Keynote
"The birth, life, death and rebirth of a language: The life cycle of Louisiana Creole"
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Louisiana Creole, a.k.a. Kouri-Vini, is a critically endangered French-lexifier Creole language spoken today mostly in South Louisiana. This presentation charts the sociolinguistic history of Louisiana Creole over three centuries: from its genesis on the plantation societies of the Mississippi River, its growth as a lingua franca, its gradual and then sudden decline during the Americanization of Louisiana, to its present-day revitalization. Drawing on the author’s ongoing project to synthesize the language’s life cycle into a single framework of language change, the presentation blends quantitative analysis, historical sociolinguistics, linguistic ethnography and a generative theory of language change.
About the Author:
Oliver Mayeux completed a doctoral thesis entitled "Rethinking decreolization: Language contact and change in Louisiana Creole" (University of Cambridge, 2019) and today continues his research as a Title A (Junior Research) Fellow at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He began learning Louisiana Creole as a teenager and has been involved in revitalization efforts for the language since 2012.
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