(Poster) Creative adaptation of English loanwords in Louisiana Creole (original) (raw)

The English Vernacular of the Creoles of Louisiana

Language Variation and Change, 2003

The English spoken by Creole African Americans in southern Louisiana reveals language change in the shift from French to English and the persistence of local forms of English. The overview of the socioeconomic history of Louisiana details the number of ethnic groups and the fluctuating social and linguistic relations among them over time. The study sample consists of 42 African Americans with French ancestry living in Opelousas in St. Landry Parish and Parks in St. Martin Parish. The high rate of the absence of glides in the vowels (ai, au, oi, i, u, e, o) is maintained across all generations of the 24 male speakers described. A possible source of glide absence, such as foreign language influence, is explored but found unconvincing. A more plausible explanation is that glide absence was part of the English brought to the area by native speakers in the early 19th century. We acknowledge the generous support of the National Science Foundation (BSR-0091823) as well as the coding work done by two research assistants Vicky Polston and David Herrell. We also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of the text and their valuable comments.

Speedy, Karin. Review of Albert Valdman and Kevin Rottet (eds.), 2010, Dictionary of Louisiana French as spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian Communities, University Press of Mississippi: Jackson in Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 27: 1, ISSN: 0920-9034, pp. 201-204, 2012.

The Dictionary of Louisiana French (henceforth The Dictionary) is a very large, beautifully presented book that is the result of more than a decade of research.

Book review: Cajun Vernacular English: Informal English in French Louisiana, edited by Ann Martin Scott

Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 1995

Cajun Vernacular English is comprised of eight articles authored or coauthored by eight different contributors, all of whom are linked, by virtue of upbringing, profession, or interest, to the linguistic landscape of "Acadiana," the historically Francophone parishes of South Louisiana. The genesis of the book goes back to a graduate seminar in sociolinguistics conducted in 1988 by editor-contributor Ann Martin Scott. The seminar was held at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, in the heart of Cajun country. The need for such an anthology became apparent when attempts by the seminar participants to establish a bibliography for the study of Cajun English "revealed a complete absence of published work" (p. i). It will detract little from the force of this statement to point out that at least one previously published lexical study did in fact exist: Babington and Atwood (1961). Also, as Eble (1993, pp. 172-173) has pointed out, the Linguistic atlas of the Gulf States: The basic materials (Pederson, Billiard, Leas, Bailey, & Bassett, 1981) provides important published documentation waiting to be exploited for the purpose of describing Cajun English. (See also Dillard & Rivers, 1989, published shortly after Scott's seminar.) Apart from such exceptions, however, the English of Acadiana remains "perhaps the least studied variety of contemporary American English" (Eble, 1993, p. 171). The original seminar papers were, therefore, readied for publication and comple-1) Libraries and scholars interested in obtaining copies of Cajun Vernacular English for research purposes are invited to contact the editor directly:

Ti Liv Kréyòl: A Learner's Guide to Louisiana Creole

2020

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.

"Tout Que' Chose": the Creole repertoire(s) of Carencro, Louisiana

2019

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.

Louisiana Creole (Louisiana, USA) – Language Snapshot

Language Documentation and Description, 2024

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).

Noun Phrases in L2 French and Haitian: Clues on the Origin of Plantation Creoles

This article provides evidence from studies on second language acquisition in support of the gradualist model of creole genesis. According to this model, creole genesis is viewed as a gradual process away from the lexifier language, as successive generations of African slaves acquired increasingly divergent varieties of the emerging contact language. This article provides examples on the L2 acquisition of French, and compares interlanguage structures with Haitian, a radical French-lexifier creole. Using examples within the NP domain, I conclude that many creole features can be accounted for in terms of second language acquisition, either as 1) the transfer of L1 features (via e.g., relexification), 2) the acquisition of L2 features, or 3) interlanguage structures found neither in the L1 or the L2, including innovations (e.g., reanalysis or grammaticalization) or other developmental stages in second language acquisition. The article also discusses the origin of tense-mood-aspect markers, which are not attested in the L2 data and may be better explained in terms of first, rather than second language acquisition processes.

Mather, P.-A. 2007. Creole studies. In Dalila Ayoun (ed.), French Applied Linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2007, pp. 400-424.

Dans le présent chapitre, nous nous proposons d'examiner différents modèles sur la genèse des langues créoles qui ont été proposés ou défendus au cours des 40 dernières années par des linguistes francophones en Europe (notamment Chaudenson, Hazael-Massieux et Manessy), et en Amérique du Nord (notamment Lefebvre et Valdman), à savoir les modèles substratistes, universalistes et superstratistes (ou "eurogénétiques"). Nous examinerons les questions liées aux processus cognitifs responsables de la créolisation, notamment les processus d'acquisition et d'appropriation des langues première et seconde, mais aussi les facteurs externes telle l'histoire socio-économique des colonies où les langues créoles ont vu le jour. Ensuite, nous aborderons les débats théoriques et idéologiques relatifs aux rôles respectifs des langues européennes et africaines dans la genèse des créoles, étant donné que ces questions ont été, et demeurent, très controversées parmi les créolistes francophones. Enfin, nous présenterons l'un des modèles de créolisation les plus courants, ou modèle "gradualiste", à la lumière des recherches récentes parmi les créolistes francophones et autres. Pour l'illustrer, nous comparerons des structures de différents créoles français et de français langue seconde.