, which seeks to reclaim not only the lexical resources for describing plants, but also the importance of fostering relationships with plants.
Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, 2024
Taking a closer look at data from Northshore Creole (Louisiana Creole spoken in and around Lacomb... more Taking a closer look at data from Northshore Creole (Louisiana Creole spoken in and around Lacombe, LA, St. Tammany Parish), there appears to be additional evidence for an early presence of long-short verb alternation in the language.
SECOL 89, 2022
The Louisiana Creole dialect formerly spoken along the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Ta... more The Louisiana Creole dialect formerly spoken along the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish has been recognized as somewhat divergent from other varieties of the language (Klingler and Dajko 2006). Northshore Creole–referred to elsewhere as St. Tammany Creole–does not benefit from a full grammatical description. On the basis of a sample of previously unanalyzed data, this paper gives a preliminary account of some linguistic peculiarities of the dialect and compares them with the better described Louisiana Creole dialects of Bayou Teche (Neumann 1981) and Pointe Coupee Parish (Klingler 2003). The data come from interviews conducted by Dr. Thomas A. Klingler in the mid-1990s. The audio was extracted from the interviews (originally recorded on Betamax tapes) and transcribed by Creole community members thanks to a grant from the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South (NOCGS).
LSA 2022
Defining Creole Eschewing a discussion of the historical development of the term's semantics, suf... more Defining Creole Eschewing a discussion of the historical development of the term's semantics, suffice it to say that Creole has enjoyed a long legacy of use as both an ethnic and a linguistic label in Louisiana and the Gulf South region. However, the exact meaning of this ethnoglossonym has been-and is today-highly context dependent (Klingler 2003). For linguistic analytical purposes, I use the acronyms LC (Louisiana Creole) and LRF (Louisiana Regional French) to distinguish between the two primary French-lexified speech varieties in use in Louisiana today. This is not, however, meant to imply that my use of these terms matches the labelling practices of participants themselves.
Louisiana Creoles are often described via euphemistic reference to things like "gumbo" and the "m... more Louisiana Creoles are often described via euphemistic reference to things like "gumbo" and the "melting pot." While such metaphors may capture the inherently heterogeneous nature of Creoleness in the Gulf South, they can also seem to suggest that "anything goes" when it comes to Creoles and their cultural practices. In this talk, I suggest using the notion of the chronotope (Bakhtin 1981; Blommaert and De Fina 2017) to better explain the contested nature of Creole identity today while avoiding essentializing Creoles as somehow uniquely constituted on the basis of their mixedness. I focus on a particular index of Creole ethnolinguistic identity--associated language variety (Eastman and Reese 1981)--and trace how this trait has evolved over time and space. This evolution, rather than delegitimizing Creoleness, highlights the various time-space frames (i.e., chronotopes) through which Creole identity can be viewed. The enduring practice of delimiting Creoleness, irrespective of the mechanisms used, provides Louisiana Creoles with discursive and ideological continuity despite the co-existence of contradictory criteria for group membership.
Approaches to Migration, Language, and Identity, 2021
In the Gulf South region of the United States, Creoles have historically been defined by distinc... more In the Gulf South region of the United States, Creoles have historically been defined by distinct cultural and linguistic practices (Istre 2018). As an ethnolinguistic identity label, “Creole” encompasses and presumes certain linguistic behaviors and competencies. Although most often associated with the state of Louisiana, a steady stream of Creole migrants for more than a century has resulted in a large diaspora living across the border in Texas. This diaspora, however, does not uniformly retain their Creole identity. Like all identity categories, “Creole” is an ideologically informed, discursively constructed, and contextually dependent phenomenon (Bucholtz and Hall 2005). Despite the relatively short migration distance between them, Texas and Louisiana represent markedly different cultural contexts. Drawing from qualitative interviews conducted with Texas-resident (n=32) and Louisiana-resident Creoles (n=28), this paper explores the variable role that language practices—and the discourses surrounding them— play in Creoles becoming Texan.
These interviews were collected over a period of four years in association with the author’s dissertation fieldwork. I extracted those interview segments which concern language practices and discovered that language loss in and of itself was not sufficient to explain why Texas-resident Creoles may choose to stop identifying as Creoles. Instead, it is the choice to dissociate ideologically with aspects of Louisiana (notably past rural origins) that drives people to abandon Creole identity. Such choices are perceived by both Texas-resident and Louisiana resident Creoles to be reflected in individual language practices.
ICLDC, 2021
The web of relationships encompassed by language revitalization is often simplified according to ... more The web of relationships encompassed by language revitalization is often simplified according to linear models and binary oppositions. This paper presents the authors’ experiences navigating the nested, multi-party relationships associated with Kouri-Vini (aka “Louisiana Creole”), a French-based creole traditionally spoken in the Gulf South region of the United States.
Presented at the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, 2020.
Poster presented at the American Dialect Society, 2020
Carencro, Louisiana is situated in a liminal zone of southern Louisiana that was historically typ... more Carencro, Louisiana is situated in a liminal zone of southern Louisiana that was historically typified by intense language contact between different, French-lexified speech varieties. On the basis of linguistic description, these varieties can be grouped into two broad categories: Characteristic Louisiana Creole (CLC) and Characteristic Louisiana French (CLF). The language ideologies of speakers themselves, however, often downplay the differences between these varieties. Instead, united by a shared ethnonym (i.e., “Creole”), individuals typically refer to the totality of their non-English speech forms by the same name. Such ethnoglossic isomorphism masks the diversity inherent in speech labeled as “Creole.” This paper analyzes data from five participants to demonstrate the linguistic diversity of the Creole repertoire(s) in Carencro, Louisiana. The settlement history of the region is also explored as a potential explanatory variable for such heterogeneity.
T-Col, 2019
Tunica, a language isolate of the Southeastern United States, has been undergoing a revitalizatio... more Tunica, a language isolate of the Southeastern United States, has been undergoing a revitalization for the past few years. As the number of L2 speakers continues to grow, the opportunities to expand the language’s domains of use have also increased. Like many indigenous tribes of the region, the Tunica formerly made use of a great many plant resources in their immediate surroundings. Unfortunately, as the language ceased to be spoken, much of this knowledge became dormant. Thanks to earlier documentation efforts among the Tunica and neighboring groups, the Kuhpani Yoyani Luhchi Yoroni (Tunica Language Working Group) have begun to reclaim and revitalize an indigenous knowledge of Tunica ethnobotanical knowledge. This paper presents the methods by which this undertaking has proceeded and the goals we hope to accomplish in the near future.
In the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, major political, economic, and social uphea... more In the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, major political, economic, and social upheavals forever changed the face of the American South. In Louisiana—a state with a markedly different cultural heritage than many of its southern neighbors—this also sparked a new impetus to define a historically polyvalent term: “Creole.” The fact that this label had been used to describe people on both sides of the color line meant that it suggested a less-than-white identity to the Anglo-American majority, which was unfamiliar with the word’s use in the Gulf South. White-identified Creoles in Louisiana feared being excluded from positions of power on the basis of this supposed misunderstanding. Authors and academics scrambled to set the record
straight in one way or another, proposing various litmus tests to discover “true” Creoles by means of ethnic, racial, linguistic, and other criteria. These efforts gave rise to competing definitions of the term that can still be sensed in the region today. Understanding this important period in Louisiana’s history can shed light on current debates within Louisiana, its emigrant diasporas, and among all ethnolinguistic groups struggling to assert their identity.
Keywords: Louisiana studies, ethnolinguistic identity, language and race
French in Louisiana has long been recognized as a heterogeneous entity (Picone 2006; 2015; Klingl... more French in Louisiana has long been recognized as a heterogeneous entity (Picone 2006; 2015; Klingler 2015). While much work explaining this diversity has focused on lexical and morphosyntactic categories, Blainey (2013) provides one of the few full phonological treatments of the language. Her findings on the French of Golden Meadow (GMF) form the basis of comparison for the present study. The French of Grand Isle (GIF) distinguishes itself from other varieties of Louisiana French in a number of ways, one of the most interesting being the presence of an areally atypical allophone of /r/ that is uvular rather than apical (Babin 1937; Picone 2006). This paper examines whether or not this GIF /r/ behaves similarly to the GMF /r/. To test this, data were examined from two GIF speakers. From each speaker's audio, I extracted /r/ clusters in onset, coda-onset, and coda positions. I phonetically determined realizations of /r/ in these contexts and compared them with those Blainey presents for GMF. I hypothesize that the observable disparities between GMF /r/ and GIF /r/ could be explained by the phonetic nature of the phoneme in each variety.
Keywords: French in Louisiana, Grand Isle, sonority, phonetics, phonology
References:
Babin, Lawrence. 1937. "A Glossary of the French Spoken on Grand Isle." MA, Louisiana State University.
Blainey, Darcie Leigh. 2013. "First to Come, Last to Go: Phonological Change and Resilience in Louisiana Regional French." PhD, Tulane University.
Klingler, Thomas A. 2015. "Beyond Cajun." In New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches, 627-40. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Picone, Michael D. 2006. "Le français louisianais hors de l'Acadiana." Revue de l'Université de Moncton 37 (2): 221-31.
---. 2015. "French Dialects of Louisiana: A Revised Typology." In New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches, 267-87. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
« Créole » existe comme terme descriptif en Louisiane pendant des siècles. Mais ce que ce terme v... more « Créole » existe comme terme descriptif en Louisiane pendant des siècles. Mais ce que ce terme veut dire a changé tout le long de son histoire. La façon dont les Louisianais ont manipulé ce mot a, par conséquence, laissé un bon nombre de définitions en concurrence de ce que c'est un Créole (Domínguez 1977). De la même manière, " Cadien " a vécu sa propre évolution sémantique depuis l'arrivée des refugiées acadiens au milieu du XVIIIème siècle. Aujourd'hui ce terme profite d'une renommée sans pareil dans le tourisme de l'état (Trépanier 1991). Suite à la guerre de sécession, ces deux termes ont commencé à être plus racialisé afin que la Louisiane se ressemble plus au Sud " Jim Crow " (Brasseaux 2005). Pourtant, un travail de terrain préliminaire avec quelques Créoles au Texas indique que les différences entre " Cadien " et " Créole " sont beaucoup plus nuancées. Il reste à voir si cela provient de l'écart entre générations, les différences géographiques ou d'ailleurs. Néanmoins, cette observation invite une reconsidération de comment les communautés francophones aux États du Golfe se voyaient et se voient par rapport à comment les autres les voient.
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Brasseaux, C. 2005. French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Domínguez, V. 1986. White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
Trépanier, C. 1991. "The Cajunization of French Louisiana: Forging a Regional Identity." The Geographical Journal 157 (2): 161-71.
La sociolinguistique moderne maintient que la variation est souvent significative pour les locute... more La sociolinguistique moderne maintient que la variation est souvent significative pour les locuteurs d’une langue (Eckert 2012). Pourtant Nancy Dorian constate qu’aux communautés linguistiques minoritaires, la variation socialement neutre peut se produire s’il n’y a pas de stratification socioéconomique notable (2010). Cette possibilité est encore plus probable dans une situation d’étiolement linguistique où il n’y a ni de norme vers laquelle on peut s’orienter ni de prestige associé à la langue minoritaire. Au Texas du Sud-Est, une histoire de modernisation rapide au 20e siècle a entraîné une forte migration de la Louisiane du Sud-Ouest. Parmi ces émigrés louisianais se trouvaient des « Créoles ». Ces individus étaient souvent d’ascendance mixte et parlaient des variétés langagières apparentées au français (Steptoe 2016; Chambers 2014; Brasseaux 2005). Aujourd’hui ceux qui parlent toujours une de ces variétés non-anglaises ont tendance à la nommer « le créole ». En outre, si on se considère « Créole », il est probable qu’on va appeler sa langue de la même manière (Klingler 2003). Cependant, même s’il existe une certaine unité d’étiquetage linguistique, les variétés elles-mêmes sont loin d’être homogènes.
Cette étude présente des exemples concrètes de la variation démontrée par un échantillon d’une dizaine de locuteurs créoles au Texas. J’examine quinze phrases de traduction pour des traits linguistiques que Valdman (1996) décrit comme typiques du créole louisianais. Mes résultats indiquent que la distribution des traits créoles s’explique par un continuum assez distinct. Malgré cela, il n’y a guère aucune indication jusqu'ici que les locuteurs remarquent la variation entre eux d'une façon significative. La seule exception que je note concerne quelques choix lexicaux stigmatisés par certains locuteurs (semblable à Dorian 1994: 679). Il est à noter qu’un grand nombre de Créoles louisianais sont des descendants des « gens de couleur libres », une classe socioéconomique qui existait entre les Blancs et les esclaves noirs avant la guerre de sécession. Après l’émancipation des esclaves, les différences entre les gens non-blancs étaient juridiquement effacées. Néanmoins, une stratification sociale marquée perdurait en Louisiane (Domínguez 1986; Spitzer 1986). Steptoe (2016) suggère que l’expérience des Créoles à Texas, ainsi que le mouvement des droits civiques, a eu un effet transformatif et égalisateur. Mon hypothèse est que le nivellement des différences sociales, dû au contact avec le système socioracial anglo-américain, a limité la valeur sociale de la variation linguistique parmi les Créoles au Texas.
Mots clés : créole louisianais, variation linguistique, étiolement linguistique, translocalité
Références
Brasseaux, Carl A. French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
Chambers, Glenn. “‘Goodbye God, I’m Going to Texas’: The Migration of Louisiana Creoles of Colour and the Preservation of Black Catholic and Creole Traditions in Southeast Texas.”
Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 26, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 124–43. Domínguez, Virginia R. “Social Classification in Creole Louisiana.” American Ethnologist 4, no. 4 (1977): 589–602.
Dorian, Nancy C. Investigating Variation: The Effects of Social Organization and Social Setting. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Bien avant la publication de l’article de Klingler (1996), la question se posait de savoir commen... more Bien avant la publication de l’article de Klingler (1996), la question se posait de savoir comment écrire le créole louisianais. Mercier (1880) propose un système phonétique qui ne vise à représenter que les sons de la langue. Fortier (1884-5) s’appuie plus sur l’orthographe française, mais de façon non systématique. Ces idiosyncrasies persistaient au même temps que les débats sur la définition de « Créole » en Louisiane faisaient rage (Domínguez 1986). Ces différences ne sont pas seulement esthétiques—elles sont aussi idéologiques (cf. Schieffelin et Doucet 1996). Sebba (2007, 2012) démontre que chaque choix orthographique peut être influencé par l’idéologie de son créateur et représente une vision distincte d’une langue, de ses caractéristiques, et de ses locuteurs. Sur la base des résultats d’un sondage mené en ligne en septembre 2017 (n=62), je remets en question les orientations idéologiques qui pourraient influencer les préférences orthographiques pour le créole louisianais. En particulier, je me
penche sur la relation entre les revendications identitaires des participants et leurs préférences orthographiques. La situation se complique pour deux raisons : la tendance isomorphe des ethnonymes et des glossonymes (Klingler 2003 ; Spitzer 1986 ; Tentchoff 1975) et les liens étroits entre le créole et le français en Louisiane qui rendent difficile la démarcation linguistique (Klingler 2005 ; Morgan 1970 ; Valdman 1997). Un autre élément contextuel important est la « Cajunisation » (Trépanier 1991) de la Louisiane francophone. Avec la récente popularité de tout ce qui est « cajun », tout ce qui appartient à cette région francophone historiquement diverse—sa cuisine, sa musique, et ses variétés langagières—est rebaptisé « cajun ». Ceux qui sont exclus de cet ethnonyme (c.-à-d., « Cajun ») ont alors du mal à revendiquer une identité distincte. Mon hypothèse est que, pour ceux qui voient le créole louisianais comme un trait essentiel de leur identité ethnolinguistique, la pratique d’ « allographie (‘écrire autrement’) » est d’une certaine utilité. Le sondage que j’ai mené enregistre le niveau d’accord ou de désaccord des participants face à une série d’énoncés sur l’orthographe du créole louisianais (échelle Likert en cinq points). Après chaque énoncé, le participant avait l’opportunité de s’expliquer. J’analyse
les réponses et les explications en relation avec les revendications identitaires. Cette analyse démontre que l’identité joue un rôle probable dans les préférences orthographiques et que la polysémie de « Créole » et du « créole louisianais » se manifestent dans ces préférences.
Mots clés : identité, créole louisianais, allographie, orthographe, revitalisation des langues
Références
Domínguez, Virginia R. White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 1986.
Fortier, Alcée. “The French Language in Louisiana and the Negro-French Dialect.” Transactions of the Modern Language Association of America 1 (May 1884): 96–111.
Klingler, Thomas A. “Comment écrire le créole louisianais.” Plurilinguismes, no. 11 (1996): 179–203.
———. “Language Labels and Language Use among Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana.” University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 9, no. 2 (2003): 77–90.
———. “Le problème de la démarcation des variétés de langues en Louisiane.” In Le français en Amérique du Nord: Etat présent, edited by Albert Valdman, Julie Auger, and Deborah Piston-Hatlen, 349–67. Sainte-Foy, Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2005.
Le créole louisianais se parle sans cesse pendant plus de deux cents ans (Klingler 2003), mais so... more Le créole louisianais se parle sans cesse pendant plus de deux cents ans (Klingler 2003), mais son histoire l’a isolé d’une façon unique des autres créoles français par rapport à son existence hors d’un pays créolophone. Cette langue—l’une des variétés françaises encore visibles en Louisiane et ailleurs—est en danger imminent de disparaitre (Ibid., Valdman 1997, 1998). Ainsi, si on considère le créole louisianais très menacé dans le ‘triangle français’ d’Acadie (une région traditionnellement francophone de la Louisiane), il est gravement menacé hors de l’état (Klingler and Dajko 2006).
Le français et le créole s'étalent au Texas du Sud-Est depuis des années 1820 (Jordan-Bychkov 1981). Cette région pourrait être définie comme le Triangle Doré (Orange, Port Arthur & Beaumont) et de Houston métropole. Des ondes d’immigration suivant le boom pétrolier et l’augmentation du racisme violent en Louisiane ont contribué à une forte hausse de la population créole de la région (Chambers 2014). Plusieurs immigrés sont venus de la Louisiane du Sud-Ouest rurale et ont apporté leur langue avec eux. Mais n’importe si on sépare la sphère linguistique en français et créole, tous les deux semblent destinés à disparaitre (Rottet 2001). Alors que les Créoles au Texas du Sud-Est ne font pas partie de la région principale où ces langues se parlent, leur fin pourrait être plus proche que l’on imagine.
Suivant Le Page (1985), je crois que l’identité est composée des qualités individuelles et collectives. La manière dont les Créoles louisianais construire leurs identités porte sur des questions linguistiques, ethniques et culturelles. Et malgré que la langue s’éteigne, on peut noter la croissance de l’identité créole (Spitzer 2011). D’où vient cette croissance? Selon Spitzer (Ibid.) et d’autres, « Créole » trouve sa vitalité en performance. Créer des occasions de vivre une identité créole pourrait être l’essentiel de la perpétuer au Texas du Sud-Est.
Louisiana Creole (aka “Kouri-Vini”) has been continuously spoken for over 250 years in what is no... more Louisiana Creole (aka “Kouri-Vini”) has been continuously spoken for over 250 years in what is now the modern state of Louisiana as well as in other communities of the Gulf South region and elsewhere in diaspora settings where Creoles have migrated. This book represents the first modern publication concerning the language, and it is unique in its orientation to the everyday language learner.
This book analyzes how the word Creole is defined as an ethnic and a linguistic label among those... more This book analyzes how the word Creole is defined as an ethnic and a linguistic label among those who self-identify as Creole-speaking Creoles in Texas. These individuals are often ignored in discussions of the Creole population of the Gulf South because they no longer reside in Louisiana. Debate over the exact definition of Creole has been ongoing for over a century. Rather than promote some new definition, this book displays the paradoxes of Creoleness by presenting the words of Creoles themselves without any attempt to regularize the incongruencies that appear. The book is divided into two parts. The first part develops the concept of ethnolinguistic identity, indicates the historical uses of the term Creole in Louisiana, and traces the migration routes that led Creoles to Texas. It wraps up with a discussion of contemporary understandings of the word Creole based on fieldwork among Texas-resident Creoles. The second part presents and offers commentary on a sample of Creole translations for seventy-five English sentences. These translations, drawn from interviews with Texas Creoles, illustrate the wide variety of language forms that go by the name Creole in Texas. Collectively, this work demonstrates the challenges migration poses to ethnolinguistic identity.
https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A115587 Despite the work of dozens ... more https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A115587
Despite the work of dozens of dedicated scholars spanning decades, we seem no closer to a clear-cut answer as to who and what are signified by the signifier Creole in the Gulf South. And yet a perduring infatuation with this ever-enigmatic term continues to tempt scholars and laymen alike to try their hand at the Sisyphean task. It is hard to believe that such a vague label could possibly serve as a vehicle for ethnolinguistic identity, and yet that is precisely how Creole functions in Louisiana and beyond. This dissertation employs nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004) to explore the variable uses of Creole as a tool for delimiting ethnolinguistic boundaries in Texas and Louisiana. These boundaries can subsequently be interpreted as the basis for contemporary Creole identity in the Gulf South. The results bear on issues relating to cultural authenticity, linguistic legitimacy, and racial subjectivity. They also have implications for theories of migration, acculturation, and translocality. My data are drawn from interviews with a sample of Texas-resident (n=32) and Louisiana-resident (n=28) participants who self-identify as Creole-speaking Creoles. The main goal of the interviews was to give participants the space to define what Creole meant to them as a label for people and as a label for language. Based on these data, I was able to map the general and idiosyncratic characteristics associated with Creole in each place and make comparisons between the sub-samples...
PhD dissertation, Tulane University, 2020
https://www.ogmios.org/blog/grant-report/
Five years ago, I started my doctoral program at Tulane University in the Department of Anthropol... more Five years ago, I started my doctoral program at Tulane University in the Department of Anthropology. Not long thereafter, I decided what I wanted to be the subject of my dissertation: Texas Creoles. My advisors were a bit skeptical at first; "Is there Creole in Texas?" they asked, but I managed to persuade them. After all, why should curiosity about Creoles mysteriously dry up at the Sabine River? History makes it clear that Louisiana peoples and cultures have been flowing into Texas for centuries.