John C Rigdon

A Cajun Dictionary John C Rigdon

We've all been introduced to Cajun speech and strain to understand it, catching just a word here and there.

Louisiana French or Creole is spoken by several hundred thousand people in southern Louisiana, but until recently the language has not gotten its due as a serious language, distinct from both French and English. Over the centuries, the language has incorporated some words of African, Spanish, Native American, Haitian and English origin, sometimes giving it linguistic features found only in Louisiana.

Louisiana French is spoken across ethnic and racial lines by people who identify as Cajun or Louisiana Creole as well as Chitimacha, Houma, Biloxi, Tunica, Choctaw, Acadian, and French among others. For these reasons, as well as the relatively small influence Acadian French has had on the region, the label Louisiana French or Louisiana Regional French (French: français régional louisianais) is generally regarded as more accurate and inclusive than "Cajun French" and is preferred term by linguists and anthropologists. However, "Cajun French" is commonly used by speakers of the language and other inhabitants of Louisiana.

Louisiana French should further not be confused with Louisiana Creole, a distinct French-based creole language indigenous to Louisiana and spoken across racial lines. In Louisiana, language labels are often conflated with ethnic labels. For example, a speaker who identifies as Cajun may call their language "Cajun French", though linguists would identify it as Louisiana Creole. Likewise, many Louisiana Creole people of all ethnicities (including Cajuns, who are themselves technically Creoles of Acadian descent, although most do not identify as such) do not speak Louisiana Creole, instead speaking Louisiana French. As in many other languages and people groups, we see this as a distinction without a difference.

People who speak Louisiana French and those who speak Louisiana Creole have worked side-by-side, lived among one another, and have enjoyed local festivities together throughout the history of the state. As a result, in regions where both Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole are or used to be spoken, the inhabitants of the region often code-switch, beginning the sentence in one language and completing it in another.

This dictionary primarily focuses on terms identified as Louisiana French. It contains over 7,000 terms with their English translation. We also publish a version paired with French. See our website for availability.

This dictionary is extracted from our Words R Us system, a derivative of WordNet. English Wordnet, originally created by Princeton University is a lexical database for the English language. It groups words in English into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides brief definitions and usage examples, and records a series of relationships between these sets of synonyms. WordNet can be viewed as both a combination of dictionary and thesaurus.