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Haitian Creole (; ht, kreyòl ayisyen, links=no, ; french: créole haïtien, links=no, ), commonly referred to as simply ''Creole'', or ''Kreyòl'' in the Creole language, is a
French-based creole language A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole for which French is the lexifier. Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th- or 18th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the ...
spoken by 10–12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of
Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
(the other being French), where it is the native language of a majority of the population. The language emerged from contact between French settlers and enslaved Africans during the
Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
in the French colony of
Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
(now
Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although its vocabulary largely derives from 18th-century French, its grammar is that of a West African Volta-Congo language branch, particularly the
Fongbe language Fon (, ) is spoken in Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Gabon by approximately 1.7 million speakers, and is the language of the Fon people. Like the other Gbe languages, Fon is an isolating language with an SVO basic word order. Cultural and l ...
and
Igbo language Igbo ( , ; Igbo: ''Ásụ̀sụ́ Ìgbò'' ) is the principal native language cluster of the Igbo people, a meta-ethnicity from Southeastern Nigeria. The number of Igboid languages depends on how one classifies a language versus a dialect, so ...
. It also has influences from Spanish, English, Portuguese, Taino, and other West African languages. It is not mutually intelligible with standard French, and has its own distinctive grammar. Haitians are the largest community in the world speaking a modern
creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
, according to some sources. However, this is disputable, as Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based Creole language, is attested by some sources to have a larger number of speakers than that of Haitian Creole and other French-based Creole languages, particularly if non-native speakers are included. The usage of, and education in, Haitian Creole has been contentious since at least the 19thcentury. Some Haitians view French as a legacy of colonialism, while Creole has been maligned by francophones as a miseducated person's French. Until the late 20thcentury, Haitian presidents spoke only
standard French Standard French (in French: ''le français standard'', ''le français normé'', ''le français neutre'' eutral Frenchor ''le français international'' nternational French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language. It ...
to their fellow citizens, and until the 21st century, all instruction at Haitian elementary schools was in modern standard French, a second language to most of their students. Haitian Creole is also spoken in regions that have received migration from Haiti, including other Caribbean islands,
French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
(particularly
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
) and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is related to
Antillean Creole Antillean Creole (Antillean French Creole, Kreyol, Kwéyòl, Patois) is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of Carib, English, and African languages. Antillean Creol ...
, spoken in the
Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...
, and to other French-based creole languages.


Etymology

The word ''creole'' comes from the
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
term , which means "a person raised in one's house", from the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, which means "to create, make, bring forth, produce, beget". In the
New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
, the term originally referred to Europeans born and raised in overseas colonies (as opposed to the European-born ''
peninsulares In the context of the Spanish Empire, a ''peninsular'' (, pl. ''peninsulares'') was a Spaniard born in Spain residing in the New World, Spanish East Indies, or Spanish Guinea. Nowadays, the word ''peninsulares'' makes reference to Peninsular Sp ...
''). To be "as rich as a Creole" at one time was a popular saying boasted in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
during the colonial years of
Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
, for being the most lucrative colony in the world. The noun ''Creole'' eventually came to denote mixed-race
Creole peoples Creole peoples are ethnic groups formed during the European colonial era, from the mass displacement of peoples brought into sustained contact with others from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, who converged onto a colonial terri ...
and their mixed
Creole languages A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. Wh ...
.


Origins

Haitian Creole contains elements from both the
Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
group of
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
through its
superstrate In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...
, French, as well as influences from
African languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern A ...
. There are many theories on the formation of the Haitian Creole language. One theory estimates that Haitian Creole developed between 1680 and 1740. During the 16th and 17th centuries, French and Spanish colonizers produced
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
,
cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
, and
sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...
on the island. Throughout this period, the population was made of roughly equal numbers of (white workers), (free people of colour) and slaves. The economy shifted into sugar production in 1690, just before the French colony of was officially formed in 1697. The sugar crops needed a much larger labor force, which led to an increase in slave importation. In the 18th century an estimated 800,000 West-African individuals were enslaved and brought to Saint-Domingue. As the slave population increased, interactions between French-speaking colonists and slaves decreased. Many African slaves in French ownership were from Niger-Congo-speaking territory, and particularly speakers of
Kwa languages The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Kra ...
, such as Gbe from West Africa and the
Central Tano languages Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
, and
Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...
from Central Africa. Singler suggests that the number of Bantu speakers decreased while the number of Kwa speakers increased, with Gbe being the most dominant group. The first fifty years of 's sugar boom coincided with emergent Gbe predominance in the
French Caribbean The French West Indies or French Antilles (french: Antilles françaises, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy fwansez) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: * The two overseas departments of: ** Guadeloupe, ...
. In the interval during which Singler hypothesizes the language evolved, the Gbe population was around 50% of the imported slave population.
Classical French French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that specifically is classified under the Gallo-Romance languages. The discussion of the history of a language is typically divided into "external histor ...
() and (
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
, and dialects,
Gallo Gallo may refer to: *Related to Gaul: ** Gallo-Roman culture **Gallo language, a regional language of France **Gallo-Romance, a branch of Romance languages **Gallo-Italic or Gallo-Italian language, a branch spoken in Northern Italy of the Romance ...
and Picard) were spoken during the 17th and 18th centuries in , as well as in
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...
and
French West Africa French West Africa (french: Afrique-Occidentale française, ) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (now Burki ...
. Enslaved individuals lacked a mode of communication and as a result would try to learn French to communicate with one another. With the constant importation of slaves, the language was increasingly used and gradually became distinct from French. The language was also picked up by other members of the community and became used by the majority of those born in what is now Haiti.


Difference between Haitian Creole and French

Haitian Creole and French have similar pronunciations and share many lexical items. In fact, over 90% of the Haitian Creole vocabulary is of French origin, therefore also classifying it as a Romance language. However, many
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
terms actually have different meanings. For example, as Valdman mentions in ''Haitian Creole: Structure, Variation, Status, Origin'', the word for "frequent" in French is ; however, its cognate in Haitian Creole means 'insolent, rude, and impertinent' and usually refers to people. In addition, the grammars of Haitian Creole and French are very different. For example, in Haitian Creole, verbs are not conjugated as they are in French. Additionally, Haitian Creole possesses different phonetics from standard French; however, it is similar in phonetic structure. The phrase-structure is another similarity between Haitian Creole and French but differs slightly in that it contains details from its African substratum language. Both Haitian Creole and French have also experienced
semantic change Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from ...
; words that had a single meaning in the have changed or have been replaced in both languages. For example, "" ("What is your name?") corresponds to the French Although the average French speaker would not understand this phrase, every word in it is in fact of French origin: "who"; "manner"; "you", and "to call", but the verb has been replaced by in modern French and reduced to a meaning of "to flag down". Lefebvre proposed the theory of
relexification In linguistics, relexification is a mechanism of language change by which one language changes much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with the lexicon of another language, without drastically changing the relexified language's gramm ...
, arguing that the process of relexification (the replacement of the phonological representation of a substratum lexical item with the
phonological Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
representation of a superstratum lexical item, so that the Haitian creole lexical item looks like French, but works like the substratum language(s)) was central in the development of Haitian Creole. The
Fon language Fon (, ) is spoken in Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Gabon by approximately 1.7 million speakers, and is the language of the Fon people. Like the other Gbe languages, Fon is an isolating language with an SVO basic word order. Cultural and le ...
, also known as the Fongbe language, is a modern
Gbe language The Gbe languages (pronounced ) form a cluster of about twenty related languages stretching across the area between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. The total number of speakers of Gbe languages is between four and eight million. The most widel ...
native to
Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and
Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...
in
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
. This language has a grammatical structure similar to Haitian Creole, possibly making Creole a
relexification In linguistics, relexification is a mechanism of language change by which one language changes much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with the lexicon of another language, without drastically changing the relexified language's gramm ...
of Fon with vocabulary from French. The two languages are often compared:


Taino Influence

There is a number of Taino influence in the language many objects, fruits and animals name are either ''haitianize'' or have a similar pronunciation. Many towns, places or sites have there official name being a translation of the Taino word.


Langay

Langay is a specialized vocabulary used in Haiti for religion, song, and dance purposes. It appears to not be an actual language, but rather an assortment of words, songs, and incantations – some secret – from various languages once used in Haitian Vodoun ceremonies.


History


Early development

Haitian Creole developed in the 17th and 18th centuries in the colony of
Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...
, in a setting that mixed speakers of various Niger–Congo languages with French colonials. In the early 1940s under President , attempts were made to standardize the language. American linguistic expert
Frank Laubach Frank Charles Laubach (September 2, 1884 – June 11, 1970), from Benton, Pennsylvania was a Congregational Christian missionary educated at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and a mystic known as "The Apostle to the Illite ...
and Irish Methodist missionary H. Ormonde McConnell developed a standardized Haitian Creole orthography. Although some regarded the orthography highly, it was generally not well received. Its
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
was standardized in 1979. That same year Haitian Creole was elevated in status by the Act of 18 September 1979. The established an official orthography for Creole, and slight modifications were made over the next two decades. For example, the is no longer used, nor is the apostrophe. The only accent mark retained is the
grave accent The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and many other western European languages, as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using t ...
in and .


Becoming an official language

The Constitution of 1987 upgraded Haitian Creole to a national language alongside French. It classified French as the or "language of instruction", and Creole was classified as an or a "tool of education". The Constitution of 1987 names both Haitian Creole and French as the official languages, but recognizes Haitian Creole as the only language that all Haitians hold in common. French is spoken by only a small percentage of citizens.


Literature development

Even without government recognition, by the end of the 19th century, there were already literary texts written in Haitian Creole such as 's and 's . was another influential author of Haitian Creole work. Since the 1980s, many educators, writers, and activists have written literature in Haitian Creole. In 2001, ''Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry'' was published. It was the first time a collection of Haitian Creole poetry was published in both Haitian Creole and English. On 28 October 2004, the Haitian daily first published an entire edition in Haitian Creole in observance of the country's newly instated "Creole Day". Haitian Creole writers often use different literary strategies throughout their works, such as code-switching, to increase the audiences knowledge on the language. Literature in Haitian Creole is also used to educate the public on the dictatorial social and political forces in Haiti.


List of Haitian Creole-language writers

* (b. 1962), poet and novelist * (b. 1936), poet, playwright, painter, musician, activist * (b. 1967), international press activist * (1942-2017), poet, novelist and art critic * (1912-1998), poet and playwright * (b. 1956), writer and visual artist * (b. 1956), poet and novelist * (b. 1982), poet


Sociolinguistics


Role in society

Although both French and Haitian Creole are official languages in
Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
, French is often considered the high language and Haitian Creole as the low language in the diglossic relationship of these two languages in society. That is to say, for the minority of Haitian population that is bilingual, the use of these two languages largely depends on the social context: standard French is used more in public, especially in formal situations, whereas Haitian Creole is used more on a daily basis and is often heard in ordinary conversation. There is a large population in Haiti that speaks only Haitian Creole, whether under formal or informal conditions:


Use in educational system

In most schools, French is still the preferred language for teaching. Generally speaking, Creole is more used in public schools, as that is where most children of ordinary families who speak Creole attend school. Historically, the education system has been French-dominant. Except the children of elites, many had to drop out of school because learning French was very challenging to them and they had a hard time to follow up. The Bernard Reform of 1978 tried to introduce Creole as the teaching language in the first four years of primary school; however, the reform overall was not very successful. As a result, the use of Creole has grown but in a very limited way. After the earthquake in 2010, basic education became free and more accessible to the monolingual masses. The government is still trying to expand the use of Creole and improve the school system.


Orthography

Haitian Creole has a
phonemic orthography A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...
with highly regular spelling, except for proper nouns and foreign words. According to the official standardized orthography, Haitian Creole is composed of the following 32 symbols: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . The letters and are always associated with another letter (in the
multigraph In mathematics, and more specifically in graph theory, a multigraph is a graph which is permitted to have multiple edges (also called ''parallel edges''), that is, edges that have the same end nodes. Thus two vertices may be connected by more ...
s , , , and ). The Haitian Creole alphabet has no or ; when is used in loanwords and proper nouns, it represents the sounds , , or . * There are no silent letters in the Haitian Creole orthography. * All sounds are always spelled the same, except when a vowel carries a
grave accent The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and many other western European languages, as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using t ...
, which makes it an oral vowel instead of a nasal vowel: ** and ; ** and ; and ** and . * When immediately followed by a vowel in a word, the digraphs denoting the nasal vowels (, , , and sometimes ) are pronounced as an oral vowel followed by . * There is some ambiguity in the pronunciation of the high vowels of the letters and when followed in spelling by . Common words such as ("person") and ("car") end with consonantal , while very few words, mostly adopted from African languages, contain nasalized high vowels, as in .


Haitian orthography debate

The first technical orthography for Haitian Creole was developed in 1940 by H. Ormonde McConnell and
Primrose McConnell Primrose McConnell (1906 – 29 May 1991) was an Irish missionary in Haiti. Life Primrose McConnell was born Frances Elaine Beckett in 1906 in Foxrock, Dublin. Her parents were Edith Alice (née Park) and George F. Beckett, an architect. She ...
, Irish Methodist missionaries. It was later revised with the help of Frank Laubach, resulting in the creation of what is known as the McConnell–Laubach orthography. The McConnell–Laubach orthography received substantial criticism from members of the Haitian elite. Haitian scholar Charles Pressoir critiqued the McConnell–Laubach orthography for its lack of codified
front rounded vowel A front rounded vowel is a particular type of vowel that is both front and rounded. The front rounded vowels defined by the IPA include: * , a close front rounded vowel (or "high front rounded vowel") * , a near-close front rounded vowel (or "n ...
s, which are typically used only by francophone elites. Another criticism was of the broad use of the letters , , and , which Pressoir argued looked "too American". This criticism of the "American look" of the orthography was shared by many educated Haitians, who also criticized its association with
Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
. The last of Pressoir's criticisms was that "the use of the circumflex to mark nasalized vowels" treated nasal sounds differently from the way they are represented in French, which he feared would inhibit the learning of French. The creation of the orthography was essentially an articulation of the language ideologies of those involved and brought out political and social tensions between competing groups. A large portion of this tension lay in the ideology held by many that the French language is superior, which led to resentment of the language by some Haitians and an admiration for it from others. This orthographical controversy boiled down to an attempt to unify a conception of Haitian national identity. Where and seemed too Anglo-Saxon and American imperialistic, and were symbolic of French colonialism.


French-based orthography

When Haiti was still a colony of France, edicts by the French government were often written in a French-lexicon creole and read aloud to the slave population. The first written text of Haitian Creole was composed in the French-lexicon in a poem called '' Lisette quitté la plaine'' in 1757 by Duvivier de la Mahautière, a White Creole planter. Before Haitian Creole orthography was standardized in the late 20th century, spelling varied, but was based on subjecting spoken HaitianCreole to written French, a language whose spelling has a complicated relation to pronunciation. Unlike the phonetic orthography, French orthography of HaitianCreole is not standardized and varies according to the writer; some use exact French spelling, others adjust the spelling of certain words to represent pronunciation of the cognate in HaitianCreole, removing the silent letters. For example:
( "He goes to work in the morning") could be transcribed as: * , * , or * .


Grammar

Haitian Creole grammar is highly analytical: for example, verbs are not inflected for tense or person, and there is no
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
, which means that adjectives and articles are not inflected according to the noun. The primary word order is subject–verb–object as it is in French and English. Many grammatical features, particularly the pluralization of nouns and indication of possession, are indicated by appending certain markers, like , to the main word. There has been a debate going on for some years as to whether these markers are
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es or
clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
s, and if punctuation such as the hyphen should be used to connect them to the word. Although the language's vocabulary has many words related to their French-language cognates, its sentence structure is like that of the West African
Fon language Fon (, ) is spoken in Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Gabon by approximately 1.7 million speakers, and is the language of the Fon people. Like the other Gbe languages, Fon is an isolating language with an SVO basic word order. Cultural and le ...
.


Pronouns

There are six pronouns: first, second, and third person, each in both singular, and plural; all are of French etymological origin. There is no difference between direct and indirect objects.


Possessive pronouns


Singular


Plural


Plural of nouns

Definite nouns are made plural when followed by the word ; indefinite plural nouns are unmarked.


Possession

Possession is indicated by placing the possessor or possessive pronoun after the item possessed. In the Capois dialect of northern Haiti, or is placed before the possessive pronoun. Note, however, that this is not considered the standard Kreyòl most often heard in the media or used in writing. Possession does not indicate definiteness ("my friend" as opposed to "a friend of mine"), and possessive constructions are often followed by a definite article.


Indefinite article

The language has two indefinite articles, and (pronounced and ) which correspond to French and . is derived from the French . Both are used only with singular nouns, and are placed before the noun:


Definite article

In Haitian Creole, the definite article has five forms, and it is placed after the noun it modifies. The final syllable of the preceding word determines which form the definite article takes. If the last sound is an
oral consonant An oral consonant is a consonant sound in speech that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose, as in a nasal consonant. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air ...
or a glide (spelled 'y' or 'w'), and if it is preceded by an
oral vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
, the definite article is : If the last sound is an
oral consonant An oral consonant is a consonant sound in speech that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose, as in a nasal consonant. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air ...
and is preceded by a
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced wit ...
, the definite article is : If the last sound is an
oral vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
and is preceded by an
oral consonant An oral consonant is a consonant sound in speech that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose, as in a nasal consonant. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air ...
, the definite article is : If the last sound is any
oral vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
other than ''i'' or ''ou'' and is preceded by a nasal stop, nasal consonant, then the definite article is also ''a:'' If a word ends in , , , , or if it ends with any
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced wit ...
, then the definite article is ''an'': If the last sound is a nasal stop, nasal consonant, the definite article is , but may also be :


Demonstratives

There is a single word that corresponds to English "this" and to "that" (and to French , , , and ). As in English, it may be used as a
demonstrative Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
, except that it is placed after the noun that it qualifies. It is often followed by or (in order to mark
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
): ("this here" or "that there"): As in English, it may also be used as a pronoun, replacing a noun:


Verbs

Many verbs in Haitian Creole are the same spoken words as the French
infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
, but there is no
conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics * Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics * Complex conjugation, the chang ...
in the language; the verbs have one form only, and changes in tense, mood, and
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
are indicated by the use of markers:


Copula

The concept expressed in English by the verb "tobe" is expressed in Haitian Creole by three words, , , and sometimes . The verb (pronounced similarly to the English word "say") is used to link a subject with a
predicate nominative In grammar, a subject complement or predicative of the subject is a predicative expression that follows a linking verb ( copula) and that complements the subject of the sentence by either (1) renaming it or (2) describing it. It completes the mea ...
: The subject or can sometimes be omitted with : To express "I want to be", usually ("tobecome") is used instead of . also means "tobe", but is placed exclusively at the end of a sentence, after the
predicate Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...
and the subject (in that order): Haitian Creole has
stative verbs According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
, which means that the verb "tobe" is notovert when followed by an
adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...
. Therefore, means both "sick" and "":


To have

The verb "to have" is , often shortened to .


There is

The verb (or ) also means "there is" or "there are":


To know

The Haitian Creole word for "to know" and "to know how" is , which is often shortened to .


To do

means "do" or "make". It has a broad range of meanings, as it is one of the most common verbs used in
idiomatic phrase An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language ...
s.


To be able to

The verb (or shortened to , or ) means "to be able to (do something)". It refers to both "capability" and "availability":


Tense markers

There is no
conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics * Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics * Complex conjugation, the chang ...
in Haitian Creole. In the present non-progressive tense, one just uses the basic verb form for
stative verb According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
s: When the basic form of
action verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s is used without any verb markers, it is generally understood as referring to the past: means both "food" and "to eat", as does in
Canadian French Canadian French (french: français canadien) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes Varieties of French#Canada, multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Quebec French, Québécois (Quebec French). Formerly ''Can ...
; means "I am eating good food". For other
tenses In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, ...
, special "tense marker" words are placed before the verb. The basic ones are:
Simple past The simple past, past simple or past indefinite, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. Regular English v ...
or
past perfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
: Past progressive:
Present progressive The present continuous, also called the present progressive or present imperfect, is a verb form used in modern English that combines the present tense with the continuous aspect. It is formed by the present tense form of be and the present part ...
: For the
present progressive The present continuous, also called the present progressive or present imperfect, is a verb form used in modern English that combines the present tense with the continuous aspect. It is formed by the present tense form of be and the present part ...
, it is customary, though not necessary, to add ("rightnow"): Also, can mean "will eat" depending on the context of the sentence: Near or definite
future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
:
Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
: Other examples: Recent past markers include and (both mean "just" or "just now" and are often used together): A verb mood marker is , corresponding to English "would" and equivalent to the French conditional tense:


Negation

The word comes before a verb and any tense markers to negate it:


Lexicon

Most of the lexicon of Creole is derived from French, with significant changes in
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
and
morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
; often the French
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
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: . However, the language also inherited many words of different origins, among them
Wolof Wolof or Wollof may refer to: * Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...
, Fon,
Kongo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...
, English, Spanish,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
, Taino and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
. Haitian Creole creates and borrows new words to describe new or old concepts and realities. Examples of this are which was borrowed from English and means "to move backwards" (the original word derived from French is from ), and also from English, ''napkin'', which is being used as well as , from the French .


Sample

} , "a talker" , - , anasi , , ak, ananse , spider , - , annanna , , tnq, ananas; also used in French , pineapple , - , Ayiti , , tnq, Ahatti, lit=mountainous land, links=no , Haiti ("mountainous land") , - , bagay , , french: bagage, links=no, lit=baggage , thing , - , bannann , , french: banane, links=no, lit=banana , banana/plantain , - , bekàn , , french: bécane, links=no , bicycle , - , bokit , , bucket , , - , bòkò , , fon, bokono , sorcerer , - , Bondye , , french: bon dieu, links=no, lit=good God , God , - , chenèt , , french: quénette, links=no (French Antilles) , gap between the two front teeth , - , chouk , , ff, chuk, lit=to pierce, to poke , poke , - , dekabès , , es, dos cabezas, lit=two heads, links=no , two-headed win during dominos , - , dèyè , , french: derrière, links=no , behind , - , diri , , french: du riz, links=no, lit=some rice , rice , - , èkondisyone , /ɛkondisjone/ , air conditioner , air conditioner , - , Etazini , , french: États-Unis, links=no , United States , - , fig , , french: figue, links=no, lit=fig , banana , - , je , , french: les yeux, links=no, lit=the eyes , eye , - , kannistè , , canister , tin can , - , kay , , french: la cahutte, links=no, lit=the hut , house , - , kle , , french: clé, links=no, lit=key , key, wrench , - , rowspan="2" , kle kola , rowspan="2" , , french: clé, links=no, lit=key , rowspan="2" , bottle opener , - , cola , - , kònfleks , , corn flakes , breakfast cereal , - , kawotchou , , french: caoutchouc, links=no, lit=rubber , tire , - , lalin , , french: la lune, links=no, lit=the moon , moon , - , li , , french: lui, links=no , he, she, him, her, it , - , makak , , french: macaque, links=no , monkey , - , manbo , , kg, mambu or fon, nanbo, links=no , vodou priestess , - , marasa , , kg, mapassa, links=no , twins , - , matant , , french: ma tante, links=no, lit=my aunt , aunt, aged woman , - , moun , , french: monde, links=no, lit=world , people, person , - , mwen , , french: moi, links=no, lit=me , I, me, my, myself , - , nimewo , , french: numéro, links=no, lit=number , number , - , oungan , , fon, houngan, links=no , vodou priest , - , piman , , french: piment, links=no , a very hot
pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...
, - , pann , , french: pendre, links=no, lit=to hang , clothesline , - , podyab , , french: pauvre diable, links=no or es, pobre diablo, links=no , poor devil , - , pwa , , french: pois, links=no, lit=pea , bean , - , sapat , , es, zapato, links=no; french: savatte, links=no , sandal , - , seyfing , , surfing , sea-surfing , - , tonton , , french: tonton, links=no , uncle, aged man , - , vwazen , , french: voisin, links=no , neighbor , - , zonbi , , Kongo: ''nzumbi'' or English: ''zombie'' , soulless corpse, living dead, ghost,
zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...
, - , zwazo , , french: les oiseaux, links=no, lit=the birds , bird


and

Although and have similar words in French (, a pejorative to refer to black people, and , meaning white, or white person), the meanings they carry in French do not apply in Haitian Creole. means "a person" or « a man » (like "guy" or "dude" in American English). The word generally means "foreigner" or "not from Haiti". Thus, a non-black Haitian man (usually biracial) could be called , while a black person from the US could be referred to as . Etymologically, the word is derived from the French and is cognate with the Spanish ("black", both the
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
and the
people A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
). There are many other Haitian Creole terms for specific tones of skin including , , , and . Some Haitians consider such labels as offensive because of their association with color discrimination and the Haitian class system, while others use the terms freely.


Examples


Salutations


Proverbs and expressions

Proverbs play a central role in traditional Haitian culture and Haitian Creole speakers make frequent use of them as well as of other metaphors.


Proverbs


Expressions


Usage abroad


United States and Canada

Haitian Creole is used widely among Haitians who have relocated to other countries, particularly the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. Some of the larger Creole-speaking populations are found in
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
(where French is the official language), New York City, Boston, and Central Florida, Central and South Florida metropolitan area, South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach). To reach out to the large Haitian population, government agencies have produced various public service announcements, school-parent communications, and other materials in Haitian Creole. For instance, Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in Florida sends out paper communications in Haitian Creole in addition to English and Spanish. In the Boston area, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Boston subway system and area hospitals and medical offices post announcements in Haitian Creole as well as English. North America's only Creole-language television network is Haitian Broadcasting Network, HBN, based in Miami. These areas also each have more than half a dozen Creole-language AM radio stations. Haitian Creole and Haitian culture are taught in many colleges in the United States and the Bahamas. York College at the City University of New York features a minor in Haitian Creole. Indiana University has a Creole Institute founded by Albert Valdman where Haitian Creole, among other facets of Haiti, are studied and researched. The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, Lawrence has an Institute of Haitian studies, founded by Bryant Freeman. The University of Massachusetts Boston, Florida International University, and University of Florida offer seminars and courses annually at their Haitian Creole Summer Institute. Brown University, University of Miami, and Duke University also offer Haitian Creole classes, and Columbia University and NYU have jointly offered a course since 2015. The University of Chicago began offering Creole courses in 2010. , the New York City Department of Education counted 2,838 Haitian Creole-speaking English-language learners (ELLs) in the city's K–12 schools, making it the seventh most common home language of ELLs citywide and the fifth most common home language of Brooklyn ELLs. Because of the large population of Haitian Creole-speaking students within NYC schools, various organizations have been established to respond to the needs of these students. For example, Flanbwayan and Gran Chimen Sant Kiltirèl, both located in Brooklyn, New York, aim to promote education and Haitian culture through advocacy, literacy projects, and cultural/artistic endeavors.


Cuba

Haitian Creole is the second most spoken language in Cuba after Spanish, where over 300,000 Afro-Cuban#Haitian Cubans, Haitian immigrants speak it. It is recognized as a minority language in Cuba and a considerable number of Cubans speak it fluently. Most of these speakers have never been to Haiti and do not possess Haitian ancestry, but merely learned it in their communities. In addition, there is a Haitian Creole radio station operating in Havana.


Dominican Republic

, the language was also spoken by over 450,000 Haitians who reside in the neighboring Dominican Republic, although the locals do not speak it. However, some estimates suggest that there are over a million speakers due to a huge population of undocumented immigrants from Haiti.


The Bahamas

As of 2009, up to 80,000 Haitians were estimated residing in the Bahamas, where about 20,000 speak Haitian Creole. It is the third most‑spoken language after English and Bahamian Creole.


Software

After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, international aid workers desperately needed translation tools for communicating in Haitian Creole. Furthermore, international organizations had little idea whom to contact as translators. As an emergency measure, Carnegie Mellon University released data for its own research into the public domain. Microsoft Research and Google Translate implemented alpha version machine translators based on the Carnegie Mellon data. Several smartphone apps have been released, including learning with flashcards by Before You Know It (software), Byki and two medical dictionaries, one by Educa Vision and a second by Ultralingua, the latter of which includes an audio phrase book and a section on cultural anthropology.


See also

* Afro-Brazilians * Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen * Antillean Creole French * Creole language * Louisiana Creole French * Michel DeGraff * Radio Haiti-Inter


References


Further reading

* * *


External links

* * wikt:Appendix:Haitian Creole Swadesh list, Haitian Creole basic vocabulary (from Wiktionary's wikt:Appendix:Swadesh lists, Swadesh-list appendix)
Haitian Creole-English dictionary (PDF)
{{Authority control Haitian Creole, Languages of Haiti Subject–verb–object languages Languages of the African diaspora Articles containing video clips