Creole Explained

In this episode, Marc and Malala explore identity, race, and culture on the island nation of Madagascar.

Madagascar, like most Creole nations, is a former French colony. Yet, we see that the Malagasy a proximal relationship to "Creole" but maybe most do not identity as such.

ART: USC International Mission Photo Archives

Music: LAKEY INSPIRED - Chill Day" is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Music provided by BreakingCopyright:

• [Non Copyrighted ...

In Louisiana, the Creoles of Color tried hard to keep themselves isolated and distinct from a group that looked like them and sounded like them: The Black Francophone Freedman. Were the latter Creoles? Does this distinction even matter? Here I will explore a distinction included by the Creoles of Colore of Bayou Country novel.

White People mixed these two group up and historically wanted to avoid both of them at all cost. Many Americans would also confused and conflate these two groups into one. Yet, we must remember. Technically.....many of those black francophones were owned by Creoles of Color. So, is it shocking that the Creoles of Color did not want to mix with them?

Here I address the concept of Linguistic Reinforcement. Saint Lucia, a creole nation just south of Martinique, appears to be retaining its creole identity, especially from interactions with the French Creole island Martinique. Saint Lucia's sister island, Dominica, is just south of Guadeloupe. Creole culture and language appears to be reinforced in Dominica by interactions with Guadeloupe. Despite Dominica and Saint Lucia both being anglophone, a far greater portion of their populations speak Creole compared to that of Louisiana. Louisiana Creoles are farther away, yes, and have undergo repressive Americanization efforts. Yet, it appears many Louisiana Creoles are largely unaware of their Creole cousins around the world. Even more, it appears many of these Creole populations are unfortunately largely unaware who Louisiana even is and whether she even speak Creole...

Coucouuuu. Je voulais faire mon tout premier épisode en français depuis un moment.

Je vous explique le mouvement de revitalisation des langues... mourantes dans la Louisiane. Malheureusement, c'est ça.

Que de 2% de la population parlent français en Louisiane selon une étude 2022, ce qui représente moins de 85 000 locuteur . Le français était la langue maternelle de à peu près 500 000 louisianais en 1970. Quel changement hein.

Donc, il faut se demander maintenant, est-ce que l'état de la Louisiane est actuellement francophone? Est-elle actuellement créolophone? Ensuite, j'aimerais savoir pourquoi est-ce que les Créoles n'arrivent pas à se rendre compte qu'il s'agit d'une langue fonctionnement morte. Ceux qui mènent la revitalisation vaudraient mieux en assumer pour mieux viser leurs efforts.

Hey guys. So, I am starting a new part of my podcast where I make reaction episodes. These are meant to be funny and informal af. Please do not listen if you are gonna be sensitive....

Anyway, my 4th great grandmother really set herself up financially. It reminds me of a lot of the plaçage. Honestly, Joséphine could have very well been a placée! Either way, I support it. It was smart. Another example of how free woman of color played the hell out the system that was meant to hurt them !

In this episode, I discuss my 4th great grandmother, Joséphine DeGruy. She was born into slavery in Louisiana in 1814. She and her family were freed in 1818 when she was just 4 years old. Around 1840, she "married" a white man by the name of Jean Felix Breaux. They are seen together in the 1850 census with their children living in Iberville. My 4th great grandfather, Jean Felix Breaux, is listed as a white planter with thousands of dollars in real estate.

I also discuss how determined the identity of Josephine's mother, my 5th great grandmother!

Here I explained how I inadvertently obtained native-like fluency in French.

I am so happy It happened though. My great grandmother's native tongue.

Here I explore the unique white identifying Creole-speakers. Whites could have acquired some of the creole language while working along blacks during the reconstructive and post-reconstructive era. They also could have learned Creole from black caretakers (both enslaved and free). Yet, we also must consider that "Creole" , unlike the case in other former French areas, is not well distinguished from French in Louisiana. The two language exist on a continuum. This is interesting, because this sort of continuum only is usually seen in English Creoles, as noted by McWhorter.

I

In this podcast, I describe how the cajun ethnicity formed when Acadains migrated to Louisiana and intermarried with the, already-present, Creole populations that were in the South Central Regions of Louisiana where they settled.