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Haitian Creole language
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Haitian Creole language (kreyòl ayisyen), often called simply Creole or Kreyòl (pronounced ), is a language spoken in Haiti by about 7.0 million people , which is nearly the entire population, and via emigration, about 400,000 speakers who live in the Bahamas, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, and United States. The language is notable for being the most widely spoken creole language in the world.
Haitian Creole is one of Haiti's two official languages, along with French.
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Encyclopedia
Haitian Creole language (kreyòl ayisyen), often called simply Creole or Kreyòl (pronounced ), is a language spoken in Haiti by about 7.0 million people , which is nearly the entire population, and via emigration, about 400,000 speakers who live in the Bahamas, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, and United States. The language is notable for being the most widely spoken creole language in the world.
Haitian Creole is one of Haiti's two official languages, along with French. It is a creole based primarily on 18th Century French with various influences, most notably West African and Central African languages (including some Arabic), Taino, Portuguese, Spanish, and some English. African and French influence is strongest, as those were the two populations in contact during the development of Creole.
Partly due to 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. The official status was upheld under the country's 1987 constitution. The use of Creole in literature has been small but is increasing. Morisseau was one of the first and most influential authors to write in Creole. Many speakers are trilingual, speaking Haitian Creole, French and Spanish or English. Since the 1980s, many educators, writers and activists have emphasized pride and written literacy in Creole. Today numerous newspapers, as well as radio and television programs, are produced in Creole.
History
Like many creole languages, Creole was originally perceived as simply a corruption of a European language (French). This perception was connected to racialist attitudes about the linguistic capabilities of African slaves. More recent approaches to creole languages in general see them resulting largely from the sociolinguistic setting; slaves speaking various African languages and European plantation managers needed a way to communicate. A language with mostly French vocabulary but with a grammar derived from the various African languages arose.
An example of this difference between French and Creole is the use of preverbal particles te and a to mark the past and future tenses, respectively, instead of conjugation. Creole has also kept maintained the meaning of French words at the time of its origin while their cognates in French have been replaced or had semantic shifts. A good example is the sentence "Ki jan ou rele?" ('What is your name?') which corresponds to French "Comment vous appelez-vous?". Although a French person wouldn't understand that phrase, every word is of French origin: qui/what, genre/manner, vous/you, héler/to call or "What manner call (yourself)?". In France, the verb héler has been replaced by appeler.
Usage outside of Haiti
Haitian Creole is used widely among Haitians who have relocated to other countries, particularly the United States and Canada. Some of the larger populations include those in Montreal, Quebec (where French is an official language), and parts of New York City, Boston, and Central and South Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and 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 in Florida sends out paper communications in Haitian Creole in addition to English and Spanish. In the Boston area, the 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 HTN, based in Miami. The area also has more than half a dozen Creole-language AM radio stations.
There is controversy over whether to teach Creole in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Many argue Creole is a peasant language that is not fully developed for literary purposes; others argue it is important for children to learn a written form of their parents' native tongue.
Haitian language and culture is taught in many colleges in the United States as well as in the Bahamas. Indiana University has a Creole Institute founded by Dr. Albert Valdman 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, Florida International University, and University of Florida offer seminars and courses annually at their Haitian Creole Summer Institute. Brown University, Columbia University, and University of Miami are also offering classes in Haitian Creole. The University of Oregon and Duke University will soon be offering classes as well.
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 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. 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 Haiti) who reside in the neighboring Dominican Republic , although the locals do not speak it.
Phonology
Where consonants appear in pairs, the left to the left is voiceless.
- is not originally a Haitian Creole phoneme, but appears in English loanwords (eg. bèl filing 'good feeling').
- In some orthographic representations of Haitian Creole, is used for both and , since only occurs before front vowels and before back vowels. However, some modern orthographies use both and since the difference is phonemic.
Haitian Creole has ten vowels: seven oral vowels and three nasal variants.
Orthographically, open-mid vowels carry a grave accent to distinguish them form close-mid vowels (eg. for and <è> for ). behind indicates nasalization. However, if a vowel before carries a grave accent, the vowel is oral (eg. = , but <òn> = ).
Lexicon
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.
Sample
| Creole | IPA | Origin | English |
|---|
| bagay | | (?)Fr. bagage, "baggage" | "thing" | | bannann | | Fr. banane, "banana" | "plantain" | | bekàn | | bécane | "bicycle" | | Bondye | | Bon Dieu | "God! Good Lord!" | | dèyè | | derrière | "behind" | | diri | | du riz | "rice" | | fig | | figue | "banana" | | la-kay | cahutte | "house" | | kiyèz, tchòk, poban | | | "hog banana" [A banana which is short and fat, not a plantain and not a conventional banana; regionally called "hog banana" or "sugar banana" in English.] | | kle | | clé , "key" | "wrench" or "key" | | kle kola | | clé , "key" + Eng. "cola" | "bottle opener" | | konnflek | | En. "corn flakes" | "breakfast cereal" | | kawoutchou | | Fr. caoutchouc, "rubber" | "tire" | | lin | | lune | "moon" | | makak | | macaque | "monkey" | | marraine | | Fr. marraine | "godmother" [The relationship shared between a child's mother and godmother.] | | matant | | Fr. ma tante, "my aunt" | "aunt" | | moun | | Fr. monde | "people/person" | | mwen | | moi or , "mwen meme" | "me","I","myself" | | nimewo | | numéro | "number" | | etazini | | États-Unis | "United States" | | piman | | piment | a very hot pepper | | pann | | | "to hang" | | pwa | | pois , "pea" | "bean" | | chenèt | | Fr. (Antilles) la quénette | "ackee"(not Jamaican Ackee), "chenette", "guinip", "gap" [The gap between a person's two front teeth.] | | tonton | | fr. tonton | "uncle" | | vwazen | | voisin | "neighbor" | | zwazo | | oiseau | "bird" | | ye | | yeux | "eye" |
Nouns derived from trade marks
Many trade marks have become common nouns in Haitian Creole (as happened in English with "aspirin" and "kleenex", for example).
New words from English
Haitian Creole speakers have adopted some English words. Fé back to move backwards, and napkin are two examples.
The word nèg and the word blan
Despite similar words in French (nègre = a black man; blanc = white person), the meanings they carry do not apply in Haiti. The term 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 skin colors as well (including Black people).
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.
Grammar
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).
Pronouns
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 | "thou", "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.
Plural of nouns
If a noun is definite, it is pluralized by adding yo at the end. If it is indefinite, it has no plural marker, and its plurality is determined by context.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| liv yo | the books | | machin yo | the cars | | Fi yo mete wòb | The girls put on dresses. |
Possession
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.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| lajan li | "his/her money" | | "fanmi mwen" or "fanmi m" | my family | | kay yo | "their house" or "their houses" | | papa ou" or "papa w" | your father | | chat Pyè | Pierre's cat | | chèz Mari | Marie's chair | | zanmi papa Jan | Jean's father's friend | | papa vwazen zanmi nou | our friend's neighbor's father |
Indefinite article
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 used only with singular nouns, and it is placed before the noun:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| yon kouto | a knife | | yon kravat | a necktie |
Definite article
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:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| kravat la | the tie | | liv la | the book | | kay la | the house |
If the last sound is an oral consonant and is preceded by a nasal vowel, it becomes lan:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| lanp lan | the lamp | | bank lan | the bank |
If the last sound is an oral vowel and is preceded by an oral consonant, it becomes a:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| kouto a | the knife | | peyi a | the country |
If the last sound is an oral vowel and is preceded by a nasal consonant, it becomes an:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| fanmi an | the family | | mi an | the wall |
If the last sound is a nasal vowel, it becomes an:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| chien an | the dog | | pon an | the bridge |
If the last sound is a nasal consonant, it becomes nan:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| machin nan | the car | | telefòn nan | the telephone | | madanm nan | the woman |
"This" and "that"
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):
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| jaden sa (a) bèl | This garden is beautiful. |
As in English, it may also be used as a pronoun, replacing a noun:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| sa se zanmi mwen | this is my friend | | sa se chien frè mwen | this is my brother's dog |
Verbs
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.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Li ale travay le maten | He goes to work in the morning. | | Li dòmi le swa | He sleeps in the evening. | | Li li Bib la | She reads the Bible. | | Mwen fè manje | I make food. | | Nou toujou etidye | We study all the time. |
Copulas
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:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Li se frè mwen | he is my brother | | Mwen se doktè | I am a doctor | | Sa se yon pye mango | That is a mango tree | | Nou se zanmi | we are friends |
The subject sa or li can sometimes be omitted with se:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Se yon bon ide | That is a good idea | | Se nouvo chemiz mwen | This is my new shirt |
For the future tense, such as "I want to be", usually vin "to become" is used instead of se.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| L ap vin bòfrè m | He will be my brother-in-law | | Mwen vle vin yon doktè | I want to become a doctor | | S ap ay vin yon pye mango | That will become a mango tree | | N ap vin zanmi | We will be friends |
"Ye" also means "to be", but is placed exclusively at the end of the sentence, after the predicate and the subject (in that order):
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| "Ayisyen mwen ye" = "Mwen se Ayisyen" | I am Haitian | | Ki moun sa ye? | Who is that? | | Kouman ou ye? | How are you? |
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":
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| M gen yon zanmi malad | I have a sick friend. | | Zanmi mwen malad. | My friend is sick. |
"to have"
The verb "to have" is genyen, often shortened to gen.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Mwen genyen lajan nan bank lan | I have money in the bank. |
"there is"
The verb genyen (or gen) also means "there is/are"
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Gen anpil Ayisyen nan Florid | There are many Haitians in Florida. | | Gen yon moun la | There is someone here. | | Pa gen moun la | There is nobody here. | | Mwen genyen match la | I won the game. |
"to know"
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).
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Èske ou konnen non li? | Do you know his name? |
Konn or konnen also means "to know" + a fact (cf. French savoir).
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| M pa konnen kote li ye | I don't know where he is." |
(note pa = negative)
The third word is always spelled konn. It means "to know how to" or "to have experience". This is similar to the "know" as 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.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Mwen konn fè manje | I know how to cook (lit. "I know how to make food") | | Èske ou konn ale Ayiti? | Have you been to Haïti? (lit. "Do you know to go to Haiti?") | | Li pa konn li fransè | He can't read French (lit. "He doesn't know how to read French.") |
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.
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Kouman ou fè pale kreyòl? | How did you learn to speak Haitian Creole? | | Mari konn fè mayi moulen. | Marie knows how to make cornmeal. |
"to be able to"
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".
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Mwen ka ale demen | I can go tomorrow. | | Petèt m ka fè sa demen | Maybe I can do that tomorrow. |
Tense markers
There is no conjugation in Haitian Creole. In the present non-progressive tense, one just uses the basic verb form for stative verbs:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| Mwen pale kreyòl | I speak Haitian Creole |
Note that when the basic form of action verbs is used without any verb markers, it is generally understood as referring to the past:
| Haitian Creole | English |
|---|
| mwen manje | I ate | | ou manje | you ate | | li manje | he/she ate | | nou manje | we ate | | yo manje | they ate |
(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:
| Tense marker | Tense | Annotations |
|---|
| te | simple past | | | tap (or "t ap") | past progressive | a combination of te and ap, "was doing" | | ap | present progressive | With ap and a, the pronouns nearly always take the short form (m ap, l ap, n ap, y ap, etc. | | a | future | some limitations on use | | pral | near or definite future | translates to "going to" | | ta | conditional future | a combination of te and a, "will do" |
Simple past or past perfect:
mwen te manje - "I ate" or "I had eaten"ou te manje - "you ate" or "you had eaten"li te manje - "he/she ate" or "he/she had eaten"nou te manje - "we ate" or "we had eaten"yo te manje - "they ate" or "they had eaten"
Past progressive:
men t ap manje - "I was eating"ou t ap manje - "you were eating"li t ap manje - "he/she was eating"nou t ap manje - "we were eating"yo t ap manje - "they were eating"
Present progressive:
m ap manje - "I am eating"w ap manje - "you are eating"l ap manje - "he/she is eating"n ap manje - "we are eating"y ap manje - "they are eating"
Note: For the present progressive ("I am eating now") it is customary, though not necessary, to add "right now":
M ap manje kounye a - "I am eating right now"
Also, Those examples can mean "will eat" depending on the context of the sentence.
M'ap manje apres mwen priye - "i will eat after i pray" / Mwen p'ap di sa - "I will not say that"
Near or definite future:
- mwen pral manje - "I am going to eat"
- ou pral manje - "you are going to eat"
- li pral manje - "he/she is going to eat"
- nou pral manje - "we are going to eat"
- yo pral manje - "they are going to eat"
Future:
- N a wè pita - "See you later" (lit. "We will see (each other) later)
Other examples:
- Mwen te wè zanmi ou yè - "I saw your friend yesterday"
- Nou te pale lontan - "We spoke for a long time"
- Lè li te gen uit an... - "When he was eight years old..."
- M a travay - "I will work"
- M pral travay - "I'm going to work"
- N a li l demen - "We'll read it tomorrow"
- Nou pral li l demen - "We are going to read it tomorrow"
- Mwen t ap mache e m wè yon chyen - "I was walking and I saw a dog"
Additional time-related markers:
- fèk - recent past ("just")
- sòt - similar to fèk
They are often used together:
- Mwen fèk sòt antre kay la - "I just entered the house"
A verb mood marker is ta, corresponding to English "would" and equivalent to the French conditional tense:
- Yo ta renmen jwe - "They would like to play"
- Mwen ta vini si mwen te gen yon machin - "I would come if I had a car"
- Li ta bliye w si ou pa t la - "He/she would forget you if you weren't here"
Negating the verb
The word pa comes before a verb (and all tense markers) to negate it:
- Woz pa vle ale - "Rose doesn't want to go"
- Woz pa t vle ale - "Rose didn't want to go"
Examples
Words and phrases
- yon anana - a pineapple (from Arawak, anana and now used in France ananas)
- Anakaona - ? (from Arawak, Anacaona, who was a Taino princess)
- anpil - a lot, many (from Fr. "en pile", lit. in piles, in great amounts)
- bonjou - good day / good morning
- bonswa - good evening (bonswa is typically said after 12:00 noon or at sundown)
- Byensi - "Of course" (from Fr. "Bien sûr")
- chadèk - grapefruit (from Fr. Chadèque or pamplemousse)
- cheri - darling
- cho - hot, temperamental (also used as an adj. i.e. "Fi sa a cho anpil", That lady's really hot! or That girl is rude/slutty.)
- fè - to make, to do
- fòl - crazy, only in reference to women (a crazy person - yon moun fou (fòl))
- fou - crazy, for reference to either gender (a crazy person - yon moun fou (fòl))
- gwo - big; also, to be fat ("li gwo", he is fat or big.)
- yon kenèp - Mamoncillo a.k.a. Spanish lime
- yon lougawou - a werewolf, bad witch
- yon mambo/manbo - a female witch
- yon bòkò - a male witch
- yon ongan - a Vodou priest
- move - bad (i.e., "move moun," a bad person), fighty (a person that is ready to fight or beat someone up)
- pale/parle - to talk / to speak
- yon pyebwa - tree (lit. wood foot, from Fr. pied de bois)
- sa (è) bon pour ou - that's good for you
- sa ka fèt / sa k ap fèt - how's it going?
- yon timoun - a kid ("little person")
- yon zonbi/zombi - a ghost (from Africa, zombi)
Proverbs
Sak vid pa kanpe - You can't work without food. (Literally: An empty sack does not stand)
Ti tig se tig - Even a young tiger is still a tiger.
Si ou wè di ou ka wè tete foumi - Anything is possible. (Literally: If you look hard enough you'll see the teats of an ant)
Bibliography
External links
- (Haitian Community Dictionary Project)
- from - the Rosetta Edition
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