I was on a tour in New Orleans, and the guide asked if anyone knew what "Creole" meant. Someone answered something like, "a mixed Black and European ancestory." The guide said no, though he said it's a common misunderstanding. Yet, when I look it up that's almost precisely what the dictionary says. The guide spoke about French settlers in the south and particularly in Louisiana. But isn't the other definition true, too? Or is it a "myth?"

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
"a mixed Black and European ancestory."

That is one of the meanings in my dictionary.

In linguistics, a creole is a language that has developed from a combination of other languages. Unlike pidgins, creoles have native speakers.

I thought when I saw the heading you were talking about the language, which is a result of the mixing of two languages (in this case French and English).

I don't know enough about Louisiana to speak with authority, but I've never understood it to have connotations of colour. I thought it meant in this context persons of French-American descent. The Online Etymology Dictionary seems to agree:

quote:

Fowler (1926) writes: "Creole does not imply mixture of race, but denotes a person either of European or (now rarely) of negro descent born and naturalized in certain West Indian and American countries."

It seems your tour guide was unusual; many are notorious for making up fanciful stories that often end up being debunked as urban legends on sites like Snopes.

In Spanish, criollo means a person of European descent born in the New World; mestizo means of mixed race.

Here's an article that may explain the various understandings of the word.

Wordmatic

[quote]guide spoke about French settlers in the south and particularly in Louisiana[/quote
The guide may have been confusing "creole" with "cajun." A Cajun(corruption of "Canadian")is a descendent of the French Canadians who were forcibly sent to New Orleans. Their style of mixed French/Spanish and "whatever-is-available-locally" cooking is Cajun style cooking.
I agree that there is a lot of confusion about the word "creole."

The usual origin of Cajun is from Acadian.

I stand corrected. Acadian and not Arcadian, but they were from Canada ...

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