What is the social meaning of sounding Cajun?

The view from inside the Cajun community changes from one generation to the next. In order to explain why Cajun men and women have changed their ways of speaking over the three generations, we have to understand what kind of speech community we are dealing with: it is a subordinated cultural enclave which for several generations has been forced to change in the direction of the dominant culture. Massive language changes have taken place alongside massive social changes and the language change is an almost direct reflection of the sociohistory of this community. Language has played a central role in the relations between the Cajun enclave and the numerically and politically dominant English-speaking population in southwest Louisiana.