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| Haitian Creole Kreyòl ayisyen | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Haiti (also spoken by people of the Haitian diaspora) | |
| Total speakers: | Approximately 12 million[citation needed] | |
| Ranking: | 62 | |
| Language family: | Creole language French Creole Antillean Creoles Haitian Creole | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | Haiti | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | ht | |
| ISO 639-2: | hat | |
| ISO 639-3: | hat | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Haitian Creole language (kreyòl ayisyen), often called simply Creole, is a language spoken in Haiti by about 8.5 million people (as of 2005), which is nearly the entire population, and via emigration, about 3.5 million speakers who live in other countries, including Canada, the United States, France, and many Caribbean nations, especially the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the Bahamas.
Haitian Creole is one of Haiti\'s two official languages, along with French. It is a creole based primarily on French, but it also contains various influences, notably the native Taíno, some West African and Central African languages, Portuguese and Spanish[citation needed]. The language has two distinct dialects: Fablas and Plateau.
Guyane, Martinique, Guadeloupe as well as Saint Lucia and Dominica, also speak Creole, with some local variations. Haitian creole tends to move away from original creole under the influence of English introduced by Haitian working in USA.
In part because of the efforts of Félix Morisseau-Leroy, since 1961 Haitian Creole has been recognized as an official language along with French, which had been the sole literary language of the country since its independence in 1804, and this status was upheld under the country\'s constitution of 1987. Its usage in literature is small but increasing, with Morisseau being one of the first and most significant examples. Many speakers are trilingual, speaking Haitian Creole, Spanish, and French. Many educators, writers and activists have emphasized pride and written literacy in Creole since the 1980s. Today there are numerous newspapers, as well as radio and television programs, in Creole.
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Haitian Creole is used widely among Haitians who have relocated to other countries, particularly the United States and Canada. Some of the larger population centers include Montréal, Québec, where French is the official language, and parts of New York City, Boston, Central and South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach). Various public service announcements, school-parent communications, and other materials are produced in this language by government agencies. Miami-Dade County in Florida sends out paper communications in Haitian Creole in addition to English and Spanish. Announcements are posted in the Boston subway system and area hospitals and medical offices in this language. HTN, a Miami-based television channel, is North America\'s only Creole-language television network. The Miami area also features over half a dozen Creole-language AM radio stations.
There is some controversy as to whether or not Creole should be taught in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Many argue Creole is a peasant language which is not important, while others argue it is important for children to know their parents\' native tongue.
Haitian Creole language and culture is taught in many Colleges in the United States as well as in the Bahamas. Indiana University has a Creole Institute[1] founded by Dr. Albert Valdman [2] where Haitian Creole, among other facets of Haiti, are studied and researched; the University of Kansas, Lawrence has an Institute of Haitian studies, founded by Dr. Bryant Freeman. Additionally, the University of Massachusetts-Boston and University of Florida offer seminars and courses every year under their Haitian Creole Summer Institute. More universities such as Brown University, Columbia University, and University of Miami offered numerous classes in Haitian Creole.
In the Americas, Haitian Creole is the second most spoken language in Cuba, where over 300,000 Haitian immigrants speak it. It is recognized as a language in Cuba and a moderate number of mestizo and mulatto Cubans speak it fluently. Surprisingly enough, most of these speakers have never been to Haiti and do not possess Haitian ancestry, but merely learned it in the communities they lived in. In addition, there is a Haitian Creole radio station operating in HavanaHaiti in Cuba The language is also spoken by over 150,000 Haitians (although estimates believe that there are over a million speakers due to a huge population of illegal aliens from HaitiDr1.com: Illegal Haitians deported) who reside in the neighboring Dominican RepublicLanguages of Dominican Republic
Haitian Creole has ten vowels as opposed to standard French\'s twelve. This is primarily due to the loss of front rounded vowels. In Creole, these French phonemes are usually merged with their unrounded counterpart. Hence, /y/ becomes /i/ and /ø/ becomes /e/.
French\'s uvular rhotic either becomes an alveolar trill /r/, or /w/, or is elided altogether, depending on the environment.
Being formed relatively recently, Haitian Creole orthography is mostly phonemic, and is similar to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The main differences are j = /ʒ/, y = /j/, è = /ɛ/, ou = /u/. Nasalization is indicated by a following n.
Most of the lexicon is derived from French, with significant changes in pronunciation and morphology. Often, the French definite article was retained as part of the noun. For example, the French definite article la in la lune ("the moon") was incorporated into the Creole noun for moon: lalin.
| Creole | IPA | Origin | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| bagay | /bagaj/ | (?)Fr. bagage, "baggage" | "thing" |
| bannann | /bãnãn/ | Fr. banane, "banana" | "plantain" |
| bekàn | /bekan/ | Fr. bécane /bekan/ | "bicycle" |
| Bondye | /bõdje/ | Fr. Bon Dieu /bõdjø/ | "God! Good Lord!" |
| dèyè | /dɛjɛ/ | Fr. derrière /dɛʁjɛʁ/ | "behind" |
| diri | /diri/ | Fr. du riz /dyʁi/ | "rice" |
| fig | /fig/ | Fr. figue | "banana" |
| la-kay | /kaj/ | (?)Fr. cahutte /kayt/ | "house" |
| kiyèz, tchòk, poban | /kijɛz, tʃɔk, pobã/ | "hog banana" (*) | |
| kle | /kle/ | Fr. clé /kle/, "key" | "wrench" or "key" |
| kle kola | /kle kola/ | Fr. clé /kle/, "key" + Eng. "cola" | "bottle opener" |
| konnflek | /kõnflek/ | En. "corn flakes" | "breakfast cereal" |
| kawoutchou | /kawutʃu/ | Fr. caoutchouc, "rubber" | "tire" |
| lalin | /lalin/ | Fr. la lune /lalyn/ | "moon" |
| makak | /makak/ | Fr. macaque /makak/ | "monkey" |
| makomè | /makomɛ/ | Fr. ma co-mère, comère | "godmother" (#) |
| matant | /matãt/ | Fr. ma tante, "my aunt" | "aunt" |
| moun | /mun/ | Fr. monde | "people/person" |
| mwen | /mwɛ̃/ | Fr. moi, "mwen meme" | "me","I","myself" |
| nimewo | /nimewo/ | Fr. numéro /nymeʁo/ | "number" |
| ozetazini | /ozetazini/ | Fr. aux États-Unis /ozetazyni/ | "the United States" |
| piman | /pimã/ | Fr. piment | a very hot pepper |
| pann | /pãn/ | Fr. pendre | "to hang" |
| pwa | /pwa/ | Fr. pois /pwa/, "pea" | "bean" |
| chenèt | /ʃenɛt/ | "tooth gap" (^) | |
| tonton | /tõtõ/ | fr. oncle | "uncle" |
| vwazen | /vwazɛ̃/ | Fr. voisin /vwazɛ̃/ | "neighbor" |
| zwazo | /zwazo/ | Fr. les oiseaux /lezwazo/ | "birds" |
| zye | /zje/ | Fr. les yeux /lezjø/ | "eyes" |
(*) A banana which is short and fat, not a plantain and not a conventional banana; regionally called "hog banana" or "sugar banana" in English.
(#) The relationship shared between a child\'s mother and godmother.
(^) The gap between a person\'s two front teeth.
Many trade marks have become common nouns in Haitian Creole (as happened in English with "aspirin" and "kleenex", for example).
The term nèg literally means a dark-skinned man and the word blan a white person, as in Gen yon nèg e gen yon blan. ("there is a black man and there is a white man"). However, nèg is generally used for any man, regardless of skin color (i.e. like "guy" or "dude" in American English). Blan is generally used for foreigner. It is not used to refer just to white foreigners, but foreigners of other races as well.
Etymologically, the word nèg is derived from the French "nègre" and is cognate with the Spanish negro ("black", both the color and the people)
There are many other Haitian Creole terms for specific tones of skin, such as grimo, bren, wòz, mawon, etc. However, such labels are considered offensive by some Haïtians, because of their association with color discrimination and the Haitian class system.
Haitian Creole grammar differs greatly from French and inflects much more simply: for example, verbs are not inflected for tense or person, and there is no grammatical gender — meaning that adjectives and articles are not inflected according to the noun. The primary word order (SVO) is the same as French, but the variations on the verbs and adjectives are minuscule compared to the complex rules employed by French.
Many grammatical features, particularly pluralization of nouns and indication of possession, are indicated by appending certain suffixes (postpositions) like yo to the main word. There has been a debate going on for some years as what should be used to connect the suffixes to the word: the most popular alternatives are a dash, an apostrophe or a space. It makes matters more complicated when the "suffix" itself is shortened, perhaps making only one letter (such as m or w).
There are six pronouns, one pronoun for each person/number combination. There is no difference between direct and indirect. Some are obviously of French origin, others are not.
| person/number | Creole | Short form | French | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/singular | mwen | m | je, me, moi | "I", "me" |
| 2/singular | ou (*) | w | tu, te, vous | "you" (sing.) |
| 3/singular | li | l | il, elle | "he", "she" |
| 1/plural | nou | n | nous | "we", "us" |
| 2/plural | nou or vou (**) | vous | "you" (pl.) | |
| 3/plural | yo | y | ils, elles, eux | "they", "them" |
(*)sometimes ou is written as w- in the sample phrases, w indicates ou.
(**) depending on the situation.
Nouns are pluralized by adding yo at the end.
Possession is indicated by placing the possessor after the item possessed. This is similar to the French construction of chez moi or chez lui which are "my place" and "his place", respectively.
The language has an indefinite article yon, roughly corresponding to English "a/an" and French un/une. It is derived from the French il y a un, (lit. "there is a/an/one"). It is placed before the noun:
There is also a definite article, roughly corresponding to English "the" and French le/la. It is placed after the noun, and the sound varies by the last sound of the noun itself. If the last sound is an oral consonant and is preceded by an oral vowel, it becomes la:
If the last sound is an oral consonant and is preceded by a nasal vowel, it becomes lan:
If the last sound is an oral vowel and is preceded by an oral consonant, it becomes a:
If the last sound is an oral vowel and is preceded by a nasal consonant, it becomes an:
If the last sound is a nasal vowel, it becomes an:
If the last sound is a nasal consonant, it becomes nan:
There is a single word sa that corresponds to French ce/ceci or ça, and English "this" and "that". As in English, it may be used as a demonstrative, except that it is placed after the noun it qualifies. It is often followed by a or yo (in order to mark number):
As in English, it may also be used as a pronoun, replacing a noun:
Many verbs in Haitian Creole are the same spoken words as the French infinitive, but they are spelled phonetically. As indicated above, there is no conjugation in the language; the verbs have one form only, and changes in tense are indicated by the use of tense markers.
The concept expressed in English by the verb "to be" is expressed in Haitian Creole by two words, se and ye.
The verb se (pronounced as the English word "say") is used to link a subject with a predicate nominative:
The subject sa or li can sometimes be omitted with se:
For the future tense, such as "I want to be", usually vin "to become" is used instead of se.
"Ye" also means "to be", but is placed exclusively at the end of the sentence, after the predicate and the subject (in that order):
The verb "to be" is not overt when followed by an adjective, that is, Haitian Creole has stative verbs. So, malad means "sick" and "to be sick":
The verb "to have" is genyen, often shortened to gen.
The verb genyen (or gen) also means "there is/are"
There are three verbs which are often translated as "to know", but they mean different things. Konn or konnen means "to know" + a noun (cf. French connaître).
Konn or konnen also means "to know" + a fact (cf. French savoir).
The third word is always spelled konn. It means "to know how to" or "to have experience". This is similar to the "know" is used in the English phrase "know how to ride a bike": it denotes not only a knowledge of the actions, but also some experience with it.
Another verb worth mentioning is fè. It comes from the French faire and is often translated as "do" or "make". It has a broad range of meanings, as it is one of the most common verbs used in idiomatic phrases.
The verb kapab (or shortened to ka, kap\' or \'kab) means "to be able to (do something)". It refers to both "capability" and "availability", very similar to the French "capable".
There is no conjugation in Haitian Creole. In the present non-progressive tense, one just uses the basic verb form for stative verbs:
Note that when the basic form of action verbs is used without any verb markers, it is generally understood as referring to the past:
(Note that manje means both "food" and "to eat" -- m ap manje bon manje means "I am eating good food").
For other tenses, special "tense marker" words are placed before the verb. The basic ones are:
Past progressive:
Note: For the present progressive ("I am eating now") it is customary, though not necessary, to add "right now":
Near or definite future:
Other examples:
Additional time-related markers:
They are often used together:
A verb mood marker is ta, corresponding to English "would" and equivalent to the French conditional tense:
The word pa comes before a verb (and all tense markers) to negate it:
Haitian Creole language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| French-based creole languages |
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In the Americas: Haitian Creole (kreyòl ayisyen) • Lanc-Patuá • Antillean Creole • Louisiana Creole (Kréyol La Lwizyàn) • French Guiana Creole
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