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Louisiana is a state located in the southern region
of the United States of America. Louisiana is the
31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of
the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and
largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only
state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed
parishes, which are local governments equivalent to
counties. The largest parish by population is East
Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is
Cameron Parish.
Some Louisiana urban environments have a
multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so
strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century
French, Spanish, Native American (Indian) and
African cultures that they are considered to be
somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American
influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th
century, the territory of current Louisiana State
had been a Spanish and French colony. In addition,
the pattern of development included importing
numerous African slaves in the 18th century, with
many from the same region of West Africa, thus
concentrating their culture.
Transportation
In March 2011, Louisiana ranked as the second bottom
"Worst" state (next to number 50 Kentucky), in the
American State Litter Scorecard. The Pelican State
suffers from an overall poor effectiveness and
quality of its statewide public space cleanliness
(primarily from roadway and adjacent
litter/debris)--in state and related eradication
standards.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and
Development is the state government organization in
charge of maintaining public transportation,
roadways, bridges, canals, select levees, floodplain
management, port facilities, commercial vehicles,
and aviation which includes 69 airports.
The Intracoastal Waterway is an important means of
transporting commercial goods such as petroleum and
petroleum products, agricultural produce, building
materials and manufactured goods.
In 2011, Louisiana ranked among the five deadliest
states for debris/litter –caused vehicle accidents
per total number of registered vehicles and
population size. Figures derived from the NTSHA
show at least 25 persons in Louisiana were killed
each year in motor vehicle collisions with non-fixed
objects, including debris, dumped litter, animals
and their carcasses.
Languages
Louisiana has a unique linguistic culture, owing to
its French and Spanish heritage. According to the
2000 census, among persons five years old and older,
90.8% of Louisiana residents speak only English (99%
total speak English) and 4.7% speak French at home
(7% total speak French). Other minority languages
are Spanish, which is spoken by 2.5% of the
population; Vietnamese, by 0.6%; and German, by
0.2%. Although state law recognizes the usage of
English and French in certain circumstances, the
Louisiana State Constitution does not declare any
"de jure official language or languages". Currently the "de facto
administrative languages" of the Louisiana State
Government are English and French.
There are several unique dialects of French, Creole,
and English spoken in Louisiana. There are two
unique dialects of the French language: Cajun French
(predominant after the Great Upheaval of Acadians
from Canada) and Colonial French. For the Creole
language, there is Louisiana Creole French. There
are also two unique dialects of the English
language: Cajun English, a French-influenced variety
of English, and what is informally known as Yat,
which resembles the New York City dialect,
particularly that of historical Brooklyn, as both
accents were influenced by large communities of
immigrant Irish and Italian, but the Yat dialect was
also influenced by French and Spanish.
Colonial French was the predominant language of
Louisiana during the French colonial period and was
spoken primarily by the white settlers; the
black/creole population spoke mostly creole. Cajun
French was only introduced in Louisiana after the
Great Upheaval of Acadians from Canada during
1710-1763. The Cajun people and culture (hence the
Cajun language as well) did not appear immediately
but was rather a slow evolution from the original
Acadian culture with influences from local cultures.
English and its associated dialects became
predominant only after the Louisiana Purchase and
even then it still retained some French influences
as seen with Cajun English. Cajun French and
Colonial French have somewhat merged since English
took over.
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