Anyone on here claim to be a Cajun and just what is the definition?

I am not one , I have a bit of St Louse French

there is Cajun and Acadian both ended up in LA

depends who you ask and when and what they identify as they are either the same people or they draw some fine distinction possibly who settled first in LA and who stopped off in canada first

the distinction is made in Cajun VS Acadian Music

Don't forget Creole as well.

I got just a touch of French on mama's side and a little on daddy's side but nothing that would be considered cajun. There were French all along the gulf coast that weren't Acadian.

Mobile and Demopolis were both French settlements. The French had forts and trading posts up the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers.

Now that said south Louisiana has an amazing culture and cuisine and I've always said that if I wasn't an Alabama hillbilly I'd choose to be a Louisiana coon***.

Which one is a coon a--?

There may be a distinction but to most other southerners it's the French speaking ones. It's also fighting words so maybe I shouldn't have used it. LOL

I very nearly got whooped in basic training by a couple Cajuns for using it. We had three in basic two that I would call cajun as they spoke English with that strong cajun accent and another that barely spoke English as Acadian French was his native tongue. Very big difference.

Lol, some hate it, and some embrace it...best to know who's who, before throwing it around!

yes and creole , and each speak a variation on French


from the outside you might as well be looking at a row of guys in Wisconsin and try to tell which one is the Swede , the Fin , the Norwegian and the Dane they all started touching the same body of water and they all needed up touching the same body of water half way around the wolrd I would say you can tell some if end the name ON they are Norwegian and if they end EN they are Danes but even that doesn't hold true , my Great great Grandfather changed from Hansen to Hanson even though he was a Dane , so that he would get his mail every guy around with the last name Hansen had the same first name and the mail carrier got confused , name changed he got his own mail.

Dang, now I am confused. Several years back Savell used the Coona** phrase in one of his posts, and I asked him about it.....he stated it was a term of endearment! Maybe it's a good thing I have never been to Louisiana. And those folks seem so full of fun down thataway too.

I gotta wonder as well............being of French Canadian extraction, would I be considered an Upper Great Lakes Coona**?

Had a Cajun come up to our fur buyer one time years back to pick up a load of coon carcasses. Listened to his stories for a couple hours that evening, quite and interesting group of folks. Coonass was for sure part of the vocabulary, though some of the other words were tough for me to understand with his thick accent.

Ok. First. Cajun and Acadian is the same. Creole is not. My family got exiled from Nova Soctia, back in the 1500’s. We speak French. And there is still Acadians up in New Brunswick, Nova Soctia, Maine and along the eastern side of the us. The Creole’s is a mix with blacks and or from the New Orleans area. Cajuns or on the east side of the Mississippi and the coastal areas. We were mainly farmers, trappers and fishermen. We got along with the natives, because we lived off the land and traded with them, like we did in Nova Soctia. When our people arrive in La. They all ready had Germans , French here and Blacks. So, just because you have a French last name, does not make you Cajun. The Acadians mixed with the other coutures. So , you can be Cajun and have a different last name other than French. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, Coonass, was a nickname used by the Cajuns. Not so much now. Every now and then, some one may say it. It is usually a older person. I still use the name. We call our accent flat. That means, the stronger the accent, the more flat you talk. It depends on we’re you live is how flat you talk. When I got married. We went up to Pennsylvania for or honeymoon . Some people we could talk to and some we couldn’t. Y’all have the accent! But, this is the basic, we or loosing our couture. We don’t hardly speak French any more and everything is more commercialized!! It’s not like I grew up!! The older I get, the more I want to pass on the way It use to be.

Not just losing in Louisiana though Louisiana is a unique jewel of the south. Most outsiders don't know it but you used to be able to ID which state or even county a southerner hailed from by accent alone. Alabama had at least three. Georgia had five or six.

I also went through basic with about a half company of cajuns. Kinda clingy, liked to be with their own, but got to know several and never had words! All of them were very proud of being called a coonass, not sure why! Most were just good common country folks!

Yes, we will cling to our on kind, when we are around different people. Even down here. I think it comes from distrust! You see, we lost more people in the exile from Nova Soctia, than all the Jews in WW2 and all the Indians, when the white man took over. They had a guy from Lafayette, wrote a letter to England to ask for a apology for our people! They wrote back and said, it was a Canadian matter! I think he got a apology from Canada , but, it was England that exiled us for not joining them. We were considered 3rd rate citizens. That is part of us losing our language. We are no different than any other person, we drive our boats to Walmart just like everyone else!!

So I meant a guy from Louisiana this summer because he moved to Montana. We see a lot of folks from many different states move here but not from Louisiana. I asked him why he moved here he said because all the younger people there have changed the culture a lot and he did not care for it anymore. What can you tell me about that?

I lived in Opelousas LA for 4 years and got a honorary "coonass" certificate. I loved the people , the food and they treated me like family.

Never call a Cajun a coona-- never call a coona-- a Cajun don't call a coona-- a coona-- unless they like you don't call a creole anything but creole and it goes on and on ask airporttrapper

Yup