Louisiana Creole

Not to be confused with Louisiana French.

Louisiana Creole
Creole French
Kouri-Vini,[1] Kréyòl,[2] Fransé[3]
Native toUnited States
RegionLouisiana, (particularly St. Martin Parish, Natchitoches Parish, St. Landry Parish, Jefferson Parish, Lafayette Parish, Calcasieu Parish, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana and New Orleans); also in California (chiefly Southern California), Illinois, and in Texas (chiefly East Texas).
EthnicityLouisiana French (Cajun, Creole)
Native speakers
<10,000 (2023)[4]
Creole
Official status
Official language in
 Louisiana
Language codes
ISO 639-3lou
Glottologloui1240
ELPLouisiana Creole
Linguasphere51-AAC-ca
Creole-speaking parishes in Louisiana
Louisiana Creole is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Louisiana Creole is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the U.S. state of Louisiana.[4] Also known as Kouri-Vini,[1] it is spoken today by people who may racially identify as white, black, mixed, and Native American, as well as Cajun and Creole. It should not be confused with its sister language, Louisiana French, a dialect of the French language. Many Louisiana Creoles do not speak the Louisiana Creole language and may instead use French or English as their everyday languages.

Due to the rapidly shrinking number of speakers, Louisiana Creole is considered an endangered language.[5]

  1. ^ a b Teo, Tracey (March 1, 2023). "Rediscovering America: Kouri-Vini: The return of the US' lost language". BBC Travel.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference tiliv-book was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Neumann-Holzschuh, Ingrid; Klingler, Thomas A. (2013), "Louisiana Creole structure dataset", Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, retrieved May 15, 2023
  4. ^ a b Neumann-Holzschuh, Ingrid; Klingler, Thomas A. "Structure dataset 53: Louisiana Creole". APiCS Online. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
  5. ^ "Louisiana Creole". Ethnologue. Retrieved August 15, 2017.