What is Cajun French? Cajun French is the term generally used to describe the variety of French spoken in South Louisiana. It originates in the language spoken by the French and Acadian people who settled in Louisiana from its early period of European colonization in the 17th century through later waves of immigration into the late 19th century. Though linguists at one time distinguished between “colonial” French, Acadian French and Creole French, the general consensus today is that colonial and Acadian French have melded to a great degree into a “Cajun” variety which can be distinguished from Creole. However, even Cajun and Louisiana Creole have many lexical, phonological and syntactical elements in common. Today, the French spoken in Louisiana no longer fits the “three type” paradigm but is better characterized as a continuum along which different speakers can be placed or even move among varying degrees of French which is more or less creolized or cajunized. To complicate matters, d...
