What is meant by the terms "Creole"
and "Louisiana Creole"? There have been quite a
few different definitions of Louisiana Creole (LC) and Creole
in general. According to Albert Valdman, the word Creole originates
from crioulo or criolo, which entered the French Language
from the Spanish, which in turn probably derives from the
past tense crialdo of the verb crier (from the Latin creare),
which means "servants raised in the master's house."
researchers explain that
Creole is a language similar to the Haitian Creole in form
and pronunciation. Hesseling defines "Creole" as
"those languages which have arisen out of the European
languages in the mouths of Africans, Asians, Australians,
or Americans (i.e. aboriginal Americans) in overseas provinces,
and then later are also frequently spoken by Europeans or
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Valdman, on the countrary, considers
Liusiana Creole as a Louisiana Creole dialect. He describes
it as the Negro French or gumbo, imported from the Caribbean,
specifically from Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Domingue.
Read considers Louisiana Creole as a French patois consisting
of a French vocabulary, some African words, and an
essentially African syntax.
Louisiana Creole (LC), then,
has been characterized by various descriptions and referred
to by various terms, such as "patois" or "gumbo,"
in addition to the aforementioned "neg." The most
accurate definition seems to be that of recent researchers
Margaret Marshall, who argues that Creole is a variety of
French that the slaves were exposed to, a vernacular French
characterized by regionalisms and reduced forms.
of the fact that the perception of negative linguistic attributes
is unwarranted, it is common knowledge that Louisiana Creole
did develop in the course of years of contact between French
colonists and African slaves. The question one should ask
at this point is: "Where did the slaves come from, and
what language(s) did they bring to Louisiana, in order for
us to determine their linguistic influence(s) on Louisiana
Because of the differing points
of departure of African slaves, which included Senegal, Gambia,
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey (Republic of Benin),
Nigeria, and Angola, researchers like Herskovits, Le Page
du Pratz, and Lorenzo Don Turner all agree that the group
as a whole was linguistically diverse, with such substrate
languages as, among others, Wolof, Malinke, Mangingo, Bambara,
Foule, Mende, Vai, Twi, Fante, Ga, Ewe, Fon, Yoruba, Bini,
Hausa, Igbo, Ibibio, Efik, Congo, Umbundo, and Kimbundo.
methodically argues that two-thirds of the slaves that arrived
in Louisiana were brought from Senegambia, "a site of
the great medieval Ghana, Mali, and Songhai trade," a
region homogeneous in culture and history, located between
the rivers Senegal and Gambia.
The slaves from this region
spoke Serrer, Wolof, and Pulaar, which are closely related,
and Malinke, spoken in the east by the Mande people. Hall
supports with data the fact that Senegambia was the main source
of slave trade between Africa and Louisiana in the eighteenth