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A Brief History of Cajun French

As a French-speaking sociolinguist, Dominique Ryon has worked extensively towards the study and preservation of the unique Cajun French language. Cajun French is a dialect spoken in Southwest Louisiana by descendants of eighteenth century Acadian immigrants. In recent decades, Cajun French has been on the decline and is now considered an endangered language. Early in the twentieth century, laws were passed to press younger generations to speak English only, in hopes of improving their cultural integration in a largely English-speaking nation. Efforts to preserve the French tradition in Louisiana have blossomed in recent years with the establishment of college courses in Cajun French, the publication of literary works in Cajun French as well as academic books geared towards preservation, such as the 2009 Dictionary of Louisiana French co-edited by Dominique Ryon. Unfortunately, younger Louisianans hear Cajun French spoken far less often than the generations before them, making the preservation of an oral tradition a primary concern both for researchers and for members of the Cajun community.

Sociolinguists like Dominique Ryon seek to preserve the language as it is spoken and encourage the practice of passing down regional linguistic traditions to each new generation of Cajun French speakers.                                 

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An Overview of CODOFIL's Founding and Present Mission

Academic researcher and author Dominique Ryon, Ph.D., invests her energies in programs that promote the development of the French language. She received a doctoral degree from Université de Montréal in Québec and a master of arts from Université Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle. From 2005 until 2009, Dominique Ryon was appointed to the board of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) by the state governor. James Domengeaux founded CODOFIL in 1968 to address the loss of French language in Louisiana schools. In an era in which native French speakers in the state dwindled as the result of a state ban on the language, CODOFIL focused on revitalizing French using the public school system. The agency rode the wave of the civil rights movement and found stability in the inclusive climate of the time. Located in Lafayette, the unofficial capital of French Louisiana, CODOFIL operates with a small staff and a $300,000 annual budget. The council’s activities include the challenging tasks of locating and retaining native and near-native French speakers to work as certified teachers. In order to fulfill its sweeping mandate, CODOFIL forms accords with French-speaking countries to recruit sincere applicants to teach French in Louisiana schools.

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Dominique Ryon on the Politics of Cajun French

A respected language scholar, Dominique Ryon has deep knowledge of the workings of Cajun French. In “Language Death Studies and Local Knowledge: The Case of Cajun French,” which appeared in the edited volume, “Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice,” she draws on the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault to explore the relationship between social power and the study of language in Louisiana. Inventive scholastic approaches and attention to local perspectives are hallmarks of Dr. Ryon’s scholarship, and "Language Death Studies and Local Knowledge" is no exception. The essay notes that although Cajun French is spoken by approximately 250,000 people, the number of speakers continues to decline with each passing year. While most studies of language loss focus on economic or demographic considerations to explain this decline, her analysis places social factors front and center. "Language Death Studies and Local Knowledge" does more than advance academic understanding of this linguistic phenomenon. By emphasizing local knowledge rather than fatalistic models of “language death,” Dr. Ryon's essay argues that academic scholarship should take its cues from the groups it studies in order to empower speakers of Cajun French and other minority languages—an important ethical project for scholars of linguistics.

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An Overview of the Field of Sociolinguistics

The academic field of sociolinguistics focuses on the effects of society and culture on language or minority language. For example, Dominique Ryon examines cultural change in southwest Louisiana and the changes in the structure and use of Cajun French, a minority language spoken by descendants of Acadian immigrants.  Sociolinguists collect most of their data via interview with subjects in the language and environment they wish to analyze; they then review data for markers such as accent and dialect. A sociolinguist like Dominique Ryon, wishing to gather data on the Cajun French language as it is spoken in its native region, might conduct a series of interviews with speakers of Cajun French in southwestern Louisiana.  Members of this language group might be divided into social networks and a variety of sociological principles applied to help evaluate the reasons behind their patterns and styles of speech and uses of language.

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A Brief History of Louisiana's Cajun French-Speaking Community

An anthropologist and linguist who specializes in the French language and dialects spoken in small U.S. communities, Dominique Ryon has authored a number of articles, papers, and book chapters over the course of her career. In 2005, Dominique Ryon’s research on Cajun French was included in a chapter of the book Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice. The chapter, titled “Language Death Studies and Local Knowledge: The Case of Cajun French,” analyzes the difference between academic discourse on minority language-speaking persons and the story told by the actual population of those people. The history of the Louisiana Cajun-speaking community began in Canada, where for more than a century, French settlers had lived in a relatively isolated region called Acadie. Eventually, the French and Indian War brought British colonialism to Acadie, during which British forces destroyed Acadian villages and exiled the settlers. Scattered and suffering from this expulsion from their settlement, large numbers of Acadians began arriving in Louisiana, and eventually became known as Cajuns. As they built a lifestyle of farming, trapping, and fishing for sustenance, they also developed a rich and distinct culture. Cajun music and food has a strong presence in the United States today. Though the francophone Cajun dialect has seen major challenges to its presence, strong efforts of language preservation persist to this day, including the development of written Cajun literature and the establishment of Cajun music and film festivals.

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Dominique Ryon, Ph.D., is an accomplished university professor and researcher in the field of linguistic anthropology. As a professor, Dr. Ryon has lectured at various academic institutions in the United States and Canada. Courses taught by Dr. Ryon include Sociolinguistics of French in the Francophone World, Anthropology of China, and Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. In addition to her experience as an educator, Dominique Ryon has a diverse work history in administration. Over the course of her career, Dominique Ryon has achieved a number of publications in academic journals such as La Revue Française, the Journal of Language, Identity and Education, Etudes Francophones. She is also the coauthor of two books: Dictionary of Louisiana French (University of Mississippi Press, 2010) and Littératures de Chine (Université de Montréal, 1989). Some of her academic works are the result of research grants and awards, including the National Endowment for the Humanities: Division of Preservation and Access Grant. Educated in France and Canada, Dr. Ryon completed her Bachelor of Arts and her Master of Arts in Modern and Classical Chinese at the University of Paris. Continuing her education at the Université de Montréal in Quebec, Canada, she completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistic Anthropology in 1994. Early in her professional career, Dominique Ryon gained teaching experience as a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Université de Montréal.

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Accomplished University Professor & Researcher