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86-525: Gumbo ( Louisiana Creole : Gum-bo ) is a stew that is popular among the U.S. Gulf Coast community with the New Orleans stew variation the most popular and is the official state cuisine of the U.S. state of Louisiana . Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly flavored stock , meat or shellfish (or sometimes both), a thickener , and the Creole " holy trinity ": celery , bell peppers , and onions . Gumbo

172-476: A nasal palatal approximant when between vowels, which results in the preceding vowel becoming nasalized. At the end of a word, it typically is replaced by /n/ or /ŋ/ . The table above shows the oral and nasal vowels of Louisiana Creole as identified by linguists. Speakers of the language may use rounded vowels [y] , [ø] and [œ] where they occur in French. This is subject to a high degree of variation with

258-795: A clay pot) in the Western and Southern coasts of Turkey. In the subject of Japanese sushi , shrimp has long been valued as the "king of sushi-dane", as its composition can be either raw or cooked, and its latter preparation has often been considered a good introduction or choice for those unfamiliar to eating sushi, especially dishes involving raw fish. Shrimp could also be fermented into shrimp paste in South East Asia and China. Shrimp are marketed and commercialized with several issues in mind. Most shrimp are sold frozen and marketed based on their categorization of presentation, grading, colour and uniformity. Many various dishes are prepared using shrimp as

344-489: A contributor to Louisiana Creole's lexical base. Over the centuries, Louisiana Creole's negative associations with slavery stigmatized the language to the point where many speakers are reluctant to use it for fear of ridicule. In this way, the assignment of "high" variety (or H language) was allotted to standard Louisiana French and that of "low" variety (or L language) was given to Louisiana Creole and to Louisiana French. The social status of Louisiana Creole further declined as

430-583: A creole music festival in 2012 called the "Creole Renaissance Festival", which acts a celebration of Creole culture. A small number of community organizations focus on promoting Louisiana Creole, for example CREOLE, Inc. and the "Creole Table" founded by Velma Johnson. Northwestern State University developed the Creole Heritage Centre, designed to bring people of Louisiana Creole heritage together, as well as preserve Louisiana Creole through their Creole Language Documentation Project. In addition, there

516-542: A creole, the precursor was considered a pidgin language. The social situation that gave rise to the Louisiana Creole language was unique, in that the lexifier language was the language found at the contact site. More often the lexifier is the language that arrives at the contact site belonging to the substrate / adstrate languages. Neither the French, the French-Canadians, nor the enslaved Africans were native to

602-399: A dark roux, filé, or both. Cajun gumbo is generally based on a dark roux and is made with shellfish or fowl . Sausage or ham is often added to gumbos of either variety. After the base is prepared, vegetables are cooked down, and then meat is added. The dish simmers for a minimum of three hours, with shellfish and some spices added near the end. If desired, filé powder is added after the pot

688-527: A dish often eaten in Germany on Maundy Thursday . German Catholics, obeying the Lenten rules, often served a stew made of seven different greens on this date. Gumbo is often used as a metaphor for the mix of cultures that exist in southern Louisiana. The dish combines the culinary practices of Africans, Native Americans, German, French, and Spanish. In the 18th and 19th centuries, people from these cultures lived within

774-492: A document from a murder trial in the colonial period that acknowledges the existence of Louisiana Creole. The documentation does not include any examples of orthography or structure. In an 1807 document, a grammatical description of the language is included in the experiences of an enslaved woman recorded by C.C. Robin. This was prior to arrival in Louisiana of French-speaking colonists and enslaved Africans from Saint-Domingue;

860-451: A fairly small area with minimal mobility. In this environment, cultures could influence each other and combine to create new traditions and cuisine. The dish personifies the word 'Creole'; like its human counterparts, gumbo was born in the New World and took cues from the old but adapted to the new. — Cynthia Lejeune Nobles The establishment of Mobile in 1702 marked the beginning of

946-613: A few years, rice was commonly grown along the Mississippi River. In 1721, 125 Germans settled 40 miles (64 km) from New Orleans, and introduced the art of making sausage . By 1746, the white population of Louisiana was estimated to be 3,200, with an estimated 4,730 black people. Enslaved Africans outnumbered whites in most areas of Louisiana for at least the next 40 years. The colony was transferred from French to Spanish control in 1762. The Spanish government actively recruited settlers for Spanish Louisiana . About 2,000 people from

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1032-665: A filé base, while "Ochra Gumbo" and "Chicken Gumbo" used okra as a base. Four years later, the cookbook La Cuisine Creole documented eight varieties of gumbo. None used sausage, but almost all of them contained ham. Until the 1970s, gumbo was primarily popular on the Gulf Coast of the United States . It gained a broader profile after the death of United States Senator Allen Ellender . A native of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana , Ellender had often cooked gumbo for his colleagues, including five American presidents. After Ellender died in 1972,

1118-524: A meal. Gumbo could be a derivation of traditional French soups, particularly the fish stew bouillabaisse . During the cold winters, Acadians generally cooked soups, using whatever ingredients were readily available. When the Acadians moved to Louisiana in the mid-18th century, they were unable to find many of their traditional ingredients, including turnips and cabbage. In this scenario, Acadian colonists substituted local ingredients for those commonly included in

1204-417: A meatless variety of gumbo, known as gumbo z'herbes (from gumbo aux herbes , or "gumbo of greens"), was often served. This variety combined varied greens – typically including turnips , mustard greens , and spinach . The greens were cooked to mush and strained through a sieve to produce a thick green liquid. Preparation for this variety of gumbo was time-consuming, and as Lenten restrictions have relaxed,

1290-483: A million ways to cook shrimp... shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... American soldier Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, in

1376-494: A much thinner sauce with a more intense flavor than a light roux. Gumbo is typically divided into two varieties. Combinations traditionally common in New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana are known as "Creole" after the Louisiana Creole people , descendants of the area's French, Spanish, and Enslaved Africans. "Cajun" combinations were common in southwestern Louisiana, which was populated primarily by Cajuns , descendants of

1462-497: A nasal consonant are nasalized, e.g. [kɔ̃nɛ̃] 'know'. Louisiana Creole exhibits subject-verb-object (SVO) word order. In 19th-century sources, determiners in Louisiana Creole appear related to specificity . Bare nouns are non-specific. As for specific nouns, if the noun is presupposed it took a definite determiner ( -la , singular; -la-ye , plural) or by an indefinite determiner ( en, singular; de or -ye , plural). Today, definite articles in Louisiana Creole vary between

1548-514: A pairing common in the stews of native tribes. The use of corn and filé powder may imply that the dish was derived from native cuisine. These theories are intermixed in the local legend of the Frying Pan Revolt, or Petticoat Insurrection. According to legend, in 1722, female French colonists gathered in New Orleans at the home of Governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville , to protest

1634-591: A result of the Louisiana Purchase . Americans and their government made it illegal for Francophones to speak their language. In 1921, the State of Louisiana mandated that public education take place in English only. Children and adults were often punished by corporal punishment, fines, and social degradation. By the 21st century, other methods were enforced. The promise of upward socioeconomic mobility and public shaming did

1720-425: Is drunken shrimp , a dish using freshwater shrimp that is often eaten alive, but immersed in ethanol to make consumption easier. To shell a shrimp, the tail is held while gently removing the shell around the body. The tail can be detached completely at this point, or left attached for presentation purposes. Although the head and shell are generally removed before consumption, they are edible when cooked. There's

1806-477: Is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the U.S. state of Louisiana . Also known as Kouri-Vini , it is spoken today by people who may racially identify as white , black , mixed , and Native American , as well as Cajun and Creole . It should not be confused with its sister language, Louisiana French , a dialect of the French language . Many Louisiana Creoles do not speak

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1892-575: Is a veritable art form in Louisiana. There are as many gumbo recipes as there are cooks. — Stir the Pot: The History of Cajun Cuisine , p. 135 Gumbo is a heavily seasoned stew that combines several varieties of meat or seafood with a sauce or gravy. Any combination of meat or seafood can be used. Meat-based gumbo may consist of chicken, duck, squirrel, or rabbit, with oysters occasionally added. Seafood-based gumbo generally has shrimp , crab meat , and sometimes oysters. Andouille sausage

1978-440: Is always a good choice to feed a crowd". With this dish, cooks can use up small portions of various ingredients that were not sufficient for an individual meal. The dish is an efficient way to use up leftover perishable meats and seafood. Gumbo, contrary to popular belief, is good for leftovers if it is frozen or refrigerated within two hours. Also, gumbo made without filé powder stores better because it will not get stringy. Since

2064-452: Is an active online community of language-learners and activists engaged in language revitalization, led by language activist Christophe Landry. These efforts have resulted in the creation of a popular orthography, a digitalized version of Valdman et al.'s Louisiana Creole Dictionary , and a free spaced repetition course for learning vocabulary hosted on Memrise created by a team led by Adrien Guillory-Chatman. A first language primer

2150-501: Is controversial. Some speakers of that variety display a highly variable system of number and gender agreement , as evidenced in possessive pronouns . Possession is shown by noun-noun possessum-possessor constructions (e.g. lamézon mô papa 'house (of) my grandfather') or with the preposition a (e.g. lamézon a mô papa 'house of my grandfather'). Older forms of Louisiana Creole featured only one form of each verb without any inflection , e.g. [mɑ̃ʒe] 'to eat'. Today,

2236-438: Is essential, and in Louisiana adding just the right zing is considered an art". Because seafood cooks fairly quickly, it is not added to the pot until the end of the process. As the gumbo finishes cooking, green onions and parsley are sometimes sprinkled on it. When desired, filé powder is added last. Creole and Cajun gumbos are served with hot rice, which stretches the quantity of the dish for maximum portion sizes. Gumbo z'herbes

2322-428: Is high in protein but low in food energy . A shrimp-based meal is also a significant source of cholesterol , from 122 mg to 251 mg per 100 g of shrimp, depending on the method of preparation. Shrimp consumption, however, is considered healthy for the circulatory system because the lack of significant levels of saturated fat in shrimp means that the high cholesterol content in shrimp actually improves

2408-644: Is likely that no speakers remain in these areas. The phonology of Louisiana Creole has much in common with those of other French-based creole languages . In comparison to most of these languages, however, Louisiana Creole diverges less from the phonology of French in general and Louisiana French in particular. Affricate The table above shows the consonant sounds of Louisiana Creole, not including semivowels /j/ and /w/ . In common with Louisiana French , Louisiana Creole features postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ , as in /tʃololo/ ‘weak coffee’ and /dʒɛl/ ‘mouth’. The nasal palatal /ɲ/ usually becomes

2494-537: Is often added to both meat and seafood gumbos to provide " piquancy , substance, and an additional layer of flavor" to the dish. The key is to use a tender andouille so it does not become too chewy." Most varieties of gumbo are seasoned with onions, parsley , bell pepper, and celery. Tomatoes are sometimes used in seafood gumbo, but traditionally few other vegetables are included. Gumbo broth or gravy derives from three primary thickeners: okra , filé powder , and roux . Traditionally, okra and filé powder are not used in

2580-543: Is often believed to be a dish of mixed origins of African, French, Spanish, Native American, Caribbean and German influence. Enslaved African Americans often exchanged or combined ingredients in order to make the dish, allowing it to serve as a means of community and identity. West Africans use the vegetable okra as a base for many dishes, including soups. In Louisiana, gumbo includes ingredients introduced by several cultural groups. Surviving records indicate that by 1764 Africans in New Orleans mixed cooked okra with rice to make

2666-402: Is often categorized by the type of thickener used, whether okra or filé powder (dried and ground sassafras leaves). Gumbo can be made with or without okra or filé powder. The preferred method in the historical New Orleans variation is with a French dark, even chocolate-like, roux . The flavor of the dish has its origins in many cultures. Creole gumbo generally contains shellfish and

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2752-759: Is popular in North America. In Europe, shrimp is very popular, forming a necessary ingredient in Spanish paella de marisco , Italian cacciucco , Portuguese caldeirada and many other seafood dishes. Shrimp curry is very popular in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Shrimp are also found in Latin and Caribbean dishes such as enchiladas and coconut shrimp. Other recipes include jambalaya , okonomiyaki , poon choi and bagoong . Shrimp are also consumed as salad, by frying, with rice, and as shrimp guvec (a dish baked in

2838-659: Is ready, the group eats and dances until midnight, when Lent begins. Gumbo is the official cuisine of the state of Louisiana. Many southern Louisiana cooking competitions center around gumbo, and it is a central feature of many local festivals. The self-described "Gumbo Capital of the World", Bridge City, Louisiana , holds an annual Gumbo Festival. The festival features gumbo cooked in a cast-iron pot 3 ft (0.9 m) deep and 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. More commonly, festival gumbo pots measure 2 ft (0.6 m) in depth and diameter. Louisiana Creole language Louisiana Creole

2924-405: Is removed from heat. Gumbo is traditionally served with rice . A third, lesser-known variety, the meatless gumbo z'herbes, is essentially a gumbo of slow-cooked greens . The dish combines ingredients and culinary practices of several cultures, including African, French, German, Spanish, and Native American Choctaw . Gumbo may have been based on traditional native dishes, or may be a derivation of

3010-446: Is served as part of a larger menu. Soniat gives examples of the main types of creole gumbos, along with descriptions of family traditions about them. In Cajun Foodways , C. Paige Gutierrez describes gumbo as "an economical dish" useful for "feed[ing] a large number of people with a small amount of meat or seafood". Nobles concurs that "one of the hallmarks of gumbo is that, with a big enough pot, it can easily be doubled or tripled and

3096-419: Is served with rice on the side. Gumbo is almost always served directly from the pot on the stove, although in wealthier or fancier homes the dish might be transferred to a tureen on the table. Often, gumbo and bread are the sole courses in a meal, although many Cajun families provide a side dish of potato salad . Some Cajun families prefer their gumbo served over potato salad instead of rice. Occasionally, gumbo

3182-521: Is spoken by fewer than 6,000 people. Though national census data includes figures on language usage, these are often unreliable in Louisiana due to respondents' tendencies to identify their language in line with their ethnic identity. For example, speakers of Louisiana Creole who identify as Cajuns often label their language 'Cajun French', though on linguistic grounds their language would be considered Louisiana Creole. Efforts to revitalize French in Louisiana have placed emphasis on Cajun French , to

3268-633: The Canary Islands moved to the area south of New Orleans. These settlers were primarily fishermen who soon began supplying large amounts of shrimp, crab, and oysters to the food markets in New Orleans. The Canary Islanders also brought "a love for well-seasoned food", including use of ground cayenne pepper , a spicy hot red chili pepper . Spanish authorities also granted permission for many French-speaking Acadian exiles to relocate from northeastern North America to Louisiana. From 1755 through 1795, almost 3,000 of these settlers, soon known as Cajuns, moved to

3354-647: The ISO basic Latin alphabet (not including c , q , or x ) and several special letters and diacritics . Catholic prayers are recited in French by speakers of Louisiana Creole. Today, some language activists and learners are leading efforts to translate the prayers. Nouzòt Popá, ki dan syèl-la Tokin nom, li sinkifyè, N'ap spéré pou to rwayonm arivé, é n'a fé ça t'olé dan syèl; parèy si latær Donné-nou jordi dipin tou-lé-jou, é pardon nouzòt péshé paréy nou pardon lê moun ki fé nouzòt sikombé tentasyon-la, Mé délivré nou depi mal. Shrimp and prawn as food In

3440-710: The Malinke . Also, the monopoly held by the Company of Indies in both Senegal and Louisiana may also have contributed to the Africans' relative ancestral homogeneity. Because of this homogeneity, retention of the Africans' indigenous languages may have hindered the development of a Creole in Louisiana. In fact, the Pointe Coupee slave revolt in 1731 was organized by the Bambara who were purportedly speaking their ancestral languages to plan

3526-520: The United Kingdom , the word "prawn" is more common on menus than "shrimp"; the opposite is the case in North America . The term "prawn" is also loosely used for any large shrimp, especially those that come 15 (or fewer) to the pound (such as "king prawns", yet sometimes known as "jumbo shrimp"). Australia and some other Commonwealth nations follow this British usage to an even greater extent, using

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3612-561: The cuisine of many cultures. Strictly speaking, dishes containing scampi should be made from the Norway lobster , a shrimp-like crustacean more closely related to the lobster than shrimp. Scampi is often called the "Dublin Bay prawn", and in some places it is quite common for other prawns to be used instead. Wet shrimp is commonly used as a flavoring and as a soup base in Asian cuisines while fried shrimp

3698-513: The le , la and lê , placed before the noun as in Louisiana French , and post-positional definite determiners - la for the singular, and - yé for the plural. This variation is but one example of the influence of Louisiana French on Louisiana Creole, especially in the variety spoken along the Bayou Têche which has been characterized by some linguists as decreolized , though this notion

3784-460: The 1980s spurred further interest in the dish. The name of the dish comes most likely from Africa, by way of Louisiana French . Scholars and chefs have offered various explanations for the etymology of the word "gumbo". The dish was likely named after one of its two main ingredients, okra or filé. It most likely comes from the Bambara language of West Africa in which Gombo means okra since most of

3870-461: The 1994 drama-comedy film Forrest Gump Removing the "sand vein" (a euphemism for the digestive tract ) is referred to as "deveining". The sand vein can be removed by making a shallow cut lengthwise down the outer curve of the shrimp's body, allowing the dark ribbon-like digestive tract to be removed with a pointed utensil. Special deveining tools are sometimes used but knives, skewers, and even toothpicks can be used to devein. Alternatively, if

3956-460: The 19th century, gumbo has often been served at social gatherings or other special occasions in Louisiana. Local fais do-do (dance parties) usually provided gumbo beginning at midnight. Many families "have a gumbo", or host a casual social gathering where friends and family chat and enjoy alcoholic beverages and gumbo. Gumbo is prepared and enjoyed by Louisianians of all races and ethnicities, and its multicultural influences have evolved it through

4042-1164: The Baptist parishes. There once were Creolophones in Natchitoches Parish on Cane River and sizable communities of Louisiana Creole-speakers in adjacent Southeast Texas ( Beaumont , Houston , Port Arthur , Galveston ) and the Chicago area. Natchitoches, being the oldest colonial settlement in Louisiana, proved to be predominantly creole since its inception. Native inhabitants of the local area Louisiana Creole speakers in California reside in Los Angeles , San Diego and San Bernardino counties and in Northern California ( San Francisco Bay Area , Sacramento County , Plumas County , Tehama County , Mono County , and Yuba County ). Historically, there were Creole-speaking communities in Mississippi and Alabama (on Mon Louis Island ); however, it

4128-595: The Caribbean dish callaloo . A more familiar version of the dish was described in an 1879 cookbook by Marion Cabell Tyree. Her Housekeeping in Old Virginia described "Gumbo Filit A La Creole", a filé-based gumbo with chicken and oysters and spiced with allspice , cloves, red and black pepper, parsley, and thyme. The 1881 cookbook What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking , dictated by former slave Abby Fisher, contained three gumbo recipes. "Oyster Gumbo Soup" used

4214-501: The European settlers, including those white Creoles born in the colony. In the case of Louisiana Creole, a diglossia resulted between Louisiana Creole and Louisiana French. Michael Picone, a lexicographer, proposed the term "Plantation Society French" to describe a version of French which he associated with plantation owners, plantation overseers, small landowners, military officers/soldiers and bilingual, free people of color , as being

4300-466: The French colony of Louisiana . French settlers allied with various native tribes including the Choctaw , Alabama , and Cherokee , from whom they learned new methods of cooking and ways to identify edible indigenous plants. Slave ships began arriving in Louisiana in 1719. The first ships carried rice and men who were experienced in its cultivation. The grain adapted well to its new environment, and within

4386-505: The French dish bouillabaisse , or Choctaw stew, but most likely all of these dishes contributed to the original recipe. It was first described in 1802, and was listed in various cookbooks in the latter half of the 19th century. The dish gained more widespread popularity in the 1970s, after the United States Senate dining room added it to the menu in honor of Louisiana Senator Allen Ellender . The popularity of chef Paul Prudhomme in

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4472-459: The French needed laborers, as they found the climate very harsh. They began to import enslaved Africans, as they had done in their Caribbean island colonies. Two-thirds of the slaves brought to Louisiana originated in the Senegambian region, speaking Malinke , Sereer , Wolof , Pulaar , and Bambara . The largest group from Senegambia was the Bambara , who spoke mutually intelligible dialects of

4558-503: The French, then, in statehood after 1812, took on its modern form. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase by the U.S in 1803, the boundaries came to include most of the Central United States, ranging from present-day Montana; parts of North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado; all of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas; part of Southeast Texas; all of Oklahoma; most of Missouri and Arkansas; as well as Louisiana. In 1978, researchers located

4644-476: The French-speaking settlers expelled from Acadia (located within the modern-day Canadian provinces of Quebec , Nova Scotia , New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island ) in the mid-18th century. Gumbo is usually identified by its dark roux, cooked until it is a color "a few shades from burning". The roux is used with okra or filé powder. Seafood is popular in gumbo the closer to the coast the people are, but

4730-437: The Louisiana Creole language and may instead use French or English as their everyday languages. Due to the rapidly shrinking number of speakers, Louisiana Creole is considered an endangered language . Louisiana was colonized by the French beginning in 1699, as well as Acadians who were forced out of Acadia around the mid-18th century. Colonists were large-scale planters, small-scale homesteaders, and cattle ranchers;

4816-564: The Senate directed that their cafeteria add Louisiana Creole Gumbo, made with seafood, to its menu in his honor. The dish became more widely popular in the 1980s, when chef Paul Prudhomme 's popularity spurred interest in Creole and Cajun cooking. Gumbo is cooked for a minimum of three hours, and often simmers all day. Meat (but not seafood) is often browned beforehand and removed from the heat. Okra and roux are cooked before other vegetables and seafood. According to Nobles, "proper seasoning of gumbo

4902-416: The Spanish and African traditions. Tomatoes were introduced to the region shortly thereafter. Scholars agree that gumbo originated in Louisiana in the early 18th century, but its uncertain etymology makes it difficult to pinpoint the origins of the food. Although no conclusive evidence exists, cultural markers indicate several plausible scenarios. As aforementioned, while its exact origins are unknown, gumbo

4988-539: The area; this fact categorizes Louisiana Creole as a contact language that arose between exogenous ethnicities. Once the pidgin tongue was transmitted to the next generation as a lingua franca (who were considered the first native speakers of the new grammar), it could effectively be classified as a creole language . No standard name for the language has existed historically. In the language, community members in various areas of Louisiana and elsewhere have referred to it by many expressions, though Kréyol/Kréyòl has been

5074-516: The areas south and west of New Orleans. Louisiana was secretly returned to France in 1800 , then purchased by the United States in 1803. The southernmost part of territorial Louisiana, including New Orleans, became the state of Louisiana in 1812. By 1800, the slave trade had introduced new foods to Louisiana, including the African vegetable okra, and hot pepper plants which likely came from Haiti . Onions and bell peppers were long part of cooking in both

5160-431: The coup. Ultimately, Louisiana Creole did develop, with West African languages becoming the substrates to a varied French lexifier. The importation of enslaved people by the French regime continued until 1743. The language developed in 18th-century Louisiana from interactions among speakers of the lexifier language of Standard French and several substrate or adstrate languages from Africa. Prior to its establishment as

5246-516: The dish could be both humble and refined". An 1824 cookbook, Mary Randolph 's The Virginia House-Wife , was the first to include a recipe for gumbo. Called "Gumbo – A West India Dish", the simple recipe described how to boil okra and bore little resemblance to the stew commonly known as gumbo. The same book contained a recipe for "Ochra Soup" made with okra, onions, fowl, bacon, tomatoes, and lima beans thickened with flour. Although this recipe bore similarities to gumbo, it more closely resembled

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5332-537: The dish has become less popular. It is very rarely served in restaurants. In modern times, ham or crabmeat is occasionally added to this type of gumbo. Gumbo z'herbes may have originated with the French/Spanish/West Africans. It has similarities to the French dish potage aux herbes ("soup with greens"), as well as to the Afro-Caribbean callaloo . The meatless dish also bears striking resemblance to

5418-406: The domains folklore and Voodoo , the language has a small number of vocabulary items from west and central African languages. Much of this non-French vocabulary is shared with other French-based creole languages of North America, and Louisiana Creole shares all but a handful of its vocabulary with Louisiana French . The current Louisiana Creole alphabet consists of twenty-three letters of

5504-500: The early 19th century. In 1802, John Sibley described "the dish they call gumbo which is made principally of the ochre into a thick kind of soop [ sic ] & eat with rice, it is the food of every body for dinner and supper." The following year, French governor Pierre Clement de Laussat hosted a soirée in which 24 different gumbos were prepared. According to author Cynthia Lejeune Nobles, these two events "give clues to gumbo's Spanish colonial popularity and illustrate that

5590-709: The early enslaved people from Louisiana spoke this Mande language . In the Bantu languages spoken by many enslaved people from Central Africa , the vegetable okra was known as ki ngombo or quingombo ; the word is akin to the Umbundu : ochinggômbo and the Luba-Lulua : chinggômbô "okra". The native Choctaw people used filé, or dried, ground sassafras leaves to thicken soups and stews. They called sassafras komho according to Nobles, and called filé kombo according to Usner, or kombo ashish , according to Freedman. Gumbo

5676-543: The exclusion of Creole. Zydeco musician Keith Frank has made efforts through the use of social media not only to promote his music, but preserve his Creole heritage and language as well, most notably through the use of Twitter. Additionally, Frank developed a mobile application in 2012 titled the "ZydecoBoss App", which acts as a miniature social network linked to a user's Facebook and Twitter accounts, allowing users to provide commentary in real time amongst multiple platforms. Aside from social media activism, Frank also created

5762-432: The flavor and makes it more consistent. Shrimp also sometimes consume small amounts of sand and the vein might thus be gritty. Shrimp and prawns are versatile ingredients. Common methods of preparation include baking , boiling , frying , grilling and barbequing . They are as delicate as eggs with regard to cooking time. When they are overcooked, they have a tough and rubbery texture. Recipes using shrimp form part of

5848-457: The lack of familiar ingredients. Bienville's housekeeper, Madame Langlois, taught the women how to improve the basic gumbo. Langlois used okra, an ingredient which the women had previously been introduced to by the African people they were enslaving. Spanish and Choctaw introduced ingredients common in Choctaw cuisine – shrimp, crawfish, and filé powder. The first written references to gumbo appear in

5934-541: The language stated that it was used among enslaved people and whites. The importation of enslaved Africans increased after France ceded the colony to Spain, in 1763, following France's defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War in Europe. Some Spaniards immigrated to the colony, but it was dominated by French language and culture. Like South Carolina, Louisiana had a "minority" population of Africans that greatly outnumbered

6020-504: The language typically features two verb classes: verbs with only a single form ( [bwɑ] 'to drink') and verbs with a 'long' or 'short' form ( [mɑ̃ʒe] , [mɑ̃ʒ] 'to eat'). Like other creole languages, Louisiana Creole features preverbal markers of tense, aspect and mood as listed in the table below The vocabulary of Louisiana Creole is primarily of French origin, as French is the language's lexifier . Some local vocabulary, such as topography, animals, plants are of Amerindian origin. In

6106-421: The most popular thickener, made from cooking together a roughly equal proportion of flour and fat (traditionally hog lard , although increasingly made with butter since the mid-20th century). The length of cooking time determines the final flavor and texture, since the longer the roux is cooked before being added to the gumbo, the darker it becomes and the less thickening power it retains. A very dark roux provides

6192-536: The most widespread. Until the rise of Cajunism in the 1970s and 1980s, many Louisiana Francophones also identified their language as Créole, since they self-identified as Louisiana Creoles. In Louisiana's case, self-identity has determined how locals identify the language they speak. This leads to linguistic confusion. To remedy this, language activists beginning in the 2010s began promoting the term Kouri-Vini, to avoid any linguistic ambiguity with Louisiana French. The boundaries of historical Louisiana were first shaped by

6278-409: The okra texture has become less palatable to changing tastes. Ground sassafras leaf, known as filé, is generally not added to the gravy until after the vegetables and meats or seafood have finished cooking and have been removed from the heat source. If added during the boiling process, filé makes the gumbo too ropey ; when added at the end, the gumbo gains a slightly stringy texture. Roux has become

6364-447: The original stew. Instead of the fish, settlers used shellfish. The dish was later modified to include ingredients common in other cultures. Some culinary experts in the early 20th century, including Celestine Eustis , maintained that gumbo was an early special occasion dish for native tribes. This is further implied by a late 18th-century Cajun practice. At that time, rice was a luxury for many Cajuns. They served gumbo over corn grits ,

6450-776: The population of Creolophones is distributed across the region. St. Martin Parish forms the heart of the Creole-speaking region. Other sizeable communities exist along Bayou Têche in St. Landry , Avoyelles , Iberia , and St. Mary Parishes. There are smaller communities on False River in Pointe-Coupée Parish , in Terrebonne Parish , and along the lower Mississippi River in Ascension , St. Charles Parish , and St. James and St. John

6536-584: The primary ingredient. The French term crevette is often encountered in restaurants. Shrimp and other shellfish are among the most common food allergens . The Jewish dietary laws, kashrut forbid the eating of shellfish, including shrimp. Meanwhile, in Islamic dietary law , the Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali and Ja'fari schools allow the eating of shrimp, while the Hanafi school does not. As with other seafood, shrimp

6622-411: The ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol and lowers triglycerides . Shrimp are high in levels of omega-3s (generally beneficial) and low in levels of mercury (generally toxic), with an FDA study in 2010 showing a level of 0.001 parts per million , analysing only methylmercury . Preparing shrimp for consumption usually involves removing the head, shell , tail , and "sand vein". A notable exception

6708-542: The rest of the work, prompting many speakers of Louisiana Creole to abandon their stigmatised language in favor of English. Additionally, the development of industry, technology and infrastructure in Louisiana reduced the isolation of Louisiana Creolophone communities and resulted in the arrival of more English-speakers, resulting in further exposure to English. Because of this, Louisiana Creole exhibits more recent influence from English, including loanwords , code-switching and syntactic calquing . Today, Louisiana Creole

6794-430: The same dish, although this rule is sometimes broken. Roux can be used alone or in conjunction with either of the other thickeners. Okra is more often used as a thickener in seafood gumbos than those with meat. This mucilaginous vegetable is usually cooked first, and other ingredients added once the desired consistency is reached. According to The Oxford Companion to Food , okra-based gumbos are becoming less popular, as

6880-511: The same region, sociolinguistic group, and even within the same speaker. Examples of this process include: The open-mid vowel [ɛ] may lowered to the near-open vowel [æ] when followed by [ɾ] , e.g. [fɾɛ]~[fɾæɾ] 'brother'. In common with Louisiana French , Louisiana Creole vowels are nasalized where they precede a nasal consonant , e.g. [ʒɛ̃n] 'young', [pɔ̃m] 'apple'. Unlike most varieties of Louisiana French, Louisiana Creole also exhibits progressive nasalization: vowels following

6966-492: The southwestern areas of Louisiana often use fowl, such as chicken or duck, and sausage. The fowl is generally not deboned, and onions, celery, and bell pepper are not strained out of the dish. Cajun gumbo is usually topped with parsley and green onions. Creole gumbo most often consists of seafood, tomatoes, and a thickener. Before the latter half of the 20th century, celery was rarely used in Creole gumbo. When Catholics were expected to abstain from eating meat during Lent ,

7052-429: The tail has been detached, the vein can be pinched at the tail end and pulled out completely with the fingers. On large shrimp, the "blood vein" (a euphemism for the ventral nerve cord ) along the inner curve of the shrimp's body is typically removed as well. The shrimp is then rinsed under cold running water. Removing the vein is not essential, as it is not poisonous and is mostly tasteless. Deveining does slightly change

7138-476: The whites and free people of color (also French speaking) were refugees from the Haitian Revolution , which had established the first empire in the western hemisphere. The statements collected from Robin showed linguistic features that are now known to be typical of Louisiana Creole. The term "Criollo" appears in legal court documents during the Spanish colonial period (1762–1803); the Spanish reference to

7224-518: The word "prawn" almost exclusively. When Australian comedian Paul Hogan used the phrase, " I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you " in an American television advertisement, it was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say. In Britain very small crustaceans with a brownish shell are called shrimp, and are used to make potted shrimps . They are also used in dishes where they are not

7310-407: The years. Gumbo is a feature in both urban and rural areas of Louisiana. In rural Acadiana in southern Louisiana, gumbo is a central feature of Mardi Gras celebrations. On Mardi Gras, local men wander from house to house and beg for gumbo ingredients in an event known as courir de Mardi Gras . Members of the local community then gather in a central location while the men cook the gumbo. When it

7396-629: Was released in 2017 and revised into a full-length language guide and accompanying website in 2020. 2022 saw the publication of an anthology of contemporary poetry in Louisiana Creole, the first book written completely in the language. A December 2023 article in The Economist highlighted revitalization efforts with the headline "Louisiana Creole is enjoying a modest revival," focusing in particular on language activists Jourdan Thibodeaux and Taalib Pierre-Auguste. Speakers of Louisiana Creole are mainly concentrated in south and southwest Louisiana, where

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