Louisiana Creole
Introduction
In this essay we attempt to describe the Louisiana Creole according to its history or origin, its speech community, its geographical location and the reasons why it is considered a Creole and not a language.
Pidgin and Creole
We can start this assignment by defining what a Creole is. However, in order to do this, we also have to define what a Pidgin is. Let us begin in that way.
A Pidgin is a language with no native speakers; it is a contact language. In fact, the term pidgin comes from the English word “business”, and it is used for trading or between employer and worker or in any situation requiring communication between people who do not speak each other’s native language.
On the other hand, a Creole is a Pidgin that has become the first language of a new generation of speakers. Therefore, the vocabulary and syntactic devices of a Creole are, like those of any native language, large enough to meet all the communication needs of its speakers.
In short, the difference between a Pidgin and a Creole is that people grow up speaking Creoles as their first language, whereas nobody speaks a Pidgin as their mother tongue.
French-based Creoles
We have to turn our attention to French-based creoles. As the chart below shows, there are five French-based creoles spoken mainly in the Caribbean, in the U.S., and on several islands in the Indian Ocean.
Caribbean
Speakers
Location
Haitian Creole
7,389,066
Haiti, U.S.
Guadeloupean Creole
848,000
Guadeloupe, Martinique
Louisiana Creole
6,000-8,000
U.S.
Guianese Creole
50,000
French Guiana
Amapá Creole
25,000
Brazil
Louisiana Creole
Within French-based creoles, our focus of study will be Louisiana Creole (from now on LC).
LC is different from standard French, Cajun French (also spoken in Louisiana), Haitian, and other creoles of the Caribbean.
Geographical Location
Louisiana Creole is spoken in very few southeastern areas
In this essay we attempt to describe the Louisiana Creole according to its history or origin, its speech community, its geographical location and the reasons why it is considered a Creole and not a language.
Pidgin and Creole
We can start this assignment by defining what a Creole is. However, in order to do this, we also have to define what a Pidgin is. Let us begin in that way.
A Pidgin is a language with no native speakers; it is a contact language. In fact, the term pidgin comes from the English word “business”, and it is used for trading or between employer and worker or in any situation requiring communication between people who do not speak each other’s native language.
On the other hand, a Creole is a Pidgin that has become the first language of a new generation of speakers. Therefore, the vocabulary and syntactic devices of a Creole are, like those of any native language, large enough to meet all the communication needs of its speakers.
In short, the difference between a Pidgin and a Creole is that people grow up speaking Creoles as their first language, whereas nobody speaks a Pidgin as their mother tongue.
French-based Creoles
We have to turn our attention to French-based creoles. As the chart below shows, there are five French-based creoles spoken mainly in the Caribbean, in the U.S., and on several islands in the Indian Ocean.
Caribbean
Speakers
Location
Haitian Creole
7,389,066
Haiti, U.S.
Guadeloupean Creole
848,000
Guadeloupe, Martinique
Louisiana Creole
6,000-8,000
U.S.
Guianese Creole
50,000
French Guiana
Amapá Creole
25,000
Brazil
Louisiana Creole
Within French-based creoles, our focus of study will be Louisiana Creole (from now on LC).
LC is different from standard French, Cajun French (also spoken in Louisiana), Haitian, and other creoles of the Caribbean.
Geographical Location
Louisiana Creole is spoken in very few southeastern areas
References: Speedy, Karin Elizabeth. (1994). Mississippi and Tèche Creole: Two separate starting points for Creole in Louisiana.The University of Auckland. De Camp, David. (1968). The Field of Creole Language Studies.Latin American Research Review. Vol. 3, No. 3 (Summer, 1968). The Latin American Studies Association Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2502402 Klingler,Thomas A.(2003). Language labels and language use among Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana. Ed. T. Sanchez and U. Horesh. Working papers in Linguistics. Wardhaugh, Ronald. (2010). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Wiley-Blackwell. Chapters 2 and 3. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/lou. Retrieved on 02/07/2014. http://www.ethnologue.com/cloud/lou Retrieved on 02/07/2014. http://www.ethnologue.com/about/language-status Retrieved on 02/07/2014. http://aboutworldlanguages.com/ Retrieved on 02/07/2014.