Cajun English
Cajun Vernacular English
Native to	United States
Region	Southern Louisiana
Ethnicity	Cajuns
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo–Frisian Anglic English North American English American English Cajun English
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Acadiana, the traditional Cajun homeland and the stronghold of both the Louisiana French and Cajun English dialects.

Cajun English, orCajun Vernacular English, is a dialect ofAmerican English derived fromCajuns living inSouthern Louisiana. Cajun English is significantly influenced byLouisiana French, the historical language of the Cajun people, themselves descended from the French-speakingAcadian people. Still, Cajun English is not merely a transitional dialect between French and English; it is a full dialect of English, and most of its speakers today are monolingual anglophones.^[1]

Cajun English is considerably distinct fromGeneral American English,^[2] with several features of French origin remaining strong, includingintonation, vocabulary, and certain accent features. The Cajun accent is frequently described asflat withinCajun Country.^[3]

Cajun English is spoken throughoutAcadiana. Its speakers are often descendants ofAcadians from Nova Scotia, Canada, who in 1755, migrated to French-owned Louisiana after the British took control ofNova Scotia and expelled them from their land.^[4] In 1803 however, the United States purchased the territory of Louisiana and, in 1812, when Louisiana drafted their first state Constitution in order to be granted statehood, the English language received official sanction as the language of promulgation and preservation of laws.^[5] Despite this change, many Cajuns at the time who lived in small towns and were poorly educated, continued to use French exclusively.^[6] This isolated them, subjecting them to ridicule and treatment as second-class citizens. In the 1930s, English was the only language taught in schools and students who spoke French were punished and humiliated in front of their class. The Cajuns still continued to use Cajun French at home and in their communities, but this led to a stigma being associated with the language, and, as a result, parents stopped teaching it to their children.^[7] The combination of being native French speakers, and the English that the Cajun children were learning during their inconsistent public education, led to the advent of Cajun English.^[6]

Many decades later, new generations of Cajuns perceived a loss of cultural identity, and their efforts to recover it started the Cajun Renaissance.^[6] The corresponding popularity ofCajun food,music, and festivities have been well received by tourists and some programs are now supported by the state government. Although Cajun English has made a comeback, the bilingualism that originally created it, a knowledge of both French and English, has not. Cajun English speakers in the 21st century typically do not speak French, and experts believe that it is unlikely that this part of the culture will be recovered.^[6] French remains mostly used only by the elderly,^[6] though it is seeing something of a cultural renaissance.^[8] This shift away from bilingualism has changed the source of many of the phonological differences between Cajun English andStandard American English from interference caused by being a native French speaker to markers of Cajun identity.^[9]

Consonant phonemes in Cajun English are largely the same as they are in other major dialects.

Cajun English is traditionallynon-rhotic and today variably non-rhotic. A comparison of rhoticity rules between Cajun English,New Orleans English, and Southern American English showed that all three dialects follow different rhoticity rules, and the origin of non-rhoticity in Cajun English, whether it originated from French, English, or an independent process, is uncertain.^[10]

Some unique features certainly influenced by French-language phonology exist in Cajun English:

• Th-stopping:/θ,ð/ can become[t,d] or [tθ,dð].^[11] Thus alveolar stops often replace dental fricatives, a feature used by both Cajun English speakers and speakers ofLouisiana French (Standard French speakers generally produce alveolar fricatives only). Examples includebath being pronounced asbat andthey asday. This feature leads to a common Louisianian paradigmdis, dat, dese, doze rather thanthis, that, these, those as a method of describing how Cajuns speak.^[6]
• H-dropping: words that begin with the letter /h/ are pronounced without it, so thathair sounds likeair, and so on.^[6] This has never been universally applied to all words, because/h/ is phonemic in Louisiana French.^[12]
• Cajun English speakers traditionally do not aspirate the consonants/p/,/t/, or/k/. As a result, thepat can sound more likebat to speakers of other English varieties.
• Palatalization and/or affrication of/d,t,g,k/ as in Louisiana French.^{[citation needed]}

• G-dropping: words likebutting can sound likebutton.
• /l/ tends to be deleted before another consonant sound, sojewelry sounds more likeJewry.^[13] Can be particularly prominent withall right, which can be rendered on a spectrum from standard pronunciation to[ɑːit] (i.e.,aight).
• The/sk/ cluster is commonly metathesized to/ks/ in the wordask.^[14]

Cajun English is not subject to theSouthern Vowel Shift.^[15] Louisiana has a high concentration of people who have aMary-merry merger, whilemarry remains distinct.^[16][17] (Notably,/ɛər/ is realized more like/ɛr/ in Louisiana French.)^[14] Adoption of thecot–caught merger is uncommon in Louisiana,^[16] and studies suggest the same for Cajun English, though at least one study considers the merger possible.^[18]

Most pure vowels and diphthongs in English can be nasalized according to nasalization rules. Additionally, loanwords from Louisiana French may include nasalized versions of vowels not found in English.

• The typical American gliding vowels[oʊ] (as inboat),[eɪ] (as inbait),[ʊu] (as inboot),[aʊ~æʊ] (as inbout),[äɪ] (as inbite), and[ɔɪ] (as inboy) have reduced glides or none at all: respectively,[oː],[eː],[uː],[aː~æː],[äː~ɑː], and[ɔː].^[21]
• Stress is sometimes placed on the second or last syllable of a word.^{[citation needed]}
• The deletion of any word's final consonant (orconsonant cluster), and inclusion ofnasal vowels near nasal consonants/m,n,ɲ/ are common, both features being of French influence. Therefore,hand becomes[hæ̝̃],food becomes[fu],rent becomes[ɹɪ̃],New York becomes[nuˈjɔə], and so on.^{[21][dubious –discuss]} This can expand to heavy nasalization, where nasalization spreads to additional phonemes.

Some features of Cajun English have changed significantly since the initial adoption of English by Cajuns:

• Non-rhoticity was found to be slightly higher^{[clarification needed]} in both monolingual anglophones and French-dominant bilinguals, and does not vary by age, implying that rhoticity in Cajun English has remained relatively constant through time.^[10]
• Aspiration of/p,t,k/ is traditionally a rare feature, though it has steadily increased over time (more in line with standard English). However, after the Cajun Renaissance, men still showed less aspiration than women, while women now largely or entirely embrace aspiration.^[9][22]
• Several features show a V-shaped decline and male-based rebound, including nasalization, the glide weakening of/aɪ/ to[ɑː], andth-stopping.^[9][22]

The inclusion of many loanwords,calques, and phrases from French is typical in Cajun English. French words and phrases are frequently borrowed without changing meaning, but some words have become distinct to Cajun English as opposed to Louisiana French, while others are used frequently enough in English that they don't register as specifically French. Notable and distinctive words used in English include:

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There are several phrases used by Cajuns that are not used by non-Cajun speakers. Some common phrases are listed below:

Cajun English also has the tendency to drop the auxiliary verbto be in the third person singular (is) and the second person singular and plurals. For example,She pretty andWhat we doing?.

Instead of "When did you go?"

-s and-ed word endings for the third person singular and the past tense morpheme tend to be dropped. Native Francophone men among the earliest Cajun English speakers had a strong tendency to drop-s and-ed endings. These men dropped-s endings at a rate (65%) similar toAAVE, and dropped-ed endings at an even higher rate (81%) than with AAVE. Younger speakers continue to drop-s and-ed at lower rates, but still more often than Southern American English, even when they spoke English natively.^[31] This has been attributed to morphological influences from French,^[31] but may be a consequence of final consonant dropping instead.^[6]

Examples:

He stay two months.She go with it.

Adjectives can bereduplicated as an intensifier.

Kyaw! That car was fast, fast!

Pronoun duplication is used to emphasize the personal aspect of a phrase.^[31] This is based in Louisiana French, and is less common with younger speakers.

When you want to leave, you?

yeah andno can serve as intensifiers to a declarative statement when added to the end, a feature taken from French.^[32] The final word in the statement is stressed, whileyeah/no are given a falling intonation.

I told you not to. You gonna regret it, yeah!

At can be added towhere questions as an intensifier, a trait held in common with New Orleans English.

Where my shoes at, baw?

Cajun English speakers may useto instead ofat when referring to locations.

I was to the store when I saw her.

Cajun English speakers exhibit a tendency to usefor instead ofat when referring to time.

I'll be there for 2 o'clock.

Given the connection between Cajun English and Acadia, this is also seen amongCanadian English speakers.

"Come see" is the equivalent of saying "come here" regardless of whether or not there is something to "see." The French "viens voir," or "venez voir," meaning "come" or "please come," is often used in Cajun French to ask people to come.^[33] This phrasing may have its roots in "viens voirici" (IPA:[isi]), the French word for "here."^{[citation needed]}

To "save the dishes" means to "put away the dishes into cupboards where they belong after being washed". While dishes are the most common subject, it is not uncommon to save other things. For example: Save up the clothes, saving the tools, save your toys.

"Getting/Running down at the store" involves stepping out of a car to enter the store. Most commonly, the driver will ask the passenger, "Are you getting/running down (also)?" One can get down at any place, not just the store. The phrase "get down" may come from the act of "getting down from a horse" as many areas of Acadiana were only accessible by horse well into the 20th century. It also may originate from the French languagedescendre meaningto get down, much as some English-Spanish bilingual speakers say "get down," from the Spanishbajar.

"Makin' groceries" is acalque from French to mean the act of buying groceries, rather than that of manufacturing them. The confusion originates from the direct translation of the American French phrase "faire l'épicerie" which is understood by speakers to mean "to do the grocery shopping." "Faire" as used in the French language can mean either "to do" or "to make."^[34]

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Louisiana accents (including Cajun English) are notoriously difficult for actors to replicate,^[35] so portrayals in media vary widely in credibility.

• In the television seriesSwamp People,Troy Landry speaks with a strong native Cajun accent.^[36]
• In the television seriesTrue Blood, the character René Lenier has a Cajun accent.
• In the television miniseriesBand of Brothers, the company's medic Eugene Roe is half-Cajun and speaks with a distinct accent.
  • Likewise, Merriell "Snafu" Shelton from a companion miniseriesThe Pacific.
• TheMarvel Comics superheroRemy LeBeau / Gambit is from New Orleans and speaks with a thick Cajun accent; this is depicted in most of his animated adaptations, such asX-Men: The Animated Series,X-Men: Evolution,Wolverine and the X-Men, andX-Men '97.
• Adam Ruins Everything features a recurring bit-character who speaks in a Cajun dialect, with subtitles.
• In the Heat of the Night: Season 2, Episode 12; "A.K.A. Kelly Kay"; Jude Thibodeaux (Kevin Conway) comes to Sparta in search of a former prostitute he controlled in New Orleans. Cajun accent is prominent.^{[37][better source needed]}
• OnKing of the Hill,Bill Dauterive's cousin Gilbert is supposed to speak with a high-class older Southern accent, sometimes with Cajun influences.

• In the filmThe Blind Side,Ed Orgeron, a Cajun who coached the film andbook's subjectMichael Oher during the latter'scollege career, plays himself and uses his native dialect.
• The filmSouthern Comfort includes supporting cast with native Cajun accents.
• In theMarvel Studios filmDeadpool & Wolverine,Remy LeBeau / Gambit (played byChanning Tatum) speaks with a thick Cajun accent as he does in other multimedia adaptations.
• In the animated filmThe Princess and the Frog, Ray the Firefly (voiced byJim Cummings) speaks Cajun English.
• In the movieThe Big Easy, New Orleans or Cajun accents are used by some characters, with different levels of credibility.^[35][38]
• In the movieThe Green Mile, Eduard Delacroix (played byMichael Jeter) supposedly speaks Cajun English.
• In the filmJoe Dirt, in one scene while looking for his parents in Louisiana,David Spade's character interacts with a Cajun man (Farmer Fran) played byBlake Clark who supposedly uses a thick Cajun accent.
• In the filmDeepwater Horizon, Donald Vidrine (played byJohn Malkovich) supposedly speaks Cajun English.
• In the filmThe Waterboy, Cajun English is supposedly spoken throughout.^[38]

• Several characters ofGabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, particularly the narrator, have Cajun accents. Some characters even use Cajun French phrases.
• Virgil fromLeft 4 Dead 2 speaks with a Cajun-accent and uses some Cajun English wording during theSwamp Fever finale toThe Parish beginning campaigns.
• Teruteru Hanamura fromDanganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair speaks with a Cajun accent and uses common phrases in the latter half of the first Class Trial.^{[citation needed]}
• Drifter fromDeadlock has a Cajun accent and uses common phrases in his voice lines

• Dialects of the English Language
• Acadian French, the dialect of French from which Cajun French derives
• Louisiana French
• Louisiana Creole, a French-based creole which has had some influence on Cajun French and English
• New Orleans English, another Louisiana dialect of English which includes multiple accents such asYat.

• PBS American Accent series – Cajun

• Dubois, Sylvia; Horvath, Barbara M. (2004). "Cajun Vernacular English: phonology". In Schneider, Edgar W. (ed.).A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. Vol. 1. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 407–416.doi:10.1515/9783110175325.ISBN 978-3-11-019718-1.
• Valdman, Albert (2009).Dictionary of Louisiana French. University Press of Mississippi.ISBN 9781604734034.
• Papen, R.A.; Rottet, K.J. (1997). "A Structural Sketch of the Cajun French Spoken in Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes". In Valdman, Albert (ed.).French and Creole in Louisiana. Boston: Springer. pp. 71–108.doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-5278-6_4.ISBN 978-1-4419-3262-4.
• Reaser, Jeffrey; Wilbanks, Eric; Wojcik, Karissa; Wolfram, Walt (2018). "Variable r-Lessness in Cajun English".Language Variety in the New South: Contemporary Perspectives on Change and Variation. UNC Press Books. pp. 135–152.ISBN 978-1-4696-3881-2.
• Walton, Shana (December 2, 1994).Flat Speech and Cajun Ethnic Identity in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana (Ph.D. thesis). Tulane University. RetrievedAugust 23, 2024.

• American English
• Cajun language

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