Over the centuries, the language has incorporated some words of African, Spanish, Native American and English origin, sometimes giving it linguistic features found only in Louisiana.

Historically, most works of media and literature produced in Louisiana—such as Les Cenelles, a poetry anthology compiled by a group of gens de couleur libres, and Creole-authored novels such as L'Habitation St-Ybars or Pouponne et Balthazar—were written in standard French.

The United States Census' 2007 American Community Survey estimated that 3.5% of Louisianans over the age of 5 spoke French or a French-based creole at home.

One important distinction to make is that the term "créole" at the time was consistently used to signify native, or "locally-born" in contrast to "foreign-born".

[16]Eventually, with the consistent relations built between the Native American tribes and francophones, new vocabulary was adopted into the colonial language.

For example, something of a "French-Choctaw patois" is said to have developed primarily among Louisiana's Afro-French population and métis Creoles with a large portion of its vocabulary said to be of Native American origin.

"[18] This unusual blend of French was also noticed by Pierre-Clement de Laussat during a lunch visit with the Creole-French Canterelle family.

[23] In 1921, the new Louisiana constitution reversed the previous language rights and banned the teaching of French in all public schools.

[23] The constitution established English as the official language of Louisiana, which pushed French out of New Orleans to its current location in southwestern parts of the state.

When the government required all schools, public and parochial, to teach in English, new teachers, who could not speak French, were hired.

[28] Cajun GIs, most of whom could neither speak nor understand English, encountered solely English-speaking Americans and learned it to serve and survive in the military.

[28] Back on the home front, many Cajun civilians united with other Anglo-Americans to support the war effort by volunteering as air raid wardens, plane spotters, firefighters, auxiliary policemen, nursing aides, as well as participating in bond, stamp, and scrap drives.

409 in 1968, the Louisiana governor is granted the authorization "to establish the Council for the Development of Louisiana-French" and that the agency is to consist of no more than fifty members, including a chairman.

An article written online by the Université Laval argues that the state of Louisiana's shift, from an anti-French stance to one of soft promotion has been of great importance to the survival of the language.

All of this culminates in the fact that outside the extremely southern portions of the state, French remains a secondary language that retains heavy cultural and identity values.

[34] According to Jacques Henry, former executive director of CODOFIL, much progress has been made for francophones and the future of French in Louisiana is not merely a symbolic one.

[36] The legislative act was drafted and presented by francophone and francophile senators and representatives as it asserts that the French language is vital to the economy of the state.

In October 2018, through an initiative launched by Scott Tilton and Rudy Bazenet, Louisiana became the first U.S. state to join the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

Poetry remains the most popular medium of literary expression, with poets such as Kirby Jambon and Ashlee Michot receiving international attention.

For example, the traditional third-person singular feminine pronoun elle of Standard French is present but also there is the alternative of alle which is chosen by some authors since it more closely approximates speakers' pronunciation.

My mother would freeze some chicken and we would have some poutine of croquettes.Francophones and creolophones have worked side-by-side, lived among one another, and have enjoyed local festivities together throughout the history of the state.

To accomplish his goals, he teamed up with political leaders in Canada and France, including former French President Georges Pompidou.

"[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] Simultaneously, an ethnic movement took root in southern Louisiana led by Acadian-Creoles like James Donald Faulk, Dudley Joseph Leblanc and Jules O. Daigle.

Likewise, the letter "é" preceding "o" frequently erodes in the spoken informal varieties: "léonide → lonide" or "cléophas → clophas."

Areas in which the formal variety can be heard include New Orleans, Baton Rouge, St. Martinville, and other once important francophone business centers in the state.

In Evangeline parish and nearby areas, dental stops may be affricated before high front vowels and semivowels: in other words, /ty/, /ti/, /tɥ/, /tj/, /dy/, /di/, /dɥ/, /dj/ are then pronounced [t͡sy ~ t͡ʃy], [t͡si ~ t͡ʃi], [t͡sɥ ~ t͡ʃɥ], [t͡sj ~ t͡ʃj], [d͡zy ~ d͡ʒy], [d͡zi ~ d͡ʒi], [d͡zɥ ~ d͡ʒɥ], [d͡zj ~ d͡ʒj].

However, a is usually pronounced [ɑ ~ ɒ ~ ɔ] when making up the diphthong [wa], before /r/ and when being the last open syllable; e.g. fois [fwɑ ~ fwɒ ~ fwɔ] 'time' (frequence), mardi [mɑrd͡zi] 'Tuesday', rat [rɑ ~ rɒ ~ rɔ] 'rat'.

Words pronounced in Classical French as /ɑ̃m/ and /ɑ̃n/ (using amm-, ann-, emm-, enn-), are pronounced [ɑm ~ ɒm ~ ɔm] and [ɑn ~ ɒn ~ ɔn] respectively, rather than [am] and [an] as in Modern French; e.g. femme [fɑm ~ fɒm ~ fɔm] 'woman', solennité [sɔlɑnite ~ sɔlɒnite ~ sɔlɔnite] 'solemnity', s'enamourer (de) /sɑ̃namure (də)/ 'to fall in love (with)'.

[83][84][85] Today one can find many local groups dedicated to practicing Louisiana French regularly, usually over a meal with other interested parties.

Many of said groups can be found through the online Cajun French Virtual Table Française: As of autumn 2011, Louisiana had French-language total immersion or bilingual French and English immersion in ten parishes: Calcasieu, Acadia, St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia, Lafayette, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson and Orleans.