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Haitian Creole language (kreyòl ayisyen), often called simply Creole or Kreyòl (pronounced [kɣejɔl]), is a language spoken in Haiti by about eight million people, which is nearly the entire population, and via emigration, by about one million speakers residing in the Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Belize, Puerto Rico, and United States. The language is notable for being the most widely spoken creole language in the world.[2] Haitian Creole is one of Haiti's two official languages, along with French. It is a creole based largely on 18th-century French with various other influences, most notably African languages (including some Arabic), as well as Spanish and Taíno - and increasingly English. 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. 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.
[edit] Usage outside of HaitiHaitian Creole is used widely among Haitians who have relocated to other countries, particularly the United States and Canada. Some of the larger Creole-speaking populations are found in Montreal, Quebec (where French is the official language), 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.[citation needed] Many[who?] 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 [1] 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. Tulane University, 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.[3] 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[4]) who reside in the neighboring Dominican Republic [5], although the locals do not speak it. [edit] Phonology
Where consonants appear in pairs, the left to the left is voiceless.
Haitian Creole has ten vowels: seven oral vowels and three (or five) nasal variants*.
Orthographically, open-mid vowels carry a grave accent to distinguish them form close-mid vowels (eg. <e> for /e/ and <è> for /ɛ/). <n> behind <a, e, o> indicates nasalization. However, if a vowel before <n> carries a grave accent, the vowel is oral (eg. <on> = /ɔ̃/, but <òn> = /ɔn/). *The status of the nasal closed vowels in Haitian Creole has been disputed. Marcel D'Ans claims that these vowels cannot be phonemically nasal, while Robert A. Hall, Jr. and others argue that they are in fact phonemes.[8] The high nasal vowels are quite rare, appearing in a few words such as vodoun ("voodoo") and houngan ("voodoo priest"). In most words spelled with in or oun, such as moun ("person"), the final n is pronounced as a consonant. [edit] LexiconMost 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. [edit] Sample
[edit] Nouns derived from trade marksMany trade marks have become common nouns in Haitian Creole (as happened in English with "aspirin" and "kleenex", for example).
[edit] New words from EnglishHaitian Creole speakers have adopted some English words. "Fè bak" means 'to move backwards' (the original word derived from French is "rekile"). Another example is "napkin", replacing "tòchon". [edit] The word nèg and the word blanDespite 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. 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 Haitians, because of their association with color discrimination and the Haitian class system. [edit] GrammarHaitian 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). [edit] PronounsThere are six pronouns, one pronoun for each person/number combination. There is no difference between direct and indirect. Some are of French origin, others are not.
(*) sometimes ou is written as w - in the sample phrases, w indicates ou. [edit] Plural of nounsIf 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.
[edit] PossessionPossession 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.
[edit] Indefinite articleThe 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:
mwen me [edit] Definite articleThere 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:
[edit] "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):
As in English, it may also be used as a pronoun, replacing a noun:
[edit] VerbsMany 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.
[edit] CopulasMain article: Copula_(linguistics)#Haitian Creole 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":
[edit] "to have"The verb "to have" is genyen, often shortened to gen.
[edit] "there is"The verb genyen (or gen) also means "there is/are"
[edit] "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).
Konn or konnen also means "to know" + a fact (cf. French savoir).
(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.
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.
[edit] "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".
[edit] Tense markersThere 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":
Also, Those examples can mean "will eat" depending on the context of the sentence.
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:
[edit] Negating the verbThe word pa comes before a verb (and all tense markers) to negate it:
[edit] Examples[edit] Words and phrases
[edit] ProverbsSak vid pa kanpe - You can't work without food. (Literally: An empty sack does not stand) Pitit tig se tig - a young tiger is still a tiger. ak pasyans wa wè tete foumi - Anything is possible. (Literally: If you look hard enough you'll see the head of an ant) [edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links Haitian Creole language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.haiti-reference.com/creole/diction/index.php Haitian Creole - English, English - Haitian Creole Dictionary
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