WIKITONGUES: Sam speaking Louisiana French

Hi my name's Sam Craft and

I was born here in New Orleans

i was not brought up speaking French,

but it's something i've picked up.

It was the native language of my
grandparents

and great-great-grandparents.

But it was something i had to learn.

My dialect is Louisiana French.

It's different than standard French

that you'd learn at school.

It's the native Louisiana language

and... i'm proud to speak it.

I play in the band "Sweet Crude"

and I sing, and play the violin
and tambourine.

The name Sweet Crude come from...

it is a quality of oil,

it's the highest quality
of oil that you can find.

It's also an oxymoron

(I don't know the French name for that)

but we like the name!

I wasn't brought up speaking French but

it was very important for me,

for us, to learn it to preserve it

because if you don't preserve it,

it's finished. It'll die.

And we don't want to see that.

We so started our band

that sings in Louisiana French

and we speak it -

as much as possible!

(in French: "autant que possible!")

I'm ready to learn it all the time

from Safae, Siedl.

I have to speak to old people,

the members of my family,

and the family of Alexis [Marceaux],

and that's what you have to do

and you do have to do it
to learn.

Because there are books,

but they're not enough.

There are classes,
but they're not enough.

We live in New Orleans

and people speak Louisiana French here.

People speaking standard French

learn it at school.

So if you stay in New Orleans,

it's different, we have our own
culture here.

It's not the same,

but it's still an important thing for me

because it is still the world

I come from.

My ancestors...

They've been talking Louisiana French

for around... 100 years ago maybe.

But it's my roots,

it's the roots of many members of my band,

and it's really important
for the rest of us.

I think that's it!

Thank you.