Cajun
Cajuns
Total population
2-5 million
Regions with significant populations
United States
Louisiana
432,549
Texas
56,000
Florida
N/A
Other U.S. states N/A
Languages
Cajun French
Cajun English, American English, Standard
French
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
French, Québécois, Métis, Acadians
Cajuns (pronounced /ˈkeɪdʒən/; French: les
Cadiens) are an ethnic group mainly living in
Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of
Acadian exiles
(French-speaking settlers
from parts of what is now Canada) and
peoples of other ethnicities with whom the
Acadians eventually
intermarried on the
semitropical frontier. Today, the Cajuns make
up a significant portion of south Louisiana’s
population, and have exerted an enormous
impact on the state’s culture.[1]
People
Etymology
The word "Cajun" comes from the French
pronunciation of Acadian (in French, the
masculine Acadien, the feminine Acadienne)
which is "A-Cad-jin" or "Cajin" which then be-
came "Cajun", combining aphesis (dropping
of the leading letter) with slurring the final
syllable (as with the American pejorative "In-
jun" for "Indian").[2]
Acadia (in the French language Acadie)
was the name given to lands in a portion of
the French colonial empire in northeastern
North America that included parts of eastern
Quebec,
the Maritime
provinces,
and
modern-day New England, stretching as far
south as Philadelphia.
The origin of the designation Acadia is
credited to the explorer Giovanni da Ver-
razzano, who on his sixteenth century map
applied the ancient Greek name "Arcadia" to
the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia .
"Arcadia" derives from the Arcadia district in
Greece which since Classical antiquity had
the extended meanings of "refuge" or "idyllic
place". The Dictionary of Canadian Biography
says: "In the 17th century Champlain fixed its
present orthography, with the ’r’ omitted,
and (the Canadian historian) W.F.Ganong has
shown its gradual progress northwards, in a
succession of maps, to its resting place in the
Atlantic Provinces."
E