Castelline, a speaker of Haitian Creole, recorded in theUnited States
Haitian Creole (/ˈheɪʃənˈkriːoʊl/; Haitian Creole:kreyòl ayisyen,[kɣejɔlajisjɛ̃];[6][7] French:créole haïtien,[kʁe.ɔla.i.sjɛ̃]), or simplyCreole (Haitian Creole:kreyòl), is aFrench-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages ofHaiti (the other being French), where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. It is also the most widely spokencreole language in the world.[8][9] Northern, Central, and Southern dialects are the three main dialects of Haitian Creole. The Northern dialect is predominantly spoken inCap-Haïtien, Central is spoken inPort-au-Prince, and Southern in theCayes area.[10]
The language emerged from contact between French settlers and enslaved Africans during theAtlantic slave trade in the French colony ofSaint-Domingue (nowHaiti) in the 17th and 18th centuries.[11][12] Although its vocabulary largely derives from 18th-century French, its grammar is that of a West AfricanVolta-Congo language branch, particularly theFongbe andIgbo languages.[12] It also has influences from Spanish, English, Portuguese, Taíno, and other West African languages.[13] It is not mutually intelligible with standard French, and it also has its own distinctive grammar. Some estimate that Haitians are the largest community in the world to speak a moderncreole language,[14] others estimate that more people speakNigerian Pidgin.
Haitian Creole's use in communities and schools has been contentious since at least the 19thcentury. Some Haitians view French as inextricably linked to the legacy of colonialism and language compelled on the population by conquerors, while Creole has been maligned by francophones as a miseducated person's French.[15][16] Until the late 20thcentury, Haitian presidents spoke onlystandard French 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.[8]
The wordcreole comes from thePortuguese termcrioulo, which means "a person raised in one's house" and from theLatincreare, which means "to create, make, bring forth, produce, beget".[18][19] In theNew World, the term originally referred toEuropeans born and raised in overseas colonies[7] (as opposed to the European-bornpeninsulares). To be "as rich as a Creole" at one time was a popular saying boasted inParis during the colonial years of Haiti (then namedSaint-Domingue), for being the most lucrative colony in the world.[20] The nounCreole, soon began to refer to the language spoken there as well, as it still is today.[7][19]
One theory estimates that Haitian Creole developed between 1680 and 1740.[22][23][24] During the 17th century, French and Spanish colonizers producedtobacco,cotton, andsugar cane on the island.[24] Throughout this period, the population was made of roughly equal numbers ofengagés (white workers),gens de couleur libres (free people of colour) and slaves.[25] The economy shifted more decisively into sugar production about 1690, just before the French colony ofSaint-Domingue was officially recognized in 1697.[11][23] The sugar crops needed a much larger labor force, which led to an increase in slave trafficking. In the 18th century an estimated 800,000 West Africans were enslaved and brought to Saint-Domingue.[24] As the slave population increased, the proportion of French-speaking colonists decreased.
Many African slaves in the colony had come fromNiger-Congo-speaking territory, and particularly speakers ofKwa languages, such asGbe from West Africa and theCentral Tano languages, andBantu languages from Central Africa.[23] 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 ofSaint‑Domingue's sugar boom coincided with emergent Gbe predominance in theFrench Caribbean. In the interval during which Singler hypothesizes the language evolved, the Gbe population was around 50% of the kidnapped enslaved population.[23]
Classical French (françaisclassique) andlangues d'oïl (Norman,Poitevin andSaintongeais dialects,Gallo andPicard) were spoken during the 17th and 18th centuries inSaint‑Domingue, as well as inNew France andFrench West Africa.[7][26] Slaves lacked a common means of communication and as a result would try to learn French to communicate with one another, though most were denied a formal education. With the constant trafficking and enslavement of Africans, the language became increasingly 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.[7]
L'Entrepreneur. Mo sorti apprend, Mouché, qué vou té éprouvé domage dan traversée.
Le Capitaine: Ça vrai.
L'Entr: Vou crére qué navire à vou gagné bisoin réparations?
Le C: Ly té carené anvant nou parti, mai coup z'ouragan là mété moué dan cas fair ly bay encor nion radoub.
L'Entr: Ly fair d'iau en pile?
Le C: Primié jours aprés z'orage, nou té fair trente-six pouces par vingt-quatre heurs; mai dan beau tem mo fair yo dégagé ça mo pu, et tancher miyor possible, nou fair à présent necqué treize pouces.[28]
The Entrepreneur: I just learned, sir, that you garnered damages in your crossing.
The Captain: That's true.
The Entrepreneur: Do you believe that your ship needs repair?
The Captain: It careened before we left, but the blow from the hurricane put me in the position of getting it refitted again.
The Entrepreneur: Is it taking on a lot of water?
The Captain: The first days after the storm, we took on thirty six inches in twenty four hours; but in clear weather I made them take as much of it out as I was able, and attached it the best we possibly could; we're presently taking on not even thirteen inches.
Ambassadeurs à nous, partis pour chercher argent France, moi voulé écrire à vous par yo, pour dire vous combien nous contens. Français bons, oublié tout. Papas nous révoltés contre yo, papas nous tués papas yo, fils yo, gérens yo, papas nous brûlées habitations yo. Bagasse, eux veni trouver nous! et dis nous, vous donner trente millions de gourdes à nous et nous laisser Haïti vous? Vous veni acheter sucre, café, indigo à nous? mais vous payer moitié droit à nous. Vous penser chère maman moi, que nous accepté marché yo. Président à nous embrassé bon papa Makau. Yo bu santé roi de France, santéBoyer, santéChristophe, santé Haïti, santé indépendance. Puis yo dansé Balcindé et Bai chi ca colé avec Haïtienes. Moi pas pouvé dire vous combien tout ça noble et beau.
Venir voir fils à vous sur habitation, maman moi, li donné vous cassave, gouillave et pimentade. Li ben content si pouvez mener li blanche france pour épouse. Dis li, si ben heureuse. Nous plus tuer blancs, frères, amis, et camarades à nous.
Fils à vous embrasse vous, chère maman moi.
Congo, Haïtien libre et indépendant, au Trou-Salé.[29]
A Haitian planter
Haiti, 1st year, 5th day of independence.
My dear mother,
Our ambassadors left to get money from France, I want to write to you through them, to tell you how much we are happy. The French are good, they forgot everything. Our fathers revolted against them, our fathers killed their fathers, sons, managers, and our fathers burned down their plantations. Well, they came to find us, and told us, "you give thirty million gourdes to us and we'll leave Haiti to you? (And we replied) Will you come buy sugar, coffee, and indigo from us? You will pay only half directly to us." Do you believe my dear mother, that we accepted the deal? Our President hugged the good papa Makau (the French ambassador). They drank to the health of theKing of France, to the health ofBoyer, to the health ofChristophe, to the health of Haiti, to independence. Then they danced Balcindé and Bai chi ca colé with Haitian women. I can't tell you how much all of this is so beautiful and noble.
Come see your son at his plantation, my mother, he will give you cassava, goyava, and pimentade. He will be happy if you can bring him a white Frenchwoman for a wife. Tell her, if you please. We won't kill anymore whites, brothers, friends, and camarades of ours.
Your son hugs you, my dear mother.
Congo, free and independent Haitian, at Trou-Salé.
Haitian Creole and French have similar pronunciations and also share many lexical items.[30][31] However, manycognate terms actually have different meanings. For example, as Valdman mentions inHaitian Creole: Structure, Variation, Status, Origin, the word for "frequent" in French isfréquent; however, its cognate in Haitian Creolefrekan means 'insolent, rude, and impertinent' and usually refers to people.[32] 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.[7] Additionally, Haitian Creole possesses different phonetics from standard French; however, it is similar in phonetic structure.[30] The phrase-structure is another similarity between Haitian Creole and French but differs slightly in that it contains details from its African substratum language.[30]
Both Haitian Creole and French have also experiencedsemantic change: words that had a single meaning in the17th century have changed or have been replaced in both languages.[7] For example, "Ki jan ou rele?" ("What is your name?") corresponds to the French "Comment vous appelez‑vous ?". Although the average French speaker would not understand this phrase, every word in it is in fact of French origin:qui "who";genre "manner";vous "you", andhéler "to call", but the verbhéler has been replaced byappeler in modern French and reduced to a meaning of "to flag down".[7]
Claire Lefebvre proposed the theory ofrelexification, arguing that the process of relexification (the replacement of the phonological representation of a substratum lexical item with thephonological 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.[33]
TheFon language, also known as the Fongbe language, is a modernGbe language native toBenin,Nigeria andTogo inWest Africa. This language has a grammatical structure similar to Haitian Creole, possibly making Creole arelexification of Fon with vocabulary from French. The two languages are often compared:[34]
There are a number ofTaino influences in Haitian Creole; many objects, fruit and animal names are eitherhaitianized or have a similar pronunciation. Many towns, places or sites have their official name being a translation of the Taino word.
Haitian Creole developed in the 17th and 18th centuries in the colony ofSaint-Domingue, in a setting that mixed speakers of various Niger–Congo languages with French colonists.[11] In the early 1940s under PresidentÉlie Lescot, attempts were made to standardize the language. American linguistic expertFrank Laubach and Irish Methodist missionaryH. Ormonde McConnell developed a standardizedHaitian Creole orthography. Although some regarded the orthography highly, it was generally not well received.[36] Itsorthography was standardized in 1979. That same year Haitian Creole was elevated in status by the Act of 18 September 1979.[37] TheInstitut Pédagogique National established an official orthography for Creole, and slight modifications were made over the next two decades. For example, thehyphen (-) is no longer used, nor is the apostrophe.[38]: 131 [15]: 185–192 The only accent mark retained is thegrave accent in⟨è⟩ and⟨ò⟩.[15]: 433
The Constitution of 1987 upgraded Haitian Creole to a national language alongside French.[39] It classified French as thelangue d'instruction or "language of instruction", and Creole was classified as anoutil d'enseignement 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.[40]: 263 [41] French is spoken by only a small percentage of citizens.[11][17]
Even without government recognition, by the end of the 19th century, there were already literary texts written in Haitian Creole such asOswald Durand'sChoucoune andGeorges Sylvain'sCric?Crac!.Félix Morisseau-Leroy 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.[42] On 28 October 2004, the Haitian dailyLe Matin first published an entire edition in Haitian Creole in observance of the country's newly instated "Creole Day".[43]: 556 Haitian Creole writers often use different literary strategies throughout their works, such as code-switching, to increase the audience's knowledge on the language.[17] Literature in Haitian Creole is also used to educate the public on the dictatorial social and political forces in Haiti.[17]
Although bothFrench and Haitian Creole are official languages inHaiti, French is often considered the high language and Haitian Creole as the low language in thediglossic relationship of these two languages in society.[32] 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.[44]
There is a large population in Haiti that speaks only Haitian Creole, whether under formal or informal conditions:
French plays no role in the very formal situation of a Haitian peasant (more than 80% of the population make a living from agriculture) presiding at a family gathering after the death of a member, or at the worship of the familylwa or voodoo spirits, or contacting a Catholic priest for a church baptism, marriage, or solemn mass, or consulting a physician, nurse, or dentist, or going to a civil officer to declare a death or birth.
In most schools, French is still the preferred language for teaching. Generally speaking, Creole is more used in public schools,[46] 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.[citation needed] 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.[47] The use of Creole has grown; after the earthquake in 2010, basic education became free and more accessible to the monolingual masses.[citation needed] In the 2010s, the government has attempted to expand the use of Creole and improve the school system.[48][49]
Haitian Creole has aphonemic orthography 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:⟨a⟩,⟨an⟩,⟨b⟩,⟨ch⟩,⟨d⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨è⟩,⟨en⟩,⟨f⟩,⟨g⟩,⟨h⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨j⟩,⟨k⟩,⟨l⟩,⟨m⟩,⟨n⟩,⟨ng⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨ò⟩,⟨on⟩,⟨ou⟩,⟨oun⟩,⟨p⟩,⟨r⟩,⟨s⟩,⟨t⟩,⟨ui⟩,⟨v⟩,⟨w⟩,⟨y⟩, and⟨z⟩.[6]: 100 The letters⟨c⟩ and⟨u⟩ are always associated with another letter (in themultigraphs⟨ch⟩,⟨ou⟩,⟨oun⟩, and⟨ui⟩). The Haitian Creole alphabet has no⟨q⟩ or⟨x⟩; when⟨x⟩ is used in loanwords and proper nouns, it represents the sounds/ks/,/kz/, or/gz/.[15]: 433
There are no silent letters in the Haitian Creole orthography.
All sounds are always spelled the same, except when a vowel carries agrave accent⟨`⟩ before⟨n⟩, which makes it an oral vowel instead of a nasal vowel:
⟨en⟩ for/ɛ̃/ and⟨èn⟩ for/ɛn/;
⟨on⟩ for/ɔ̃/ and⟨òn⟩ for/ɔn/; and
⟨an⟩ for/ã/ and⟨àn⟩ for/an/.
When immediately followed by a vowel in a word, the digraphs denoting the nasal vowels (⟨an⟩,⟨en⟩,⟨on⟩, and sometimes⟨oun⟩) are pronounced as an oral vowel followed by/n/.
There is some ambiguity in the pronunciation of the high vowels of the letters⟨i⟩ and⟨ou⟩ when followed in spelling by⟨n⟩.[50] Common words such asmoun ("person") andmachin ("car") end with consonantal/n/, while very few words, mostly adopted from African languages, contain nasalized high vowels, as inhoungan ("vodou priest").
The diphthong/ɥi/ is extremely rare, and maybe only exists in the common worduit (← Frenchhuit) "eight". Most other instances of this diphthong have been replaced by/wi/, e.g.fwi (←fruit) "fruit",nwit (←nuit) "night".
The McConnell–Laubach orthography received substantial criticism from members of the Haitian elite. Haitian scholarCharles Pressoir critiqued the McConnell–Laubach orthography for its lack of codifiedfront rounded vowels, which are typically used only by francophone elites.[15]: 436 Another criticism was of the broad use of the letters⟨k⟩,⟨w⟩, and⟨y⟩, which Pressoir argued looked "too American".[15]: 431–432 This criticism of the "American look" of the orthography was shared by many educated Haitians, who also criticized its association withProtestantism.[15]: 432 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.[15]: 431
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.[15]: 435 This orthographical controversy boiled down to an attempt to unify a conception of Haitian national identity. Where⟨k⟩ and⟨w⟩ seemed too Anglo-Saxon and American imperialistic,⟨c⟩ and⟨ou⟩ were symbolic of French colonialism.[52]: 191
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.[53] The first written text of Haitian Creole was composed in the French-lexicon in a poem calledLisette quitté la plaine in 1757 byDuvivier de la Mahautière, a white Creole planter.[53][54]
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: Li ale travay nan maten (lit. "He goes to work in the morning") could be transcribed as:
Haitian Creole grammar is highlyanalytical: for example, verbs are not inflected for tense or person, and there is nogrammatical gender, which means that adjectives and articles are not inflected according to the noun. The primary word order issubject–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, likeyo, to the main word. There has been a debate going on for some years as to whether these markers areaffixes orclitics, and if punctuation such as the hyphen should be used to connect them to the word.[15]: 185–192
Although the language's vocabulary has many words related to their French-language cognates, its sentence structure is like that of the West AfricanFon language.[34]
There are six pronouns: first, second, and third person, each in both singular, and plural; all are of French etymological origin.[55] There is no difference between direct and indirect objects.
^sometimes the French pronounon ("one", "[generic]you", "[singular]they") is translated to Haitian Creole asou[57] and other times it is translated asyo[58]
^in southern Haiti, the second person plural iszòt
^sometimes the French pronounon ("one", "[generic]you", "[singular]they") is translated to Haitian Creole asyo[58] and other times it is translated asou[57]
Possession is indicated by placing the possessor or possessive pronoun after the item possessed. In the Capois dialect of northern Haiti,a oran 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.[60]
Possession does not indicate definiteness ("my friend" as opposed to "a friend of mine"), and possessive constructions are often followed by a definite article.
The language has two indefinite articles,on andyon (pronounced/õ/ and/jõ/) which correspond to Frenchun andune.Yon is derived from the Frenchil y a un("there is a"). Both are used only with singular nouns, and are placed before the noun:
In Haitian Creole, the definite article has five forms,[61]: 28 and it is placedafter the noun it modifies. The final syllable of the preceding word determines which form the definite article takes.[62]: 20 If the last sound is anoral consonant or a glide (spelled 'y' or 'w'), and if it is preceded by anoral vowel, the definite article isla:
There is a single wordsa that corresponds to English "this" and to "that" (and to Frenchce,ceci,cela, andça). As in English, it may be used as ademonstrative, except that it is placedafter the noun that it qualifies. It is often followed bya oryo (in order to marknumber):sa a ("this here" or "that there"):
Haitian Creole
French
English
jaden sa bèl
ce jardin est beau
this garden is beautiful
that garden is beautiful
As in English, it may also be used as a pronoun, replacing a noun:
Many verbs in Haitian Creole are the same spoken words as the Frenchinfinitive, but there is noconjugation in the language; the verbs have one form only, and changes intense,mood, andaspect are indicated by the use ofmarkers:
The concept expressed in English by theverb "tobe" is expressed in Haitian Creole by three words,se,ye, and sometimese.
The verbse (pronounced similarly to the English word "say") is used to link a subject with apredicate nominative:
Haitian Creole
French
English
li se frè mwen
c'est mon frère
he is my brother
mwen se yon doktè
je suis médecin
I'm a doctor
je suis docteur
sa se yon pyebwa mango
c'est un manguier
this is a mango tree
that is a mango tree
nou se zanmi
nous sommes amis
we are friends
Thesubject of a sentence withse might not be included. In which case, the sentence is interpreted as if the subject weresa ("this" or "that") orli ("he", "she" or "it"):
Haitian Creole
French
English
se yon bon ide
c'est une bonne idée
that's a good idea
this is a good idea
se nouvo chemiz mwen
c'est ma nouvelle chemise
that's my new shirt
this is my new shirt
To express "I want to be", usuallyvin ("tobecome") is used instead ofse.
Haitian Creole
French
English
li pral vin bofrè m
il va devenir mon beau-frère
he will be mybrother-in-law
he will be my stepbrother
li pral vin bofrè mwen
mwen vle vin yon doktè
je veux devenir docteur
I want to become a doctor
sa pral vin yon pye mango
ça va devenir un manguier
that will become a mango tree
this will become a mango tree
nou pral vin zanmi
nous allons devenir amis
we will be friends
Ye also means "tobe", but is placed exclusively at theend of a sentence, after thepredicate and thesubject (in that order):
Haitian Creole hasstative verbs, which means that the verb "tobe" is notcovert when followed by anadjective. Therefore,malad means both "sick" and "to be sick":
Most of the lexicon of Creole is derived from French, with significant changes inpronunciation andmorphology; often the Frenchdefinite article was retained as part of the noun. For example, the French definite articlela inla lune ("the moon") was incorporated into the Creole noun for moon:lalin. However, the language also inherited many words of different origins, among themWolof,Fon,Kongo, English, Spanish,Portuguese,Taino andArabic.[citation needed]
Haitian Creole creates and borrows new words to describe new or old concepts and realities. Examples of this arefè bak which was borrowed from English and means "to move backwards" (the original word derived from French isrekile fromreculer), and also from English,napkin, which is being used as well astòchon, from the Frenchtorchon.[citation needed]
Althoughnèg andblan have similar words in French (nègre, a pejorative to refer to black people, andblanc, meaning white, or white person), the meanings they carry in French do not apply in Haitian Creole.Nèg means "a person" or "a man" (like "guy" or "dude" in American English).[66] The wordblan generally means "foreigner" or "not from Haiti". Thus, a non-black Haitian man (usually biracial) could be callednèg, while a black person from the US could be referred to asblan.[66][67]
Etymologically, the wordnèg is derived from the Frenchnègre and is cognate with the Spanishnegro ("black", both thecolor and thepeople).
There are many other Haitian Creole terms for specific tones of skin includinggrimo,bren,roz, andmawon. 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.
Haitian Creole is used widely among Haitians who have relocated to other countries, particularly theUnited States andCanada. Some of the larger Creole-speaking populations are found inMontreal,Quebec (where French is the official language),New York City,Boston, andCentral andSouth Florida (Miami,Fort Lauderdale, andPalm 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 inFlorida sends out paper communications in Haitian Creole in addition to English and Spanish. In the Boston area, theBoston subway system and area hospitals and medical offices post announcements in Haitian Creole as well as English.[78] North America's only Creole-language television network isHBN, based in Miami. These areas also each have more than half a dozen Creole-languageAM radio stations.[79]
As of 2015[update], theNew York City Department of Education counted 2,838 Haitian Creole-speakingEnglish-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.[86]: 19–20 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.[87]
Haitian Creole is the second most spoken language inCuba after Spanish,[88][89] where over 300,000Haitian 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 inHavana.[89]
As of 2012[update], the language was also spoken by over 450,000 Haitians who reside in the neighboringDominican Republic,[90] 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.[91]
As of 2009, up to 80,000 Haitians were estimated residing in the Bahamas,[92] where about 20,000 speak Haitian Creole. It is the third most‑spoken language after English andBahamian Creole.[93]
Several smartphone apps have been released, including learning with flashcards byByki and two medical dictionaries, one by Educa Vision and a second byUltralingua, the latter of which includes an audio phrase book and a section on cultural anthropology.
^abHammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017)."Haitian".Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^abDeGraff, Michel; Ruggles, Molly (1 August 2014)."A Creole Solution for Haiti's Woes".The New York Times. p. A17.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.Under the 1987 Constitution, adopted after the overthrow of Jean‑Claude Duvalier's dictatorship, [Haitian] Creole and French have been the two official languages, but most of the population speaks only Creole fluently.
^abSeguin, Luisa (2020).Transparency and Language Contact: The Case of Haitian Creole, French, and Fongbe. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. pp. 218–252.
^Singler, John Victor (1996). "Theories of Creole Genesis, Sociohistorical Considerations, and the Evaluation of Evidence: The Case of Haitian Creole and the Relexification Hypothesis".Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages.11 (2):185–230.doi:10.1075/jpcl.11.2.02sin.
^Carl A. Brasseaux, Glenn R. Conrad (1992).The Road to Louisiana: The Saint-Domingue Refugees, 1792–1809. New Orleans: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana. pp. 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 21, 22, 33, 38, 108, 109, 110, 143, 173, 174, 235, 241, 242, 243, 252, 253, 254, 268.
^S.J. Ducoeurjoly (1803).Manuel des habitans de Saint-Domingue. pp. 363, 364.
^L. Bouchard (8 October 1825).La Nouveauté No. 38. pp. 3, 4.
^abValdman, Albert (2015).Haitian Creole : structure, variation, status, origin. Equinox: Equinox. p. 14.ISBN978-1-84553-387-8.
^Lefebvre, Claire (1997). "Relexification in Creole Genesis: The Case of Demonstrative Terms in Haitian Creole".Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages.12 (2):181–201.doi:10.1075/jpcl.12.2.02lef.ISSN0920-9034.
^The modern French constructionla maison‑là (roughly "that there house") instead of the standardla maison ("the house") is only superficially and coincidentally similar to the Haitian Creole construction.[improper synthesis?]
^"Haïti: Loi du 18 septembre 1979" [Haiti: Act of 18 September 1979].Chaire pour le développement de la recherche sur la culture d'expression française en Amérique du Nord (in French). Québec City:Université Laval.Archived from the original on 27 July 2015.L'usage du créole, en tant que langue commune parlée par les 90 % de la population haïtienne, est permis dans les écoles comme instrument et objet d'enseignement.
^abVédrine, Emmanuel W. (2007) [1st pub. 1994]."Òtograf ofisyèl la"(PDF).Yon koudèy sou pwoblèm lekòl Ayiti [Official spelling](PDF) (in Haitian Creole) (2nd ed.). Boston. p. 131.ISBN978-0-938534-28-0.LCCN94-65943.OCLC37611103.Archived(PDF) from the original on 7 April 2015.Nou suiv sa yo rele 'òtograf ofisyèl' la lan tout sa li mande. Tout liv oubyen dokimanÉditions Deschamps sòti respekte òtograf sa a alalèt. Yon sèl ti eksepsyon petèt, se kesyon apostwòf nou pa anplwaye aprè de gwoup kòm'm ap' (m'ap);'sa k ap fèt?'(sa k'ap fèt?){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"La Constitution de 1987, Article 5" [Constitution of 1987, Article 5] (in French). 1987. Archived fromthe original on 12 September 2011. Retrieved31 July 2015.Tous les Haïtiens sont unis par une Langue commune : le Créole.
^Cadely, Jean‑Robert (2002). "Le statut des voyelles nasales en Créole haïtien" [The Status of Nasal Vowels in Haitian Creole].Lingua (in French).112 (6):437–438.doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(01)00055-9.ISSN0024-3841.L'absence d'opposition distinctive dans la distribution des voyelles hautes ainsi que le facteur combinatoire illustré ci-dessus amènent certains auteurs ... à considérer les voyelles nasales[ĩ] et [ũ] comme des variantes contextuelles de leurs correspondantes orales. Toutefois, l'occurrence dans le vocabulaire des Haïtiens de nombre de termes qui se rattachent pour la plupart à la religion vaudou contribue à affaiblir cette analyse. Par exemple, dans la liste des mots que nous présentons ... il est facile de constater que les voyelles nasales hautes n'apparaissent pas dans l'environnement de consonnes nasales: [ũɡã] 'prêtre vaudou' [ũsi] 'assistante du prêtre/ de la prêtresse' [ũfɔ] 'sanctuaire du temple vaudou' [hũ] 'tambour' [oɡũ] 'divinité vaudou' [ũɡɛvɛ] 'collier au cou du prêtre vaudou' [bũda] 'derrière' [pĩɡa] 'prenez garde' [kaʃĩbo] 'pipe de terre' [jũ/ũnɛɡ] 'un individu'
^Andrews, Helen (2009). "Frances Elaine ('Primrose') McConnellin Beckett, George Francis". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.).Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^Romaine, Suzanne (2002). "Signs of Identity, Signs of Discord: Glottal Goofs and the Green Grocer's Glottal in Debates on Hawaiian Orthography".Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.12 (2):189–224.doi:10.1525/jlin.2002.12.2.189.ISSN1055-1360.JSTOR43104013.For some opponents of the official orthography,⟨k⟩ and⟨w⟩ are tainted with the perceived stigma of being Anglo-Saxon and smack of American imperialism. The French symbols⟨c⟩ and⟨ou⟩, however, are allied with colonialism.
^Léger, Frenand (2011).Pawòl Lakay: Haitian-Creole Language and Culture for Beginner and Intermediate Learners. Coconut Creek, Florida: Educa Vision. p. 6.ISBN978-1-58432-687-8.OCLC742361935.
^abDamoiseau, Robert; Jean-Paul, Gesner (2002).J'apprends le créole haïtien [I’m Learning Haitian Creole] (in French and Haitian Creole). Port-au-Prince and Paris:Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée, Université d'État d'Haïti andÉditions Karthala. pp. 66–67.ISBN978-2-84586-301-9.OCLC50772881.OL4553655W.Kèlkeswa koteou fè nan peyi a lè ou kite Pòtoprens,ou travèse zòn kote yo fè jaden... /Quelle que soit la route qu'on emprunte pour sortir de Port-au-prince,on traverse des zones cultivées.
^abDamoiseau, Robert; Jean-Paul, Gesner (2002).J'apprends le créole haïtien [I'm Learning Haitian Creole] (in French and Haitian Creole). Port-au-Prince and Paris: 'Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée, Université d'État d'Haïti andÉditions Karthala. pp. 82–83.ISBN978-2-84586-301-9.OCLC50772881.OL4553655W.Yo pa fè diferans ant « kawotchou » machin ak « wou » machin nan.Yo di yonn pou lòt. Gen kawotchou ki fèt pou resevwa chanm, genyen ki pa sèvi ak chanm.Yo rele kawotchou sa a tiblès... /On ne fait pas de différence entre « pneu » et « roue » d'une voiture.On dit l'un pour l'autre. Il y a des pneus conçus pour recevoir une chambre à air, il y en a qui s'utilisent sans chambre à air.On appelle ce dernier type de pneus « tubeless ».
^Tézil, David. 2019. The nasalization of the Haitian Creole determinerLa in non-nasal contexts: a variationist sociolinguistic study. PhD dissertation, Indiana University.(Têzil 2019, p. 9, notes: "[T]his variety is frequently subject to depreciative [sic] attitudes, as Capois speakers face the predominance of Port-au-Prince Creole...")
^Targète, Jean; Urciolo, Raphael G. (1993).Haitian Creole–English Dictionary (in Haitian Creole and English) (2nd ed.). Kensington, Maryland: Dunwoody Press. pp. i, 63, 141.ISBN978-0-931745-75-1.LCCN93071725.OCLC30037768.OL3628156W. Archived fromthe original on 12 November 2015. Retrieved13 November 2015 – via Yumpu.Most English words that are of the same origin as Creole words are marked with an asterisk (*)....Etazini n[oun] United States* ...ozetazini In the U.S.A.
^"Vignettes from Jakzi"(PDF).Haiti Marycare News. 2013. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015.
^Rahill, Guitele; Jean-Gilles, Michele; Thomlison, Barbara; Pinto-Lopez, Elsa (2011)."Metaphors as Contextual Evidence for Engaging Haitian Clients in Practice: A Case Study".American Journal of Psychotherapy.65 (2):138–139.doi:10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2011.65.2.133.ISSN0002-9564.PMID21847891.Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 October 2015.The importance of metaphors in Haitian storytelling is reflected in the value ascribed to proverbs as an important aspect of teaching and reinforcing practical wisdom and values to children and community members. The existence of two separate texts in which 999 to more than 3000 Haitian proverbs are documented serve as evidence of the importance of these proverbs and their centrality in traditional Haitian culture...
^Cynn, Christine (2008). "Nou Mande Jistis! (We Demand Justice!): Reconstituting Community and Victimhood in Raboteau, Haiti".Women's Studies Quarterly.36 (½):42–57.doi:10.1353/wsq.0.0071.ISSN1934-1520.JSTOR27649734.OCLC5547107092.S2CID84608576.After Aristide announced his unexpected candidacy in the 1990 presidential elections, the American ambassador to Haiti, Alvin Adams, in a speech assured Haitians that the United States would support whichever candidate was elected but concluded his remarks with a proverb (orpwen) emphasizing the problems that would remain after the elections: 'After the dance, the drum is heavy [Apre bal, tanbou lou]'....
^Rosenthal, Kent (11 July 2006)."Undeclared War on Haiti's Poor".Eureka Street.16 (8).ISSN1036-1758.Archived from the original on 9 July 2014.The rock in the sun cannot get ahead like the rock in the water. Whether you're the rock suffering in the sun or whether you're cooling off in the water depends on where you were born, what passport you hold, what education you have, whether you speak French, whether your parents are peasants or well-off, whether your parents are married or if you have a birth certificate. Chance can deal a very cruel or kind hand in Haiti.
^Joint, Gasner (1999)."Impact social du vaudou".Libération du vaudou dans la dynamique d'inculturation en Haïti [The Liberation of Vodou in the Dynamic of Inculturation in Haiti]. Interreligious and Intercultural Investigations (in French). Vol. 2. Rome:Gregorian & Biblical Press. p. 167.ISBN978-88-7652-824-8.LCCN2001421254.OCLC51448466.Cette situation d'injustice institutionalisée est dénoncée par la philosophie populaire dans les adages courants comme : ...« Ravèt pa janm gen rezon devan poul » ... « Un cafard ne saurait l'emporter sur un poulet ». Expression populaire et imagée de la loi de la jungle: « la raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure ».
^Faedi Duramy, Benedetta (2008). "The Double Weakness of Girls: Discrimination and Sexual Violence in Haiti".Stanford Journal of International Law.44: 150.Li pale franse (He speaks French (so he is likely deceiving you).)
^"Elementary Haitian Kreyol".Directory of Classes. New York: Columbia University. 2015. Archived fromthe original on 30 August 2015. Retrieved30 August 2015.This course is part of the language exchange program with New York University...
^Cerat, Marie Lily (2011). "Myths and Realities: A History of Haitian Creole Language Programs in New York City".Journal of Haitian Studies.17:73–91.
^Press, ed. (16 March 2016)."Haitian and Creole Culture in Cuba". Cuba Journal. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved7 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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