How does one save Louisiana French?

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, there were about a million french speakers in Louisiana in 1968 (doesn't say how many spoke primarily French). Today that number is significantly lower, the dialect has been forced into a handful of rural communities, and it will likely continue to decline.

Does anyone know of any ways to stop/slow this trend, and keep Louisiana French relevant?
 
several French-speaking radio stations which compete. Now, this may be OTL.

If you really want to pull it off, maybe two local TV stations which compete.
 
You would need to go back to the late 1920's to tell the schoolteachers NOT to enforce English only outside of the classroom.
 
I heard anecdotally that the French prefer to travel and holiday in French speaking places, so perhaps have NO and Louisiana become a hot tourism destination for French people, perhaps have a French Consulate and regular direct flights.
 
vl100butch said:
You would need to go back to the late 1920's to tell the schoolteachers NOT to enforce English only outside of the classroom.

Even better - no WW1.

French was fine in Louisiana...if you spoke German, another thing entirely...my great-grandfather spoke German and my grandfather understood it, that pretty much stopped in 1917...
 
vl100butch said:
You would need to go back to the late 1920's to tell the schoolteachers NOT to enforce English only outside of the classroom.

Even better - no WW1.

French was fine in Louisiana...if you spoke German, another thing entirely...my great-grandfather spoke German and my grandfather understood it, that pretty much stopped in 1917...


Not just LA but anywhere in the US. In 1910, one-fourth of the population of the city of Baltimore spoke German. There were sängerbunds and plenty of German restaurants. Indeed, there was even German Street, just south of Baltimore Street. After April 1917, much of that changed--and that thoroughfare was renamed / still is named Redwood Street.
 
Allow Cajuns to dominate trade along the Mississippi River. Wealthy Cajuns would turn into philanthropists, fund French-language opera houses, French-Catholic churches and other French-language cultural venues. Bonus points if they develop a French-language film industry along the Gulf Coast.
 
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