Haitian Creole/Krey

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Haitian Creole/Kreyòl Ayisyen
Language Sketch

• Brieanne Conklin
• Chris Perkins

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Map
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Introduction

• Official name Kreyòl
• Creole classification
• Population of over 7 million

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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

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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)

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Sociolinguistic Background

• Settlement History
• Slave population
• 16812,000 (approx. 1/3 of total pop.)
• 1791700,000 (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

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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

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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
  SVOrising intonation exclusively

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Morphology
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Morphology-contd
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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 ?
Lateral l
Spirant r
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Phonological Features (Contd)

• Vowels
• Front Back
• Close i u
• e o
• ? ò
• Open a

Other Vowels an manman ?n b?ny?n wi uit
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Phonological Features (contd)

• 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

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Syntactic Features

• Determiners and possessive pronouns occur after
  the noun
• poul ki kouvri pitit li
  ak-zèl li
• chicken REL cover little 3sg with wing
  3sg
• a hen covering her chickens with her wings
  (Arends et al)
• dénié vwayaj la
• last trip DET
• the last trip (Hall 1953)

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Syntactic Features

• Personal Pronouns
• mwen 1sg nou 1pl 2pl
• ou 2sg yo 3pl
• li 3sg
• No gender distinction
• No distinction between 1st person plural 2nd
  person plural
• Used for subject and object

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Syntactic Features (contd)

• Present tense to be verb not used
• Li malad / Li nan
  jaden an
• 3sg 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 la
• 3sg was sick / 3sg was under
  table DET
• He was sick / He was under the
  table
• (DeGraff)

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Syntactic Features (contd)

• 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
• Its never too late for a dog to go mad

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Sources

• Arends, 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.