Google app aims to give new life to Louisiana Creole, other languages at risk of disappearing – The Advocate

If Louisiana Creole as a language is endangered, then Google may have a lifeline to toss its way.

Google revealed last week that it is introducing a progressive web app, Woolaro, through its Google Arts & Culture team, that uses machine learning to provide words for 10 at-risk languages from around the world.

They are Yugambeh, an aboriginal language from Australia; Yiddish, a High German derived language of the Ashkenazi Jews; Tamazight, spoken in North Africa and the Sahara region; Rapa Nui, spoken on Easter Island; Nawat, an Uto-Aztecan language from southwestern El Salvador; Maori, spoken in New Zealand; Calabrian Greek, used by ethnic Griko people in southern Italy; Sicilian, from the Italian island; Louisiana Creole, French-based and mostly spoken in Louisiana; and Yang Zhuang, a Tai language spoken in southwestern China.

This time, Festival Acadiens et Creoles is going with Plan A.

UNESCOs Atlas of the Worlds Languages says Louisiana Creole, with 7,000 to 9,000 speakers in Louisiana, California, Illinois and Texas, is one of those imperiled languages. It originated in colonial Louisiana before 1803 and was used by some enslaved and free people of color and whites, according to scholars.

But some Louisiana Creole enthusiasts believe the Google app will help spread knowledge about the language and help those who are interested in learning it. Jessica Ryan, representing Google, said Oliver Mayeux, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge who has studied the language, put together a team to create the Woolaroo app, which was revealed last Thursday.

Mayeux, whose father is from Louisiana, has retained scholarly interest in the language since he was a teenager.

The app is described as an open-source photo-translation platform powered by machine learning and image recognition. The user can provide an image to the app, which will recognize what is shown in the image and provide relevant words in the selected endangered language.

For example, the app recognized a photo of a tree and provided the word narb to describe it in Louisiana Creole.

In Louisiana, Google partnered with a team behind "Ti Liv Kreyol," which it described as the first book for learning Louisiana Creole. The group included Herbert J. Wiltz of Lafayette, a former Lafayette Parish teacher who compiled lesson plans for teaching the language and who continues to organize efforts to teach Louisiana Creole, a language he learned from his grandmother.

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Growing up, my parents didnt teach it, he said. But my grandmother never shooed me away.

It was by listening to her and those with whom she conversed that he learned the language, which he said has stayed with him. I wanted to do something with it, he said.

What hes done since has included study, travel and teaching. He said hes been involved with Creole Inc., which includes people in St. Martinville and other nearby communities who have tried to revitalize the language through efforts such as Louisiana Creole tables, meetings over coffee where people can converse in the language. He said he was planning a meeting for such a table Saturday via Zoom.

People still speak Louisiana Creole, he said, but its the elderly, not the young, and that has to change to keep the language going.

We are not doing enough to generate interest, he said.

In south Louisiana, he said, Creole ancestors have moved away to Houston and California, and people there continue to speak it. But many of them are elderly.

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Wiltz said some people mistakenly believe that zydeco musicians are singing Louisiana Creole, but he said thats rarely the case nowadays. Clifton Chenier tried to incorporate Louisiana Creole in his music and Wiltz said Zydeco Joe, born in Carencro, was nimble in his use of Louisiana Creole.

Herman Fusilier, who hosts the Zydeco Stomp on KRVS public radio from noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, said some musicians have gone out of the way to incorporate Louisiana Creole in their music. They include Corey Ledet, who has been working on the language with Wiltz, and Sean Ardoin of Lake Charles, whose family is steeped in the Creole traditions.

Ardoins family, Fusilier said, go back to the roots of zydeco and have created Creole songs. He said that can create a fine line for musicians to walk singing in a language they understand but that their audience might not recognize.

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Young people didnt grow up speaking Creole, Fusilier said. Some may know a few words but might rather hear something they understand.

Young people like Jonathan Mayers, an artist from Baton Rouge, did not understand Kouri-Vini, a native language of Louisiana during Louisianas colonial period, from which Louisiana Creole evolved. But he embraced it because it was spoken by ancestors.

Mayers had pursued studies in Cajun French prior to turning to attention to the language his ancestors spoke in places such as Pointe Coupee Parish. Some 10 years ago, he learned about his fathers familiarity with Louisiana Creole at least with the cadence and the nuance of the language and he made it a point to learn more.

He said he provided some voice for some of the vocabulary on the app as well as for some phrases.

Adrien Guillory-Chatman, born in Lafayette but raised in Chicago, also worked on the app. She said her family spoke Louisiana Creole but she only learned a few words or phrases while growing up. Learning the language was not encouraged, she said, although the elders spoke it.

She said she started studying the language about seven years ago. An educator and a lifelong learner, she said people she knew at the local Catholic church spoke it and she wanted to speak it as well.

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She said she started her study with a six-week course and continued to pursue greater mastery of the language. She joined a practice group on Facebook and pursued language exercises and conversation over social media.

She said there are Creole tables in Chicago. They were halted by the pandemic but revived through Zoom. She and others continue the Zoom meetings, she said, in hopes that as soon as things open up again, we can get together and form a community of speakers.

She rates herself as an intermediate learner of Louisiana Creole. But shes determined. Working on the app, she said, encouraged her to keep working on her language skills. She said the app has already encouraged her to add on to the available language and refine it.

She said her Guillory family is from St. Landry Parish, and she counts Louisiana Creole speakers among them.

She said when she first started reclaiming la creole, she would walk her dogs and look at things around her and name them in Creole. That became a daily routine. Now, the answers to what's around her on her walks are as close as the app.

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Google app aims to give new life to Louisiana Creole, other languages at risk of disappearing - The Advocate