Language Attrition in Louisiana Creole French

LANGUAGE ATTRITION IN LOUISIANA CREOLE FRENCH 12
which they evolve had none. In order for a pidgin to evolve into a creole, its
speakers‟ access to both the original languages and the language of the elite
must be completely restricted (Nichols 2004, 135). If speakers of the
dispreferred language in the substrate community have access to the
superstratum‟s prestige language (as happened in places such as New York
City where Spanish-speakers were able to access English, the H language,
through education), a creole will not develop because the speakers of the
substratum will become bilingual within a generation (Nichols 2004 135). Thus
a necessary element in creole generation is that the speakers of the language
with less prestige be completely prevented from learning the prestige language.
The theory of linguistic inferiority holds true for creoles in general but
also for LCF specifically: because LCF is spoken by social groups who are
socially dispreferred, the language itself is likewise viewed as inferior. When
people use creole languages, they are typically viewed by the larger society as
having less prestige. Because of this, LCF speakers who, through education,
have become bilingual in their native creole and the prestige language,
frequently switch from LCF to the prestige language in situations where they
are perceived to be linguistically inferior.
IV. Language attrition
Language shift, or language attrition, has a number of potential causes.
Languages can die out immediately when their speakers are killed, through
massacre or disease. This kind of language loss caused many languages to
disappear in a short period of time.