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Rethinking Decreolization: Language Contact and Change in Louisiana Creole Oliver Flynn Mayeux Abstract

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Rethinking Decreolization: Language Contact and Change in Louisiana Creole Oliver Flynn Mayeux Abstract Rethinking decreolization: Language contact and change in Louisiana Creole Oliver Flynn Mayeux Theoretical and Applied Linguistics University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Peterhouse February 2019 Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. The thesis does not exceed 80,000 words, including footnotes, references and appendices. Oliver Flynn Mayeux February 2019 ii Rethinking decreolization: Language contact and change in Louisiana Creole Oliver Flynn Mayeux Abstract All languages change. Creoles are no exception. However, do creoles change in the same ways as other languages? Research on language change in creoles has hinged on the notion of decreolization: apparently a ‘special case’ of contact-induced change whereby the creole adverges to the lexifier (Bickerton 1980). Decreolization has been characterized as ‘an insecure notion: insufficiently distinguished from ordinary change processes, possibly conceptually incoherent, and certainly not adequately supported by diachronic investigations to date’ (Patrick 1999:19, see also Aceto 1999, Russell 2015, Siegel 2010). This study tests whether decreolization can truly be distinguished from ‘ordinary’ change processes in non-creole languages and, crucially, brings diachronic corpus data to bear on this major gap in our understanding of language contact, change and creoles These data are drawn from Louisiana Creole, a critically endangered and under-researched French- lexifier creole. Louisiana Creole is particularly well-suited to a study of decreolization: over the course of its life, it has been in contact with its lexifier (French) and a more distantly related language (English). This allows a comparative study of the outcomes of contact between the creole and its lexifier (i.e. Louisiana Creole-French contact) and a dominant language which is not its lexifier (i.e. Louisiana Creole-English contact). Further, different varieties of Louisiana Creole have had differing levels of contact over their history: the variety spoken along the Bayou Teche is typically described as heavily decreolized as a result of contact with French as well as being heavily influenced by English (Neumann 1985a); the variety spoken along the Mississippi river, from which the former variety developed, has had relatively less contact with French (Klingler 2003a). Additionally, this thesis demonstrates that Louisiana’s long history of racial segregation has significantly impacted the sociolinguistic dynamics in the region, with LC undergoing differing levels of contact with French on either side of the Jim Crow divide. Data on the morphosyntactic, phonological and lexical consequences of language contact are drawn from a purpose-built diachronic corpus containing 19th-century folklore texts, 20th-century language documentation materials as well as a transcribed subsample of some 50 hours of sociolinguistic interviews conducted in early 2017. In addition, a corpus of Facebook data is used analyze the language of the burgeoning online language revitalization community. Ultimately, this thesis finds that contact-induced change in Louisiana Creole does not proceed in a creole-specific fashion. It is therefore argued that language contact and change in creole languages is better characterized through existing theoretical frameworks and not through the creole-specific notion of decreolization. The intention of this thesis is not to dismiss decades of work on decreolization; rather, this thesis demonstrates that work on decreolization can be integrated into a non-creole-specific account of language contact, variation and change and so contribute to our understanding of the universal factors which modulate these phenomena. iii iv pou moun ki vini avan v vi Acknowledgements I am immensely grateful to have spent the past three years concentrating on this thesis, a privilege I owe to the support, patience, generosity and compassion of a great many people. Though I will inevitably omit some important names, and though the many shortcomings of this work are my sole responsibility, I would like to extend my thanks to some of these people here. First and foremost, my thanks go to my indefatigable supervisor, Professor Mari Jones. She has been steadfast in her support, constructive criticism and encouragement of my work, as is evident on every page of this thesis. Working with her has changed the way I relate to my academic work. For this, and for many other things, I will continue to feel deep gratitude to her. I am grateful to my advisor Dr David Willis who was on hand to provide valuable feedback during the earlier stages of this study and whose detailed examination of this thesis led to its significant improvement. Very many thanks to Dr Theresa Biberauer and Prof Margaret Deuchar who each spared their time to discuss my work in depth, offering advice and encouragement. My doctoral research was supported by a three-year studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC DTP) at the University of Cambridge. My field research was funded by an AHRC DTP Research Training and Support Grant and a grant from the Bruckmann Fund at Peterhouse. I feel grateful and privileged to have benefited from the support of these organisations. A wonderful thing about working on Louisiana Creole is the friendly community of people who share a fascination with this very special language. During my undergraduate degree, I spent much of my free time exploring the grammar books in SOAS Library: stack-by-stack, book-by-book. The serendipity of one rainy November afternoon in 2010 led me to Thomas A. Klingler’s If I could turn my tongue like that (2003a) and Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh’s Le créole de Breaux Bridge, Louisiane (Neumann 1985a). Since that day, these books have remained constant points of reference. Their work is cited on almost every page of this document, but the contributions of Profs Klingler and Neumann-Holzschuh to my thesis go far beyond that. Each has given freely of their time and patience to discuss my work at various stages, to encourage and support me and to provide honest and generous criticism. Thanks to Prof Klingler for his important feedback as I mapped out the early stages of this research, for assisting me with fieldwork and for sharing the results of his own research with me. Prof Neumann-Holzschuh deserves a special thanks for allowing me to digitize her work and incorporate it into the corpus analysis with the permission of Helmut Burske Verlag. Without her invaluable data and groundwork it would not have been possible for me to complete this study. In her capacity as external examiner, Prof Neumann-Holzschuh also made detailed, thoughtful comments on my thesis manuscript to its substantial improvement. I am also grateful to N. A. Wendte, whose own PhD on Louisiana Creole is now very near to completion and with whom I had regular, inspiring discussions. I am particularly grateful for our conversations surrounding the creole continuum, formal registers of LC and the social-meaningfulness of 'acrolectal' variants, dialogues reflected in Chapters 6 and 8. Many thanks also to Dr Amanda LaFleur, Dr Etienne Viator and Kathrin Brandt, who discussed their own research on Louisiana Creole and shared their thoughts with me. Merci un tas, chers collègues! Furthermore, this thesis would simply not have happened without the vibrant gang of Louisiana Creole activists, academics, educators and all-round cultural paladins whom I am honoured and grateful to call my teachers, friends, comrades and cousins. Mo di in gran mærsi a Dr Christophe Landry, Adrien Guillory-Chatman, Michael Gisclair, Dr Darryl Barthé and tanner menard, amongst others, who have all been so warm in their camaraderie and generous with their knowledge. Conducting fieldwork in Louisiana was a very deep personal experience and I was honoured to meet so many wonderful people with whom I shared homes, meals, laughs, tears, long car rides, crazy airboat rides, fishing trips, hugs, advice, contes and compassion. Without these people my research simply would not have been possible. In Parks, I am very thankful to Howard Ledet and Jeanella Morris for so kindly introducing me into the community and encouraging me when I needed it most. Thanks go to all the members of CREOLE, Inc. and Latab Kreyol, who welcomed me into their meetings with so much warmth. Mèsi boukou to Cheryl Williams and all the wonderful people at Maison de Williams for so graciously allowing me to visit with them and learn so much. In and around St. Martinville and Breaux Bridge, I could not have asked for a better fieldwork padna than Herbert Wiltz - I am very grateful to him for his invaluable assistance and to his wife Sueline Wiltz and her mother Louise Taylor
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