The trajectory of Louisiana Creole from the perspective of language ecology

Abstract

Born of contacts between North American, Caribbean, African and European languages and cultures, Louisiana Creole is the quintessential product of hybridization and syncretism. By examining some of the language's structural and lexical features, such as the expression of progressive aspect in ap(é) and the culinary term couche-couche, a cornmeal dish served with milk, sour milk or coffee, I propose to show how the analytical framework of the ecology of languages developed by S. Mufwene provides a better understanding of the hybridization process that gave rise to the Louisiana Creole language and the Creole culture it conveys.

Thomas Klingler

Thomas Klingler is Associate Professor of French and Linguistics at Tulane University (New Orleans). His research focuses on French outside France and French Creoles, in particular Louisiana French and Creole. He is the author of a monograph on the Creole language of the civil parish of Pointe Coupée, Louisiana, and co-author of Dictionary of Louisiana Creole (1998) and Dictionary of Louisiana French: as Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and Native American Communities (2010). He is currently collaborating with Albert Valdman and Kevin Rottet on the Dictionnaire étymologique, historique et comparé du français de Louisiane.