Ti Liv Kréyòl - Introduction

Alon komensé. Let's begin.

Éy laba! Hey there! Byinvini and welcome to the second edition of the Ti Liv Kréyòl—‘The Little Creole Book’—the first book for learning Louisiana Creole, an endangered language born in Louisiana that is also known as Kouri-Vini.

The first edition of the Ti Liv Kréyòl was released as a public domain e-book in 2017. You may be reading this second edition on the computer, or holding it in your hands — we have made it available for free online and for a low cost in print. All profits from the sales of this book will go towards distributing print copies of the book in historically Creole-speaking communities and towards supporting future activities to revitalize the language. In this edition, we’ve worked hard to ensure consistency with other available language resources. We’ve also added a new Grammar Sketch, improved the lexicon, and created audio recordings of each dialogue which are available on this website.

Komen izé liv-çila. How to use this book.

Whenever trying to use an unfamiliar language to communicate, a degree of accommodation is required. The variety of language taught in this Ti Liv Kréyòl will — with a little effort — allow you to communicate effectively with any other speaker of Louisiana Creole.

What this book will do:

Give learners the tools to communicate.
Provide some information on the variation present within the language.

What this book will not do:
Cover all variants of the language.
Please everybody.

Louisiana Creole (a.k.a. Kouri-Vini) is an endangered language formerly spoken to varying degrees in Louisiana and the greater Gulf South. Today, the language survives in isolated pockets of Louisiana and in diaspora communities in Texas, California, Illinois, and elsewhere. Because of the fragmented nature of the speech community, as well as internal variation within the language itself, a great amount of diversity exists at every level. This diversity also reflects the fact that many Louisiana Creole speakers were historically multilingual or multi-lectal (able to speak/understand more than one dialect). Differences between individual communities were the norm, not the exception. The language variety presented here is only one of many historically spoken by Gulf South Creoles.

The alphabet used throughout this book is based on a variant proposed by Landry et al. (2016). Since their alphabet was meant to be mostly phonetic, some words presented in this work will have alternate pronunciations/forms depending on the speaker. For teaching purposes, we have generally tried to use only one written form for every word. Most variants will pose no difficulty to a learner as they vary only slightly. This is not a textbook in the strictest since; rather, it is intended to furnish the words and the structures necessary to create natural sentences in Louisiana Creole. It is a primer, not an exhaustive guide to the language.

Ki no yê. Who we are.

The Ti Liv Kréyòl was put together by a team of people over a couple of years. It was the brainchild of linguist Nathan Wendte who produced a first draft of the lessons and lexicon in early 2017. Linguist Oliver Mayeux then joined to help edit these. Nathan and Oliver worked together with long-time champion of Creole language and culture, Herbert Joseph Wiltz, who reviewed the manuscript of the first edition and made invaluable edits based on his experience as a native speaker of the language and a high school teacher. At that time, the manuscript was also sent around to different community organizations and individuals so that different opinions on the work could be gathered. The first edition of the Ti Liv Kréyòl saw the light of day in August 2017!

In 2018, The Foundation for Endangered Languages awarded a small grant for the production of a new and improved print edition of the book. It was at this point that Adrien Guillory-Chatman joined the team. As both a long-time learner of the language and as an educator, Adrien made sure the book was presented in a consistent way that would be accessible and helpful for as many people as possible. Graphic designer and language enthusiast Irina V. Wang also came onboard, bringing her expertise on designing learning materials for endangered languages. Irina put together the finished physical book, which we hope you will agree is beautifully presented. Of course, a huge part of the look and feel of this second edition comes from the original illustrations by Louisiana Creole artist, writer, curator and language activist Jonathan "radbwa faroush" Mayers. Additionally, Herbert Wiltz and Nathan recorded the audio resources and edited the dialogues. Oliver and Nathan co-authored the all-new grammar sketch. Oliver edited the lexicon and, together with Nathan and Adrien, checked for consistency. At all stages of the project, we received invaluable feedback from a number of people including Christophe Landry, members of C.R.E.O.L.E., Inc., and members of Latab Kréyòl in Parks.

If you have your own feedback or just want to say bonjou, we would love to hear from you. Go ahead and write us at lacreoleprimer@gmail.com.

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