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== Origins[edit] == Louisiana Creole was spoken initially by those living in the French slave colony of Louisiana. Many of the enslaved Africans came from Senegambia region of West Africa beginning in about 1719. These people originally spoke a Mande language related to Malinke and they were in contact with other languages such as Ewe, Yoruba and Kikongo.

Louisiana Creole is a contact language that arose from interactions between speakers of French and various African languages in the 18th century. For this reason, prior to its establishment, the precursor to Louisiana Creole was considered a pidgin language. In its historical backdrop, this pidgin was born to facilitate communication between African slaves and francophone land owners. Once the pidgin tongue was transmitted to the next generation (who were then considered the first native speakers of the new grammar), it could effectively be considered a creole language.

Origins & Historical Development [edit]
Louisiana was founded and populated by French Immigrants from Canada and France. The colony was established by the Iberville brothers at the headwater of the Mississippi River in 1699. The French colonists were small-scale homesteaders and cattle ranchers who had little success in garnering forced free labour from the Indigenous peoples that inhabited the area; this created a perceived need to import African slaves. It is estimated that a total of 5,500 individuals were brought over from the Senegambia region of West Africa beginning in about 1719. These people originally spoke a Mande language related to Malinke and they were in contact with other languages such as Ewe, Yoruba and Kikongo. The importation of slaves by the French regime continued until 1743.

Louisiana Creole is a contact language that arose in the 18th century from interactions between speakers of the lexifier language of Standard French and several substrate or adstrate languages from Africa. [P]rior to its establishment as a Creole, the precursor was considered a pidgin language. The social situation that gave rise to the Louisiana Creole language was unique, in that the lexifier language was the language found at the contact site. More often the lexifier is the language that arrives at the contact site belonging to the substrate/adstrate languages. Neither the French, French-Canadians, or African slaves were native to the area; this fact categorizes Louisiana Creole as a contact language that arose between exogenous ethnicities. Once the pidgin tongue was transmitted to the next generation as a lingua franca (who were then considered the first native speakers of the new grammar), it could effectively be classified as a creole language.

The boundaries of historical Louisiana were shared by the Spaniards and the Anglo-Americans. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase by the U.S in 1803, the boundaries came to include most of the Central U.S, ranging from present day Montana; parts of North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado; all of South Dakota, Nebraksa, and Kansas; part of Southeast Texas; all of Oklahoma; most of Missouri and Arkansas; as well as Louisiana.

The first document found to acknowledge the existence of the Louisiana Creole was a transcript from a murder trial in 1978. The documentation does not include any examples of orthography or structure.

In a document that is dated from 1807, a grammatical description of the language is included in the experiences of a woman named Robin, prior the arrival of Saint-Domingue Indigenous immigrants. The statements collected from the slave showed linguistic features that are now known to be typical of Louisiana Creole.

“Criollo” appeared in a legal court document dated 1972; the Spanish reference to the language stated that the language was used among slaves and whites.

Slavery of Africans intensified with the surrender of the colony to Spain in 176; there were few Spaniards who came to live in the colony. At this time Louisiana exhibited a unique demographic feature; the colony population of minorities greatly outnumbered the settlers.