We got a question about our headcanon of Louis’ accent in our coffee shop AU collab, and, I thought others might be interested in our answer so here it is!

[^X] My answer: in canon, Louis would have spoken French as his native language, and Creole in NOLA. Being a vampire, he probably began learning English from various people during his travels with Armand after Paris, and then really got the full dose of it when they were living in NY together in the 20th century.

For our AU, I think of him as having moved to NOLA as a child, and his family moved back to France when he was in college or otherwise old enough to be living on his own; or that he still has family in NOLA, and in modern day, people do speak English there. There’s definitely some Creole and a mixture among the natives now so he might have picked up some of that, but I would think he always went to schools where he had to speak English.

When I visited NOLA (I’ve been a few times now) I didn’t notice everyone there having a heavy southern accent. I would think that a bookworm like Louis might have even less, being kind of antisocial and learning his words from books and speaking mainly to his few close friends and family.

As in canon, his French accent should be noticeable but doesn’t mark him as completely a foreigner, just different emphasis on certain letters, a tendency to hit “th” a little like a “d,” for example.

Gaspard Ulliel’s voice is my headcanon for Louis’ accent, although it is a lower register than I think of Louis.

@wicked-felina​ added:

Yep, I pretty much echo what @i-want-my-iwtv​ says and my headcanon is more or less in tune with hers –

In the fic, Louis comes from a solidly French family from Brittany (I believe we may have stolen this location from @gairid​). He moves with them to New Orleans (or its environs) when he is a child, and he learns English whilst there.

However, his accent is tempered by the following things:

a) His family are Francophone and speak French almost exclusively at home;
b) Their relatives in Louisiana are Acadian, so there is that dialect of French and/or Franglais colouring his accent;
c) The family is upper class

Of course, his English would have the Louisiana lilt to it, but all that above, too.

From my own experience, French people seem to be amongst the ones who most strongly cling to their accent when speaking English. I have worked with and have many friends from France (including from Brittany) who are fluent in English but have that ‘sharpness’ to the consonants that Daniel references in IWTV.

I also have found that every French person I know pronounces ‘idea’ as ‘idee’ (i.e. the French way) no matter how fluent they are. I pointed this out to my French boss once and was told that we pronounce it The Wrong Way because it is a French word. XD