Colloquia Creolicae

Colloquia Creolicae (Kòloki de lê Kréyòl) is a bilingual collection of original dialogues and orations composed entirely in Kouri-Vini, the endangered French-lexifier Creole language of south Louisiana, spoken today by as few as ten thousand people. Modeled on the Roman tradition of the teaching colloquy and the oratory of Cicero, the book pairs three conversational scenes with seven numbered "exhortations" confronting identity, institutional power, revolutionary commitment, language survival, and despair itself. Written by a self-taught student of the language as both a personal study tool and a work of political oratory, it coins new vocabulary where Kouri-Vini's own resources fall short, and closes with a glossary and full English translations for readers working alongside a dictionary. A companion to the author's English-language essay collection The Starshine Essays, this is a short, serious, occasionally furious attempt to prove a nearly silent language can still argue, mourn, teach, and win.