By Sarah-Claire Jordan
Louisiana has always been a fascinating area of the U.S. in terms of culture, heritage and people. It is the ultimate melting pot, mixing Native American, French, Spanish, and African influences to create something new and unique. This uniqueness is beautifully expressed in the music, food, and art that the people of Louisiana make, but it can also be found in the different languages spoken there.
Languages are just as much a creative product as music and art, and can be studied as a way of understanding certain cultures. The creole language spoken in Louisiana is a perfect example of how cultures can meld together to produce something new. Though heavily influenced by French, Louisiana Creole is its own language, with a distinct culture to go along with it.
In order to better understand the background to the origins of a language, I like to first look at the history of the area where it is spoken. In this case, that would be what is now the state of Louisiana in the U.S. Louisiana has a very interesting history that, like most areas of the U.S., starts with the Native American tribes that first lived in the area. Tribes of the Choctaw and Natchez nations as well as the Caddo Confederacy were the most prevalent in the area before French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle claimed the land for France in 1682.
It remained a French colony until 1763, during which slaves were brought over from various African countries starting in 1719. Some historians claim that most of the enslaved people came from the same region of Africa, where Senegal and Gambia are and thus probably shared similar languages and cultures, but others say that the area they were taken from was too diverse for that to have been possible. No matter how it really was, the influence of African languages played a huge role in the birth of Louisiana Creole.
After the Seven Years’ War in 1763, France had to hand over Louisiana to Spain, who had it in their clutches until Napoleon seized it again in 1800. During its time under Spanish rule, Louisiana saw some immigration from the Canary Islands, but the stream of French immigrants didn’t get that much smaller either. In fact, it actually increased, thanks to the English persecution of the Acadians, who were French-speakers living in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. The descendants of these refugees became known as Cajuns, and they added their own special touches to Louisiana Creole too.
You might be wondering what exactly a creole is, so let’s take a look at that too. A creole usually comes from a pidgin, which is just a simplified form of any language. No one speaks a pidgin as their native language; what usually happens is immigrants start speaking a simpler version of the native language spoken where they settle as a way to communicate with the natives of the area. Many times, their children learn the pidgin as their native language and end up giving it more structure, since it is the only language they know, and thus transform it into a full-fledged creole. There are other theories as to how creoles originate, but this seems to be the most common one.
Most creoles are based on languages from Europe, like French, English, Spanish, or Portuguese, and arose during the European Age of Discovery and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Of course, there are other creoles that developed later and in other parts of the world, but the majority were formed during this time and in the Americas. If you keep in mind the most common theory about how creoles originate, it makes sense. For example, the Europeans couldn’t communicate with the African slaves they captured or bought, and vice versa, but they definitely were not going to try to learn any African languages.
The only option was for the slaves to learn at least some of their captors’ language, but continue to speak in their native tongue among themselves at first. Depending on the type of colony the slaves lived on, they either had lots of contact with their masters or not. If they had to speak with Europeans on a regular basis, and their native tongue was outlawed, then they had no choice but to take the pidgin they were speaking at first and turn it into a creole. Of course, if their children didn’t speak any African language natively, they too helped create a creole.
The majority of the words used in a creole come from the parent language, with many borrowed from other languages spoken in the area as well. In terms of grammar, creoles tend to have much simpler grammar than the parent languages, to the point where creoles have more in common with other creoles than with the language they are based on. However, the only real similarity between different creoles seems to be the simplification of the parent language grammar. Otherwise, they seem to develop independently and in their own unique way depending on the environment.
Now that you understand creoles in general a bit more, let’s look at the French creole that developed in Louisiana. It is largely based on French for some obvious reasons, like Louisiana being French territory for so long. There was also the movement of Acadian refugees from Canada who ended up settling in Louisiana. This particular French ended up being one of the parent languages to Louisiana Creole, along with some African languages spoken by the slaves of the area.
Records show that Louisiana Creole was spoken as far back as the 1740s, about 20 years after the first slaves were brought over from the region of Africa where Senegal and Gambia can now be found. That means that, according to what we have a written record of, it only took about 20 years for Louisiana Creole to develop. This is pretty remarkable I think, though no one can really say how long it takes for a creole to develop, leaving us with nothing to really compare this to. No matter what, though, it may offer a bit more evidence for the theory that creoles are pidgins that children turn into a stable and natural language when they learn them as their native tongue. The span of 20 years between the first slaves arriving and the first recorded use of Louisiana Creole is probably enough time for children to be born and raised by parents who spoke a pidgin and turn it into a creole.
Louisiana Creole shares a lot of its lexicon with French, but also borrows words from Louisiana Spanish, Igbo, and even Mandinga. Words were also taken from some Native American languages of the area, mostly ones that describe plants, animals, and land formations. Some French articles are still used, like “le”, “la”, and “les”, or are only slightly modified, like “a” and “la” for singular nouns and “ye” for plural nouns. Any of those six options is acceptable in Louisiana Creole. All of these words are pronounced with a bit of the typical Louisiana drawl.
Where things start to get a bit different is when you start comparing French and Louisiana Creole verb conjugation. Verbs are basically left in their infinitive forms, sometimes with markers in front of them to signify verb tense. Many times, however, the verb tense depends on the context of the statement. This more than alludes to the definition of a creole, which says they have simplified grammar.
Anyone who was born and raised in certain areas of Louisiana could be a speaker of Louisiana Creole. There are no unwritten rules about who can and can’t speak it, and so it crosses ethnic and class boundaries in a way that many other languages don’t. If you think about it, it makes sense because native Louisianians, or Creoles, are an ethnic mix. You can be white, black, brown, or any other color and call yourself Creole if you were born and raised in Louisiana. The same goes for those who speak Louisiana Creole.
Unfortunately, there has been some decreolization over the years, which happens when native Creole speakers start to assimilate to the language spoken by the rest of society. In the case of Louisiana, that would be English. This is probably necessary to some point, unfortunately, in terms of getting certain jobs or just communicating with others in certain areas of the state. Hopefully, those who end up having to abandon their native tongue at work can still keep it alive in their homes and communities.
Louisiana Creole wasn’t always considered a stable, natural language of its own, and was often thought of as just another French dialect. Thankfully, linguists and others have shown the world what it truly is, a wonderful language with diverse origins that is spoken by an ethnically diverse population. In a way, Louisiana Creole is a testament to the history and hardships of those who settled there, by choice or not. Let’s just hope enough people care about it to keep it alive for years to come.
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