Louisiana people still speak French fluently ?

15 comments

1. More like creole but some people do.

2. Oh god. I imagine most Frenchmen would die from horror if they heard Louisiana French. 🤣

3. My great grandfather only really spoke Creole and very basic, broken English. Think like instead of ordering a large cup of coffee, he’d say, “bi’ coff’? Thank!”

   Granted he passed almost 25 years ago, but I feel that’s still close enough to current that it justified a response here.

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_French

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_French_language

   These should be good to get you started.

   In a word: yes.

5. [removed]

6. My aunt and the rest of them speaks creole, not pure French.

   There are people who still do speak French but it’s not how the people in France speak French. It’s old.

   My momma used to speak French pretty good but now it’s just bare bones lol

   I asked her yesterday to tell me something in French and she told me she did not want to say anything in French.. in French lol

7. Aye. Though it’s not exactly french. More local creolé dialect and mostly southern LA.

8. Cher, we barely speak *anything* fluently.

9. I don’t know if this guy is fluent or just has a working knowledge, but I thought this video was interesting: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1R5dPw4sYrE

10. As far as I know Louisiana about a century ago went on a campaign to heavily promote English with the attempt to limit French as much as possible. In the 1960s over 70% of Louisiana’s spoke French better than English, today only 7% of Louisianans speak French. As sad as it is, the creole is dying out because the U.S back at the time had major anti-French sentiments and it came with Louisiana banning French in all the areas they could.

11. In my experience not many but some in specific places and it’s a dialect that would probably be difficult for a French person to understand.

12. A lot of answers are referring to Louisiana French as “Creole,” which is a bit misleading. Louisiana has a few varieties of French under the umbrella term “Louisiana French;” the vast majority of existing speakers would identify their dialect as Cajun. In any event, only about 7% of Louisianans speak French at home, but certain French words are common in South Louisiana English.

13. There are still people that speak French at home, but there aren’t many left. When I was a kid in New Orleans, I didn’t know anyone that spoke French at home. But my grandmother did. Her next door neighbor was Creole and she spoke French at home. She even called herself French (i.e. not American).

14. Some do, but it’s well less than 10% and it’s dying out pretty fast. I’d be surprised if it was still above 5%. There are groups trying to preserve it and promote it amongst the younger generations but it’s never going to be like it used to be.

    Also, Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole ARE NOT the same language. I don’t know why people keep repeating that here. Louisiana Creole is much more rare and endangered.

15. My family doesn’t but some of my ancestors did.