1935 Louisiana Creole Recordings Rediscovered After 91 Years

Rediscovered 1935 recordings made by pioneering Black linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner are the earliest known extended audio of spoken Louisiana Creole and the only known recordings of the New Orleans variety. Uncovered in Indiana University’s archives and analyzed by linguist Oliver Mayeux, the discs preserve conversations, songs and personal accounts from Black Louisianans, including people born in the 19th century. The recordings capture a language shaped by French colonialism and slavery, with French vocabulary and distinct grammar, as well as speakers shifting between Creole and Louisiana French. Because New Orleans Creole largely disappeared by the 1950s, the material offers linguists and historians rare evidence of the language’s diversity and the lives of its speakers.