Thank you all for your comments on the Cajun English post. I’ll be compiling them, passing them by my mom and adding a refined list to Wikipedia’s page. Speaking of the Cajun Language(s), I was pleasantly surprised to see a new Cajun French blog titled “Cajun French Language Tutorials” which started in November of 2006. The site is run by a bona-fide Cajun, Jim Lege. This is what he has to say about this site:

My name is James Leger (call me Jim). I am a 65 year old native of Louisiana and i give free tutorials and advice for those interested in the Cajun language. I also discuss customs and history related to the Cajun heritage, and would be happy to entertain your questions.

I taught Cajun French in Lamar University’s Continuing Education program in Port Arthur, Texas. I was raised with Cajun French as my first language. I speak fluent Cajun French and can speak and read standard French as well.

I plan to talk about how the Cajun language has been mistaken as a crude form of standard French, as well as other misconceptions about the language. Cajun French is actually a very complicated language, and has both formal and informal conversational dialogues. I will show you both the similarities and differences in standard and Cajun French, and many other characteristics of the Cajun language that you probably never knew!

The site’s RSS feed can be found here.

I know..I know I always start blog entries out by saying I’ll update more but I’m going to school full time now and working full time as well. Once I graduate in December 07, I’m going to rebuild all of RealCajunRecipes.com and make it a lot easier for Maw-Maw to update everything. Till then, here’s a sporadic post:

The Cajun English article at Wikipedia is looking right! What’s there now is so accurate, it had to have been written by a Cajun. I’m going to talk to my mom to see what she can add.. I wanted to add a few but didn’t know the pronunciation or spelling. If you do and can help, here are a few that I’ve got in mind:

goudmon: greedy
Poo Yaille/Oh Yaille/Mais Yaille: “Oh lord”
Tee: Friend, Jr.
get down: Don’t know how to word the literal translation but I know the phrase is derived from French.
Picon: picker
Masscro ne pas. “I don’t know” I’m sure I butchered that one.
Save the dishes/laundry: From French
Poil: pubic hair (pronounced pwell)

The only example on the page I’m thinking isn’t accurate is “My eye”. I think that might be “Mais Yaille” though maybe they just don’t use it around Kaplan. I remember the last time someone exclaimed that to me. It was great.. I was talking to an old Cajun, Mr. Frederick about his experience in the Korean War. I asked if anyone he knew got VD out there and he said “VD? What’s dat, sha” and I said “Mr. Frederick, VD means venereal disease” and he said “Aw Yaille! I don’t know, it’s been too long.”