On 20 October, Alliance française de Lafayette (AFL) announced an introductory class in Kouri-Vini, Louisiana’s indigenous Creole language. Classes will take place at the Centre International de Lafayette, 735 Rue Jefferson, in Lafayette (La.) each Wednesday night at 6pm, for 8 weeks. The first class is tonight, 24 October.

This announcement comes at a special moment in our community’s history … linguistically, anyways. AFL’s leadership, in a newsletter earlier this month, declared that AFL had an important role to play in the institutionalization of Louisiana’s “French infused” languages, including Kouri-Vini and French.

On 6 October, the City of St. Martinville, in St. Martin Parish, hosted a map and print-culture exhibit on Kouri-Vini at its Cultural Heritage Center. Mayor Melinda MITCHELL, and city manager Danielle FONTENETTE, also pledged their support to bring more awareness to the language through certain events. St. Martinville is the first city to adopt the modern orthography of the language, and to hang our maps in Kouri-Vini on its walls.

Today, there are more active (re)learners of Kouri-Vini than at any point since 1900. Language boosters have used social media and other tech platforms like Memrise to inform the public on the language and to teach them the language. Active (re)learners come from 5 continents, are of all physiques, identities and professions. Most importantly, most of them are Louisianians.

The community-developed Guide to Louisiana Creole Orthography (2016) has played a key role in the Kouri-Vini language naissance, offering a stable, free, and open writing system used by (re)learners and speakers.

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Alliance française is an organization that promotes the French language and Francophone culture around the world. It was founded in 1883 in Paris, and currently has 850 centers in 137 countries.