A Glance at Haitian Creole

After going over this paper you will be able to:

familiarize yourself with the sounds which could puzzle you
identify the main parts of speech in the language
have an idea about the structure of Creole sentences
and build your vocabulary with basic words

A Glance at Haitian Creole

The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole. All Haitians speak Haitian Creole, while only about 10% of the population can be considered bilingual in French and Haitian Creole. More than half of this 10% is less than fluent in French. About 90% of the population speaks Haitian Creole only.

Traditionally, the two languages served different functions, with Haitian Creole the informal everyday language of all the people, regardless of social class, and French the language of formal situations: schools, newspapers, the law and the courts, and official documents and decrees. However, because the vast majority of Haitians speak only Creole, there have been efforts in recent years to expand its uses. In 1979, a law was passed that permitted Creole to be the language of instruction, and the Constitution of 1983 gave Creole the status of a national language. However, it was only in 1987 that the Constitution granted official status to Creole.

What is “Creole”?

Traditionally, the name used to refer to the language spoken in Haiti is Creole, or Kreyòl, as the word is written and pronounced by native speakers. However, some intellectuals have recently begun to use the term Ayisyen (Haitian), not only to distinguish it from the generic term “Creole”, which refers to a number of languages, but also as a symbol of national identity.

It is important to remember that French and Haitian Creole are two distinct languages, and not varieties of the same language. Haitian Creole grammar (or syntax) has strong characteristics of African languages, while its vocabulary is mostly of French origin, with contributions from Spanish, African languages, and much later English.

Creole phonology

As a rule, the pronunciation of monolingual Creole speakers is taken as a standard. There is variation between North and South, however, and Port-Au-Prince pronunciation (especially of vowels) tends to be more like French, since most of the bilingual Haitian Creole-French speakers live there.

Word order

Word order in Haitian Creole generally follows the Subject – Verb – Object pattern. This order is evident in affirmative and negative sentences as well.

Jan pran foto John takes pictures

S V O S V O

Jan pa pran foto John doesn’t take pictures

S neg V O S neg V O

Eske Jan pa pran foto Does n’t John take pictures?

? S neg V O ? neg S V O

Nouns

Nouns in Haitian Creole are not marked for gender or number. There is also no plural –s ending, which occurs in both French and English. Haitian Creole expresses the concepts of gender and plural by using specific words.

For example:

Frè (brother) sè (sister)

Kèk liv (some books)

Pronouns

The system of pronouns in Haitian Creole is quite simple in comparison with French and English. There is only a single form that is used for subject, object, and possessive. The pronouns, however, may occur in a full or contracted form. For example:

Mwen bezwen chita (M bezwen chita) I need to sit down.

Manman mwen malad (Manman m malad) My mother is sick.

Jan renmen mwen (Jan renmen m) John loves/likes me.

Haitian Creole Alphabet

The Haitian Creole Alphabet includes the following letters and sounds:

A, àn, an, b, ch, d, e, è, en, f, g, I, in, j, k, l, m, n, ng, o, ò, on, ou, oun, p, r, s, t, ui, v, w, y, z.

Pronunciation Tour

Haitian Creole is spelled as it is pronounced. Every letter is pronounced. Naturally to acquire a good pronunciation you need to start working on the sounds from the very beginning.

Here are the letter sounds which are different from English. (b and d are the same).

a : as in absent pa (not) rat (rat)

ch : as in show chat (cat) chapo (hat)

e : as in aim ede (to help) rele (to call)

è : as in leg mèsi (thank you) fè (to make)

g : is always hard as in go gen (to have) mango (mango)

i : as in image isit (here) fi (girl)

j : avoid a D in front jou (day) ji (juice)

o : as in photo foto (photo) cho (hot)

ò : as in raw fò (strong) lò (gold)

ou : as in food ou (you) fou (crazy)

r : not rolled, very soft rete (stop) ri (laugh)

s : as in salt (never like a Z) si (sour) sèl (salt)

y : as in yes yo (they) pye (foot)

Nasal sounds are pronounced through the nose, but without pronouncing the “n” itself. There are no real equivalents, but are close to:

an : somewhat like alms: dan (tooth) kontan (happy)

en : as in the name Chopi n pen (bread) benyen (to bathe)

on : somewhat like don’t bon (good) bonbon (cookie)

Notes:

When a nasal sound is followed by a second “n” or by an “m”, pronounce the nasal sound as usual plus the “n” or “m” separately: venn; ven-n (vein) janm; jan-m (leg)
When the letters an, en, or on are not meant to indicate a nasal sound, a grave accent ( ̀ ) is placed over the vowel: pàn (mechanical breakdown), Ayisyèn (Haitian woman), mòn (mountain)

The combination in is not a nasal sound (pronounce een).

Machin (car) kouzin (cousin) kizin (kitchen)

Please compare the differences:

1. Mwen chita. I sit down.

2. Mwen bezwen dlo. I need water.

3. Ou bwè ji. You drink juice.

4. Mwen renmen ou. I like/love you.

5. Li konprann mwen. He/She understands me.

6. Yo bezwen aprann Kreyòl. They need to learn Creole.

7. Li pa bwè byè. He/She/does not drink beer.

8. Mwen pa konprann Kreyòl. I do not understand Creole.

9. Mwen pa pale Kreyòl byen. I don’t speak Creole well.

10. Nou ap dòmi. We are sleeping.

11. Li ap repoze. He/She/ is resting.

12. Nou ap manje vyann. We are eating meat.

13. Yo te manje pen. They ate bread.

14. Li te konprann nou. He/She understood us.

15. Yo pa te vle achte yo. They didn’t want to buy them.

16. Yo pral benyen. They are going to bathe/shower.

17. Ou pral dòmi. You are going to sleep.

18. Li pral bwè ji. He/She is going to drink juice.

19. Nou ta renmen mache. We would like to walk.

20. Ou ta renmen li. You would like/love him/her/it.

Please identify the :

Subject pronouns.

Singular Plural

---------------------- (I) 1.------------------------------ (We)

---------------------- (You) 2. ----------------------------- (They)

---------------------- (He/She/It)

Object Pronouns.

Singular Plural

-------------------- (me) 1. ----------------------------- (Us)

-------------------- (You) 2. ----------------------------- (Them)

-------------------- (Him/Her/It)

Please write the Kreyòl equivalent of the following verbs.

Eat --------------------------------

Drink --------------------------------

Sit down --------------------------------

Speak --------------------------------

Understand --------------------------------

Like --------------------------------

Want --------------------------------

Need --------------------------------

Sleep ---------------------------------

Walk ---------------------------------

Please identify the word that marks the:

Past tense ---------------------------------------

Present Progressive --------------------------------------

Future tense ---------------------------------------

Conditional tense ---------------------------------------

Negation ----------------------------------------

Now write the word order for a simple Kreyòl sentence.

(in terms of verb, object, tense mark, and subject)

-------------------- -------------------- --------------------- ---------------------

1 2 3 4

Please, translate the following sentences into Kreyòl.

He likes them. -------------------------------------------------------

I do not eat bread. -------------------------------------------------------

We are going to speak ------------------------------------------------------

You spoke --------------------------------------------------------

They sit down --------------------------------------------------------

Please, translate the following sentences into English.

Mwen renmen yo. -------------------------------------------------------------

Li pa konprann ou. -----------------------------------------------------------

Nou te bwè ji. ------------------------------------------------------------------

Ou ap pale. ------------------------------------------------------------------

Mwen pral manje. -----------------------------------------------------------

Yo ta renmen chita. ---------------------------------------------------------

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