Workshop: Le Français Louisianais

📍 Location Lafayette International Center  / Part of the Rassemblement de la Jeunesse Louisianaise
🎟 Free & Open to the Public but registration required

Explore the Living Language of French Louisiana

Join renowned linguist and educator Amanda LaFleur for a dynamic workshop on Louisiana French—its expressions, evolution, and resilience.Drawing on her decades of research and community work, Amanda will guide participants through:

• Key features and regional variations of Louisiana French
  
• Common expressions, idioms, and vocabulary still used today
  
• Reflections on the importance of documenting and teaching heritage languages
  

Why attend?

ether you're a fluent speaker, a learner, or simply curious, this session offers a rich introduction to the beauty and complexity of French as it lives and breathes in Louisiana.What You’ll Gain

• A deeper appreciation for Louisiana’s French linguistic heritage
  
• Tools and phrases you can use or recognize in everyday life
  
• Insights from one of the state’s leading voices in French language preservation

About the presenter

Amanda LaFleur

Louisiana French

Amanda LaFleur was born in Ville Platte in 1957. Her career spreads over more than thirty years during which she taught in elementary and secondary schools but also at a university level. Active in promoting the Louisiana Francophonie since 1970, LaFleur hosted French-speaking programs on the radio, TV and theater. She is a pioneer in the French-language and ancestral culture integration but also in the teaching of French by leading various workshops on the subject for teachers. Author of Tonnerre mes chiens: A Glossary of Louisiana French Figures of Speech and co-author of The Dictionary of Louisiana French: As spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian Communities, she is also co-director with Tom Klingler of the Louisiana section of the Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone (www.bdlp.org), an international-scale project showcasing the lexical variations of the French language around the world. Since 1998, she is in charge of the cadienne study at the Louisiane State University.