Mini-lesson in Creole                              

 

For a volunteer in rural Haiti, learning Creole fast is a matter of survival. Although French and Creole are both official languages, outside the cities the majority of the population only speaks Creole. RCTC students will be happy to know that I attended Creole lessons every day, & I appreciated how the instructor spoke slowly and repeated often.

Good news (for the French student)                 

Creole is 90% French vocabulary grafted onto the slave's West African language structure patterns.

Guess the family members:

manman

papa

frè

sè

matant

tonton

kouzen

granpè

granmè

(Answers: mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, grandfather, grandmother)

More good news                                                   

Creole, a written language with standardized spelling only since the 1980's, is spelled phonetically.  If you hear an "s," you see an "s."

You're welcome ->            Il n'y a pas de quoi  ->           Padekwa

Have a great weekend -> Passez un bon weekend ->  Pase bon wikenn.

Even better news                                        

I           - mwen      manje                      we    - nou     manje

you      - ou          manje                       you   -  ou      manje

he,she - li           manje                        they -  yo       manje

Say: 

I speak Creole.   _______  __________ kreyòl.

He eats well.       _______  __________ byen.

(Answers: I speak Creole. Mwen parle kreyòl.

He eats well. Li manje byen.)

Make it plural:    weekends _______________     sisters ____________

(Answer: weekends -> wikenn yo , sisters -> sè yo

ou manje           ->  you are eating        Li pase bon wikenn.  -> She/he is having a good weekend.

    manje ou      ->  your dinner                                 wikenn li  -> her/his weekend

Say:  my brother       ___________ ___________

  their weekend    _________________ ________

 his cousins     ___________ ____________ ___________

(Answers: my brother -> frè mwen, our weekend -> wikenn nou, his cousins -> kouzen li yo)

The exceptions to the good news

●There are 4 ways to say "the"

     noun ends in a consonant = la

         tab la                   - the table

         chemiz la            - the shirt (chemise)

    noun ends in a vowel    = a

         ve a                    - the glass (verre)

         soulye a             - the shoe (soulier)

   noun ends in a nasal       = an

         chen an             - the dog  (chien)

         ban an               -the bench (banc)

  noun ends in an "n" sound  = nan

       machin nan        - the car (machine)

       chenn nan          - the chain

Fill in the correct form of "the"

pòt ____   (the door, porte)

bannann ____

pantalon  ____

nasyonalite  ____

(Answers: the door->pòt la, the banana -> bannann nan, the pair of pants -> pantalon an, the nationality -> nasyonalite a)

 

The role of proverbs

Tout fanm se fanm, tout fanm pa minm.    All women are women, but all women are not the same.

Piti piti zwazo fè nich.                                Little by little

Pale franse pas di lespri.                          Good speech [French] doesn't mean being smart.

Byen prese pas rive.                              Haste makes waste. { Really hurry, you won't get there]

What about literature?

There is a strong tradition of storytelling in Creole.  The classic opening is "Krik?" by the proposed storyteller, and the response "Krak" if the group wants to hear the tale.

Before the 1980's French was the only language of instruction, so Haitian literature was written in French.  For new generations of writers the choice is problematic.  Often their university education was in French, and they continue to write in French.  Those who write in Creole must consider the high illiteracy of the country, plus the factor that Creole was not taught as a written language before 1980, so that those literate in French might still not read Creole.