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Ok, so you live in Louisiana as well, great. But some of the things you said were different than what I said, but that’s fine because we agree on other things. However, I don’t rely on people who attend festivals and city officials for info because many of these people are ignorant of the facts and pass along rumor and what they believe is true. I usually take what I get from documented evidence that can offer certainty and life experience in Louisiana. I think we agree on many things said here, just differ in a few and that’s where the “radically different” part came from.Originally Posted by NSXD60
Euro French? Euro Spanish? Can you explain that comment further? I wasn’t suggesting that LA French and Isleño spanish are European French. La French in schools has gotten an injection of European French, but there are also grassroots language groups teaching real La French and still those learning from family. Isleño spanish has not gotten an injection from European Spanish. It’s still 100% Isleño spanish but there is also no preservation effort for isleño spanish in schools so it faces greater future risk than LA French in Louisiana.
When you said the upper classes saw Louisiana French as a scattering of illiterate dialects, the only thing that comes to my mind is A) the upper crust French Creoles (white Louisianians of French descent) of the past looking down on poor French Creoles, Creoles of Color, black Creoles and Acadian Creoles (Cajuns) for their dialects B) the French language group CODOFIL that was put together in 1968 to save Louisiana’s French language was spearheaded by a man that viewed his own people’s dialects as illiterate and vowed to bring in teachers from France and Montreal to teach more proper and educated form of French and C) the French immersion of the last couple decades in south Louisiana schools that has installed teachers from France, Quebec and the Caribbean to teach French with the complaint that they can’t get enough local Louisiana speakers that have a college degree to teach grade level French. Were you talking about any of these? LSU also offers a college course in Louisiana French. There are a couple grassroots French language groups attempting to teach south Louisiana folks that are interested in learning. I know a guy that runs one in Lafourche Parish based on Lafourche Parish French. Many people might not know this, but all ethnic groups that lived in colonial Louisiana spoke French. Since French was the lingua Franca in Louisiana of the time and the language of Lousiana’s society, many non-French ethnic groups could speak French in addition to their native Language, essentially being tri-lingual. This was the case for the Isleños, Malagueños and those of German descent. Isleños used to speak Spanish at home in the community and speak french to customers buying their vegetables at New Orleans’ French Market, also to the buyers that would come and buy animal pelts from isleño trappers and seafood from isleño fishermen. They would have to speak French to members of neighboring communities that were not isleños. But inside the isleño community, it was all Spanish. English has replaced French today in this aspect.
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