Louisiana Creole French

Louisiana Creole
Kréyol la Lwizyann
Native to	Louisiana, particularly St. Martin Parish, Natchitoches Parish, St. Landry Parish, Jefferson Parish and Lafayette Parish; also in California (chiefly Northern California), Illinois, and a small community in East Texas.
Native speakers	250,000  (2010)
Language family	French Creole Antillean Creoles Louisiana Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lou
Linguasphere	51-AAC-ca

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Louisiana Creole (Kréyol La Lwizyàn; French: créole louisianais) is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.

Geography

St. Martin Parish.

Creole-speaking parishes in Louisiana

Speakers of Louisiana Creole are mainly concentrated in south and southwest Louisiana, where the population of Creolophones is distributed across the region. There are also numbers of Creolophones in Natchitoches Parish on Cane River and sizable communities of Louisiana Creole-speakers in Southeast Texas Beaumont,Texas (Houston, Port Arthur, Galveston) and the Chicago area. California has the most Creole speakers of any state outside Louisiana, and the number of speakers may surpass that of Louisiana. Louisiana Creole speakers in California reside in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties and in Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento County, Plumas County, Tehama County, Mono County, and Yuba County.)

Speaker demographics

St. Martin Parish forms the heart of the Creole-speaking region. Other sizeable communities exist along Bayou Têche in St. Landry, Avoyelles, Iberia and St. Mary Parishes. There are smaller communities on False River in Terrebone Parish, Pointe-Coupée Parish], and along the lower Mississippi River in Ascension, St. Charles, and St. James and St.John the Baptist parishes (Klingler; Marshall; Valdman). More than 10 languages and regional variations are spoken in Louisiana.

Grammar

The grammar of Louisiana Creole is very similar to that of Haitian Creole. Definite articles in Louisiana Creole vary between the le, la and les used in standard French (a testament of possible decreolization in some areas) and a and la for the singular, and yé for the plural. In St. Martin Parish, the masculine definite article, whether le or -a, is often omitted altogether.

In theory, Creole places its definite articles after the noun, unlike French. Given Louisiana Creole's complex linguistic relationship with Colonial French and Cajun French, however, this is often no longer the case. Since there is no system of noun gender, articles only vary on phonetic criteria. The article a is placed after words ending in a vowel, and la is placed after words ending in a consonant.

Another aspect of Louisiana Creole which is unlike French is the lack of verb conjugation. Verbs do not vary based on person or number. Verbs vary based on verbal markers (e.g., té (past tense), sé (conditional), sa (future)) which are placed between the personal pronouns and conjugated verbs (e.g. mo té kourí au Villaj, "I went to Lafayette"). Frequently in the past tense, the verbal marker is omitted and one is left to figure out the time of the event through context.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Louisiana Creole is of French, African, Native American and Spanish origin. Most local vocabulary, i.e. topography, animals, plants are of regional Amerindian origin - mostly substrata of the Choctaw or Mobilian Language group. The language possesses vestiges of west and central African languages (namely Bambara, Wolof, Fon) in folklore and in the religion of voodoo. The grammar, however, remains distinct from that of French (Midlo Hall; Klingler; Valdman).

Numbers

Included are the French numbers for comparison.

Number	Louisiana Creole	French
1	un	un
2	dé	deux
3	trò/trwa	trois
4	kat	quatre
5	cink	cinq
6	sis	six
7	sèt	sept
8	wit	huit
9	nèf	neuf
10	dis	dix

Personal pronouns

English	Louisiana Creole	French
I	mo	je
Me	mwin	moi
you (informal)	to	tu
you (formal)	vou	vous
he	li, ça	il
she	li, ça	elle
we	nou, nou-zòt (nous-autres)	nous
you (plural)	vou, zòt, vou-zòt (vous-autres)	vous
they (masculine)	yé	ils
they (feminine)	yé	elles

Greetings

English	Louisiana Creole	French
Hello	Bonjou	Bonjour
How are things?	Konmen lé-z'affè?	Comment vont les affaires?
How are you doing?	Konmen to yê? Konmen ç'ap(é) kouri? Konmen ça va?	Comment allez-vous? Comment vas-tu? Comment ça va?
I'm good, thanks.	Çé bon, mèsi. Mo bien, mèsi.	Ça va bien, merci.
See you later.	Wa (twa) pli tar.	Je te vois (vois-toi) plus tard. (À plus tard.)
I love you.	Mo laimm twa.	Je t'aime.
Take care.	Swinn-twa.	Soigne-toi. (Prends soin de toi.)
Good Morning.	Bonjou.	Bonjour.
Good Evening.	Bonswa.	Bonsoir.
Good Night.	Bonswa. / Bonnwí.	Bonne nuit.

The Lord's Prayer

Nou Papa ki dan siel-la
Fé rekonnet ki to nom sin,
Fé ki to règne vini
Fé to volonté accompli
Sûr la terre konmen dan siel-la.
Donné-nouzòt jòrdi dipin ki nou bezwin.
Pardon-nou offenses,
Konmen nou osi pardon lezòt ki offens nou.
Pa laissé nouzòt tombé dan tentation,
Mé délivré nou depi mal.

Common Verbs

Galopé : to run
Parlé: to speak
Manjé: to eat, (n) food
Vini: to come
Sayé: to try
Bliyé: to forget
Pélé: to call
laimé: to love, to like
Hayi: to hate, to dislike
vwyajé: to travel
Ri: to laugh
Arêté: to stop
Fé(r): to do, to make
Dormi: to sleep
Shanté: to sing
Dansé: to dance
Jonglé: to ponder
Pensé: to think
Maré: to attach
Kouri: to run, to go
Ganyé, gain: to have
Di: to say, to tell
Souveni: to remember
Tandé: to hear, to listen
Ekri: to write
Ekouté: to listen
Mèt: to put
Mouri: to die
Pran: to take
Konté: to count
Kwa: to believe
Wa(r): to see
Gardé: to watch
Trouvé: to find
Kaçhé: to hide
Héré: to be happy
Tristé: to be sad
Kontan: to be content, satisfied
Asi: to sit
Rekont: to meet
Voyé: to send
Konné: to know
Swèt: to hope, wish, believe
Twé: to kill
Frappé: to hit
Mélanjé: to blend
Boukané: to smoke (food)
Okipé/Busy: to be occupied,
Advancé: to advance
Endromî: fall asleep
Las: to be exhausted
Ouvrajé: to labor, to work
Sijesté: to suggest
Yê: to be, ex. Konmen to yê: how are you, "how you be." literally
Navigé: to navigate
Pliyé: to fold
Édé: to help
Ini: to unite
Separé: to separate
Divorcé: to separate, divorce
Bwa/Bwé/Bwéson: to drink
Swaf: to have thirst, to be thirsty.
Kontinué: to continue
Pran: to take
Aprann/pran: to learn
Kombaté/Baté: to fight
Engajé: to engage
Oulé/Olé/Vlé: to want
Gélé: to freeze
Friyé: to fry
Fumé: smoke cigarettes
Sharé/Kozé/Paré: to chat, gossip

References

• Brasseaux, Carl. French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana. (Bâton-Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005).
• Klingler, Thomas A. If I could turn my tongue like that: The Creole Language of Pointe-Coupée Parish, La. Bâton-Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.
• Marshall, Margaret. The Origin and Development of Louisiana Creole French: French and Creole in Louisiana. Ed. Valdman, Albert. New York: Plenum Press, 1997.
• Valdman, Albert. Valdman, Albert, et al. Dictionary of Louisiana Creole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
• Valdman, Albert, Thomas A. Klingler, Margaret M. Marshall, and Kevin J. Rottet (eds.). 1996. The Dictionary of Louisiana Creole. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

External links

• Learn Louisiana Creole Online (Kouri-Vini)
• Learn Pointe-Coupée Parish Creole
• Cane River Valley French
• Les Créoles de Pointe-Coupée
• Créoles Sans Limites
• Louisiana Creole Grammar
• Louisiana Creole French at Ethnologue
• Centenary University Bibliothèque Tintamarre Texts in Louisiana Creole