Cajun
The word "CAJUN" is a corruption, if you will. of the word "ACADIAN," starting off, in the French of course, "Acadien… Cadien… Cadjin… and in English, "Cajun". The word "Acadian" describes the 17th and 18th Century inhabitant of an area in eastern Canada called Acadia or, in French, Acadie. The popular meaning for the word "Acadie" is "earthly paradise," taken from the language of the Micmac Indians, who inhabited the area at the time. Acadia was comprised of what is today New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Briton and parts of the state of Maine.
The word "Cajun" did not come into being until sometime in the late 18th Century and is strictly a South Louisiana word. Up to World War II the word "Cajun" was somewhat of a source of embarrassment and ridicule. This came about because it suggested "a poor and uneducated person who spoke mostly French and some, if any, broken English." It was not until the late 1940's and early 1950's that the Cajun population realized that this negative attitude was causing the eradication of their culture and the lost of their identity as an ethnic group. Through the efforts of many concerned people and organizations, a movement was designed to turn the negativism around into positive thinking and encourage proud feelings about the history and culture of their ancestors and the preservation of their French language. The heart of the Cajun culture is its language. This is on-going.
