Louisiana French (often called Cajun French) and Louisiana Creole (also known as Kouri-Vini) emerged during the colonial era and continue to be spoken in the region today. Though now considered endangered by some and spoken by a smaller percentage of the population, their continued presence—despite more than 200 years of increasing English-language influence in public and institutional life—reflects a deep and enduring cultural resilience.
With their long shared history, it is not surprising that Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole share a number of similar features and vocabulary, though Louisiana French is generally considered to be a dialect of the broader French language, and Louisiana Creole is distinct enough to constitute its own language. Louisiana Creole is a French-lexifier creole language: that is to say, it takes a good deal of its vocabulary (lexicon) from French, but it has its own grammar, writing system and linguistic structures.
Throughout our state’s history, French and Creole have been spoken by a wide variety of groups—from enslaved people to wealthy landowners, from the refugees of Acadia and Saint-Domingue to the Indigenous peoples whose interactions with colonists led to their becoming part of the Francophone world. This ethnic diversity left its mark on Louisiana French and Creole. For example, a raccoon is un raton laveur in standard French, while in Louisiana French it’s un chaoui and in Creole it’s in shawi. In this case alone, we can see how Louisiana French and Creole are similar and how they differ from standard French. Louisiana’s word for a raccoon comes from Native Americans who made contact with the French who then adopted the term, which happened frequently as European settlers encountered flora and fauna they were unfamiliar with in the region. The pronunciation in Louisiana French and Creole is identical, differing only in its orthography.
In an effort to display these unique, regional features of Louisiana French and Creole, CODOFIL offers an educational flashcard series called Gombo de Mots. The most comprehensive resource on French in Louisiana is the Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities. For resources on Louisiana Creole, check out Chinbo Inc. and Ti Liv Kréyòl: A Learner’s Guide to Louisiana Creole.
History of Louisiana French and Creole
The history of these languages in Louisiana begins in the late 17th and early 18th centuries when French and French Canadian explorers first made contact with native populations living in the region. As the colony of Louisiana grew, so did the presence of the French language in the region. When Louisiana was sold to the United States in 1803, Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole were the dominant languages spoken in the territory; English was not widely spoken or understood by the Louisianians of that time. For the first several decades of Louisiana’s status as a US territory and then state, French maintained a position of prominence alongside English.
The second half of the 19th century saw massive societal upheaval in Louisiana: the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, and substantial waves of in-migration and out-migration. With time, the more formal domains for French—such as education, government, and literature—shifted to English, leaving French increasingly limited to informal settings like home life, community gatherings, and everyday conversation.
As a result, French in Louisiana has come to be seen by some as an exclusively oral tradition. Yet historical evidence tells a more complex story. For example, French-language newspapers were published in almost every parish of south Louisiana throughout the 19th and sometimes into the 20th century. While many Louisianians spoke a more informal vernacular version of the language in daily life —what may now be referred to as Louisiana French—this existed alongside more formal, standardized forms of the language. Standard French was not confined to major cities like New Orleans: archived copies of newspapers like Le Méridional in Abbeville and La Sentinelle de Thibodaux demonstrate a more widespread engagement with written French than is often assumed today.
By the mid-20th century, French and Creole speakers in Louisiana were in the minority, following several waves of cultural and linguistic assimilation efforts. However, public attitudes toward bilingualism began to shift. Increasingly, families recognized that maintaining their heritage language alongside English did not diminish their identity as Americans. At the same time, emerging research in education and cognitive development challenged earlier misconceptions that bilingualism was somehow a developmental disadvantage. Multilingualism came to be recognized not only as a means of preserving cultural heritage, but also as a valuable resource for educational advancement and economic development.
Today, Louisiana has no official language, but English and French could be considered de facto official languages. Almost all administrative activity is conducted in English, but French is the official language of CODOFIL and its employees, and certain laws recognize the special status of French. One of these is LA Revised Statute 1:51, which states: “Any act or contract made or executed in the French language is as legal and binding upon the parties as if it had been made or executed in the English language.”
To learn more about how CODOFIL continues to advance the development of French and Creole in Louisiana, visit our News page.