Language Attrition in Louisiana Creole French

LANGUAGE ATTRITION IN LOUISIANA CREOLE FRENCH 26
Louisiana‟s slave population until the Spanish resumed the slave trade
(Klingler 2003, 17).
The Spanish acquired Louisiana in 1762 through the Treaty of
Fountainebleau. France transferred the Louisiana territory to Spain to offset
Spain‟s loss of Florida to the English and rid itself of the burdensome French
colony simultaneously (Klingler 2003, 17). In 1766, the lower colony‟s slave
population had grown to 5,799 (the total population was 11,410 (Klingler 2003,
17). The Spanish proved much more successful at managing the colony than
the French; by 1803, the colony‟s population had burgeoned to 50,000, and the
development of an agricultural economy based on the cultivation of sugar cane
had commenced (Klingler 2003, 18).
Despite Spain‟s effective control of the colony, the Spanish language had
little influence. French still predominated. This lack of influence is due in part
the fact that few Spanish colonizers immigrated to Louisiana, and those who
did either quickly assimilated to French culture or completely isolated
themselves from it (Klingler 2003, 18).
The influx of 2,600 to 3,000 Acadian immigrants from Canada, which
began in 1755, impacted Louisiana much more extensively than did the arrival
of the Spaniards. The Acadians began in arrive in 1755, after they were forced
from the Canadian territory by the new British colonizers. The entry of Acadian
settlers caused a huge increase in the French-speaking population, which was
further underlined by the fact that the Acadians “formed an unusually cohesive
group that tended to assimilate other ethnicities” (Klingler 2003, 19). The