What is Cajun and where did it come from?
Robyn Holman
Where did Cajun come from? Is it really French? How important is it today?
Did you know that French was once the language of everyday life in Louisiana? Claimed by France as a colony in 1682, Louisiana remained French territory until President Th omas Jeff erson bought it from Napoleon in 1803—along with a great swath of land that has since been divided among fourteen other states—and it is still the place in the U.S. where French is spoken the most. According to the 2000 U.S. census, over a million Louisiana residents claim French ancestry, with around 200,000 saying they speak some type of French at home.
So how did all those French speakers get there? Some have ancestors who came from France as early colonists or who fl ed from Europe during the French Revolution, speaking ‘offi cial’ French. Th e ancestors of others came from Africa, oft en by way of the Caribbean,
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and the French they brought with them was a creole, similar to the French creole of Haiti. But the most widely-spoken variety of French in Louisiana, and the one we hear the most about—probably because of the food and music that made it famous—is Cajun. Oddly enough, it came from Canada.
Here is how it happened: Around 1600, emigrants from France settled along the coast of present day Nova Scotia, in a colony they called Acadia. Aft er struggles between France and England over the territory, it fi nally came under British control. But the Acadians refused to swear allegiance to the king of England, and in 1755, during ‘le grand dérangement’, they were deported. Forcibly loaded onto boats and driven out, many Acadians died at sea. Some, with the help of Indians, took refuge in the forests of New Brunswick, while others found their way to settlements farther south, traveling by sea as far as Louisiana. Th is tragic episode in the lives of the Acadians attracted little attention at the time and was not brought to the forefront until a century or so later when Longfellow recounted in the poem Evangeline the story of an Acadian girl who was sepa-rated from her fi ancé during the deportation and spent the rest of her life trying to fi nd him.
Th e refugees from Nova Scotia who went to Louisiana came to be known as ‘Cajuns,’ a local approximation of what they called themselves, ‘Acadiens’. Th e language that the Cajuns spoke—and what they still speak—is French. But is it ‘real’ French? It is. Th e Cajuns may not always speak according to Parisian rules, but Cajun French doesn’t diff er from ‘standard’ French any more than other varieties do—like the French of Morocco, Quebec, or the West Indies. Cajun adds its own spice to the rich stew we call the French language.
Acadian French was somewhat diff erent from the French spoken by the people who came to Louisiana directly from France, because the strains developed separately for up to 150 years. Over time, however, the two have blended together and most linguists no longer distinguish between Colonial and Acadian French, but use the term ‘Cajun’ to refer to the variety of French spoken in Southern
Louisiana today. Although generally homogeneous, Cajun varies slightly throughout Acadiana, with certain areas having distinctive pronunciations and idioms.
Th e majority of words and structures in Cajun are certainly rec-ognizable to French speakers from other countries. Th e diff erences are like those between British and American English. Cajun has kept some words that have become obsolete in European French, and has produced new words to describe new situations. Th is includes borrowing words from other languages. For instance, chaoui from Choctaw names an animal that didn’t exist in Europe, the raccoon.
African languages contributed gombo to refer to okra, as well as congo (‘black’) to describe a poisonous snake, the water mocassin.
Cajuns call shrimp chevrette, a word that sounds odd in France, where the Norman dialect word crevette replaced it.
Like many non-English languages in the U.S., Cajun faces an uncertain future. Members of the younger generation do not hear and use French as much as their parents did, and many Cajuns speak little or no French. Groups like CODOFIL (Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane), Action Cadienne, and Les Amis de l’Immersion are working to preserve the Cajun language and culture, primarily by emphasizing bilingual education programs in the schools.
French has been a part of American culture for as long as there has been a United States—even longer. It is an important part of America’s linguistic heritage. Of course, Louisiana is not the only place in the U.S.
where French is used. Aft er Spanish, it is still one of the most widely-spoken foreign languages in the country. Even American passports are bilingual, bearing both English and French inscriptions.
About the author
Robyn Holman is an Associate Professor of French at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, where she also directs the graduate pro-gram for language teachers. She received her Ph.D. in French linguistics
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from the University of Colorado, and most oft en publishes in the fi eld of medieval French language and culture.
Suggestions for further reading
In this book: Other languages of America are discussed in chapters 25 (revitalizing threatened Native American languages), 35 (languages of the U.S.), 36 (America’s language crisis), 37 (Spanish in the U.S.), 39 (German in the U.S.), 40 (Gullah), and 49 (Native American languages).
Other sociolinguistic topics are talked about in chapters 8 (pidgins and creoles) and 19 (language confl ict).
Elsewhere:
Ancelet, Barry Jean. Cajun and Creole Folktales: the French Oral Tradition of South Louisiana (Garland Publishing, 1994). Includes three categories of Cajun French folktales: animal and magic tales, jokes and tall tales, legends and historical tales. Each story is accompanied by an English translation. Biographical information on the storytellers is also provided.
Brasseaux, Carl A. Acadian to Cajun: transformation of a people (UP of Mississippi, 1992, second printing 1999). Examines Acadian community life in the nineteenth century, including cultural evolution, demographic growth, and political involvement. Also available in electronic book format (Netlibrary, 2000).
Kein, Sybil, ed. Th e History and Legacy of Louisiana’s Free People of Color (Louisiana State University Press, 2000). A collection of articles dealing with cultural and linguistic topics such as the origin of Louisiana creole, the use of creole in Southern literature, race and gender issues, Afro-Caribbean connections, and creole music and food.
Valdman, Albert, project director. Discovering Cajun French through the spoken word (Indiana University Creole Institute, 2003). Authentic samples of Cajun speech recorded on CD-ROM.
Web site:
http://www.artsci.lsu.edu/fai/Cajun/defi nition.html
Cajun French. Defi nes Cajun, presents information on the evolution and variability of the Cajun dialect, and addresses its preservation and perpetuation.