Haitian Creole/Kreyòl

Ayisyen

Brieanne Conklin

Chris Perkins

Language Sketch:

Map

Introduction

• Official name: Kreyòl

• Creole classification

• Population of over 7 million

Related Languages

• French (regional and colloquial varieties from 17th and 18th centuries)

• African language influence– Kwa group of West Africa

– Bantu languages of Central Africa

• Minimal Amerindian language influence– Haiti (Ayiti)—Arawak or Carib meaning ‘vast land of mountains’

– Only very few lexical influences

Sociolinguistic Background

Settlement History• Very small aboriginal survival of Spanish rule

• ~1625 Europeans (French), along with a few African slaves began to settle the area

• 1664 Louis XIV claimed the West of the island• Growth of slave population due to indigo, coffee, sugarcane, tobacco, cotton and cacao industry.– Led to classic plantation colony with distinctive Creole culture and Creole language

• 1697 Spanish recognition of French claim to Saint-Dominigue (Haiti)

Sociolinguistic Background

Settlement History• Slave population

– 1681~2,000 (approx. 1/3 of total pop.)– 1791~700,000 (approx. 92% of total pop.)

• Haiti became richest French colony providing 1/3 of French foreign trade

• Struggle for independence had already begun which succeeded in 1803

Sociolinguistic Background

Sociolinguistic Variation• Official languages: French and Haitian Creole• All Haitians speak Haitian Creole, but only 10% are considered bilingual in French and H.C.

• Fluency in French carries higher status

Traditional Uses• Haitian used in everyday interactions• French used in schools, government, official documents, etc.

• Not allowed to be used for instruction and education until 1979

Basic Word Order

• Follows SVO word order typical of French

• Passive structure takes on common S-Aux-V-O

• Only questions divert from French using SVO+rising intonation exclusively

Morphology

Morphology-cont’d

Phonological Features

• Regional variation makes it difficult to standardize a a phonological description...

• General phonology similar to French• 17 consonants (Hall 1953):

Bilabial/ Labiodental

Dental

Palatal or Velar

Plosive p b t d

k g

Fricative or Sibilant

f v s z

š ž

Nasal m n ŋ

Lateral l

Spirant r

Phonological Features (Cont’d)

Vowels

Front Back

Close i u e o є ò

Open a

Other Vowels:

[an] manman

[єn] bєnyєn

[wi] uit

Phonological Features (cont’d)

Determiners

• Unlike French, determiners do not reflect gender

• Instead, there are several alternants of the determiner /la/:

la ~ a ~ an ~ lan ~ nan

• Form is selected based on phonological environment

Syntactic Features

Determiners and possessive pronouns occur after the noun:

poul ki kouvri pitit li ak-zèl lichicken REL cover little 3sg with wing 3sg‘a hen covering her chickens with her wings’ (Arends et al)

dénié vwayaj lalast trip DET ‘the last trip’ (Hall 1953)

Syntactic Features

Personal Pronouns:mwen 1sg nou 1pl & 2plou 2sg yo 3plli 3sg

• No gender distinction• No distinction between 1st person plural & 2nd

person plural• Used for subject and object

Syntactic Features (cont’d)

• Present tense “to be” verb not used

Li malad / Li nan jaden an3sg sick / 3sg in garden DET‘He is sick’ / ‘He is in the garden’

• Markers used for other tenses

Li te malad / Li te anba tab la3sg was sick / 3sg was under table DET ‘He was sick’ / ‘He was under the table’

(DeGraff)

Syntactic Features (cont’d)

Negation• French negation: “ne ...(verb)... pas”• Haitian Creole retains ‘pa’ in negation; however, it functions more like the French “ne”

H.C. Li pa jam tro ta pou chien anraje

3sg NEG ever too late for dog go mad (Arends et al)

French Ce n’ est jamais trop tard pour un chien enrager

It NEG is never too late for a dog to go mad

‘It’s never too late for a dog to go mad’

SourcesArends, J. et al. (1995). Pidgins and Creoles: An

Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DeGraff, Michel. Comparativ e Creole Syntax. London, U.K. Westminster Creolistics Series, Battlebridge Publications

--Morphology in Creole genesis: Linguistics and ideology. (2001). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Haitians: Their History and Culture. http://www.culturalorientation.net/haiti

Hall, R.A. (1953). Haitian Creole: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary. Menasha, Wisconsin: American Anthropological Association.