re: Any groups or organizations that meet to keep alive the speaking of Creole French?

Maybe it does today but it didn’t used to. I have a book called “gumbo ya ya” written about Louisiana in the 40s or 50s and it’s very clear. Creoles were the upper or middle class who lived more in cities in the southeast and had lived in Louisiana longer. The Cajuns were seen as poor rednecks that came from Acadiana (Canada).

Nobody (other Europeans) dared mix with the Cajuns until after the civil war.

Funny how Cajun became the encompassing term for all white French descendants and you gave Creole to the black descendants. If your ancestors lived around southeast Louisiana or came from one of the other French colonies (or France itself) they are surely rolling in their graves

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Maybe it does today but it didn’t used to.

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Yeah. It did.

Gumbo Ya Ya was written by two dudes from New Orleans and one from Baton Rouge.

I’m going to take a wild arse guess none of them had ever been to Plaisance.

Creole in Acadiana means something very different than it does in New Orleans.


And the Creoles in south Louisiana spoke Kouri-Vini.

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Many white people in antebellum Louisiana also referred to themselves as Creoles. Among people of European descent, the term generally referred to persons of upper-class French or Spanish ancestry, and even German ancestry (though all eventually spoke French as their primary language). The term has even been applied to persons of Italian ancestry in New Orleans. Indeed, many white Creoles could be found in New Orleans, as well as in parishes such as Avoyelles and Evangeline, which, while incorrectly regarded today as historically Acadian, were actually populated by white Creoles. Politically, Louisiana’s aristocratic white Creoles stood in contrast to the more democratic américains who flooded the state after the Louisiana Purchase. For example, white Creoles in the early nineteenth century used their influence in state government to grant voting rights only to males who paid taxes and owned property, thereby denying the vote to many poor white males. Like the Creoles of color, white Creoles experienced dramatic economic decline after the Civil War. While some managed to retain their sense of identity, many white Creoles—particularly in rural and small-town southern Louisiana—began to intermarry with the region’s large Acadian population.

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LINK

Do you not consider New Orleans to be part of southern Louisiana?

You think French colonists that had been separated from France in their own colonies, as well as Louisiana, for decades and centuries (white Creoles) spoke the same dialect of French as the Acadians that were removed from Canada and made it to Louisiana?

I highly doubt that.

Maybe after the groups had converged after decades and decades?

And what about the Creoles that were in North Carolina and the rest of the south?

LINK

This guy Pierre Beauregard was clearly a Creole French, not a Cajun. Yet you think they had any sort of similar dialects?? I really don’t. From everything I can read the Cajuns were completely segregated before the civil war, even in “south Louisiana” (which had French descendants ((aka white Creoles, not creoles or color)) before the Cajuns/Acadians from Canada ever showed up)

You are even dumber than I thought.

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In south Louisiana, Creole means French speaking people of African descent.

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It's really not quite that simple. The truth is, nothing in Louisiana is that simple. The French (nor the Spanish) took such a binary view of ethnicity.

Historically, Creoles were those that generally met these requirements:
1) Born in the French or Spanish colony
2) Catholic
3) Spoke French, Creole, Spanish, or Italian (any Romance language, really)

By this definition, descendants of the Acadians also fell into the Creole bucket, though that doesn't mean you can't also be Cajun

In Louisiana, both those that would call themselves Cajun and Creole spoke (and speak) Louisiana Creole, or Kouri-Vini. Here's one such example of someone who most would probably call Cajun speaking KV:
LINK

And here's an example of people that probably considered themselves Creole (and others would consider Creole) speaking French:
LINK


The Americanization of Louisiana post Civil War is when we start seeing ethnicity being defined by racial bounds, and then the big push for Cajun Pride on the heels of the Civil Rights movement.


If you guys want to learn a lot about the history of Louisiana, there's a fantastic Tiktok channel run by Christophe Landry, who is an expert in Louisiana history and culture. He has playlists for you to dive into, should you so choose. And everything he talks about, he has documentation for through old newspapers, government documents, etc.

There are French tables all throughout Acadiana (and outside, too) you can join. I'm in BR and i attend 3, plus there are a handful online through Zoom and Discord.




If anyone's interested in learning our French, here's a list of resources I've put together for people before:

[Practice]
First, I strongly recommend attending virtual or in-person French tables:
LINK

There's a Discord for Cajun French that has a weekly chat on Sunday night:
LINK


[Courses]

Kirby Jambon's YT videos are a great start.
LINK

Josh Atwell at cajun-french.com runs courses


[Immersion Resources]
In addition to lessons, you'll want to immerse yourself and listen to our French as much as you can.

Boudini et Ses Ami is a good start for that:
LINK

Josh Atwell has started to make some videos for beginners.
LINK

You can find a lot of information on the LSU Cajun French website:
LINK

LSU also has a series of interviews with transcripts and translations:
LINK

L'académie Cadienne is great but since they're conversations it can be difficult for beginners.
LINK

cajun-french.com has a table of immersion content that you can filter by parish:
LINK

I highly encourage anyone to listen to Bonjour Louisiane on KRVS. The show is live at 5AM, but their website and app has it available for streaming 24/7. Colby Lejeune is great and he speaks for a few minutes every 15-20m. I love to just put it on while I work in the morning and stop and listen to him talk. He has guests sometimes. He has access to the ULL archives so there's often old music, stories, and conversations on there you won't hear anywhere else.

Basically all of Télé-Louisiane, but especially the interviews playlist has been my favorite (the LaCréole interviews also!!!):
LINK

And La Veillée
LINK

Brad Nations yt has quite a lot
LINK


[Books]
As for books, there are a few.

There's the bible of Louisiana French:
LINK

Cajun Self-Taught (fair warning: it was written a long time ago by an old man. Some of his views are very dated, and he created his own phonetic system that nobody else uses... but the meat of the book is still very useful)
LINK

This little dictionary is great for what it is. Good to keep out on an end table and just pick up and read.
LINK

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There are a bunch of French Tables around where people meet up to speak French.

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I was about to post this. This one is in my hometown. And you can swing by LA31 get you some beer and pizza after.

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Creole = from colonial French territories or France

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Or from Spain or Italy

You also said Creoles just lived in the cities in the SE

Also the first Cajuns came in 1760 so they were here before many Creoles
The Haitian revolution which caused many Creoles to move to LA didn’t happen until 1790