Haitian Creole isn’t the boring slog many people believe it is. Learning a language isn’t quite easy, indeed, but some things make it more digestible. For example, did you know that the language has three dialects? All three have peculiarities of their own but the Central dialect is spoken most commonly in Haiti and not only. It’s the dialect spoken in Port-au-Prince!
Here’s a list of interesting facts about Haitian Creole you might not know!
- Haitian Creole Is a Mixture Between French and African Languages
The Haitian Creole of today is part of a group of Creole languages that were formed thanks to the contact between multiple languages. Initially, Creole was spoken in the European settlements in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Western Africa. In fact, many Creole languages are mixtures of European and non-European languages.
Haitian Creole combines French with several African languages. Its roots are grounded in the interactions between French colonists and African slaves on the sugar plantations of Haiti. Today, Haitian Creole is one of the two official languages of Haiti, the other one being French, of course.
- Haitian Creole has Millions of Speakers Worldwide
Did you know that Haitian Creole has 10-12 million speakers worldwide and approximately 9.6 million of them are native speakers? The others are people who’ve learned Haitian Creole as their second language. At present, more and more people are starting to realize the importance of the Haitian creole on the international stage.
Haiti and other Creole-speaking countries, as well as the worldwide Haitian population, are gaining attention from everyone. The Haitian culture, history, music and art, its religion and ethos, they’re taking up a sizeable portion of the world’s attention. It’s due, in no small part, to Haiti’s rich history and impressive cultural events that have shaped its people.
- There are Three Main Differences Between French and Haitian Creole
Despite being at the roof of Haitian Creole, French is different from Creole. Firstly, in Haitian Creole, articles follow nouns instead of preceding them. If in French you’d have “la mer”, in Haitian Creole, that same phrase becomes “mer la”. There is a switch between the order of definite articles in Haitian Creole, in other words.
Secondly, Haitian Creole doesn’t conjugate its verbs. The language is a phonetic one, meaning the words are spelled the same way you’d write them. There’s no difference between the written and sonorous forms of words in Haitian Creole. That’s why many verbs taken from French are pronounced differently based on this principle.
Lastly, there’s the pluralization of nouns which, in Haitian Creole isn’t made with an “s” or “es” as you’d do in French. In Haitian Creole, you add a definite article to a word if you want to make it plural. So, to make the word “liv” (book) a plural, you’d add the article “yo” after it, constructing “liv yo” to result in “books”.
- Haitian Creole Led to The Liberation of Haiti
It may sound off that the language itself was the spark that led to the liberation of Haiti but that’s exactly what happened. Across centuries of slavery, Haitian slaves developed a language of their own, which is now known as Haitian Creole. They used that language to unify and organize rebellions across the country.
Quickly, they took control of a third of the country and demanded the abolition of slavery. Eventually, they got what they wanted and Haiti was liberated from slavery. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804, when the Haitians officially established the nation of Haiti, to prevent the French from reestablishing slavery there.
And that’s how the emergence of a language led to the emergence of a free people!