What Is A Creole Language?

The Haitian Creole language is one of the two official languages of Haiti and the main language spoken in Haiti by about eight million people

. There are substantial pockets of Haitian Creole speakers in places where Haitiana immigrants have settled including the United States, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, and other Caribean islands.

A creole language is a language that has evolved from a pidgin language which is a combination of native languages with a foreign language. Some consider them as a "nativized" language, meaning a foreign language adopted and adapted by local peoples. Creole languages borrow cognates from the parent languages but they defer phonetically and semantically from the original languages. They evolve sometimes into recognized languages in their own right. Hatian Creole is considered as the most widely spoken creole language in the world.

Haitian Creole is the byproduct of eighteen century French and Haitian African languages and dialects originally brought by the African slaves that were brought to the island. Haiti is the only nation in the Americas that is predominantly Francophone and it is only one of two countries (and Canada) in this region that has designated French as an official language. It also has influences from Arabic, Spanish and Taino, a native language from the island.

Although it indeed has a foundational French heritage, Creole has evolved to have its own dialect. It is not only prevalent in Haiti, but in many parts of the US in which Haitian immigrants have made their home. Florida and Georgia are two states that have a higher population of immigrants from Haiti; therefore in certain communities the Creole language has a major presence. Even someone of a French-speaking native language may have difficulty in conversing in Creole, for although the underlying premise of the two languages share a certain similarity, the speed and inflections and terms have evolved to be completely distinctive languages all on their own.

Haitian Creole today is a sophisticated language that has gradually been gaining acceptance as the literary language of the country. Today, many authors, teachers and political activists have used it to write literature and many Haitian translations of world literature have been published. Many publications and newspapers in Haiti, including radio and television broadcasts, are produced in Creole.

A French speaker would have a very difficult time understanding Haitian Creole. The grammar of the language differs significantly from French. Some of the differences involve the way verbs are handled (they are not conjugated or inflected), nouns have no gender and adjectives and articles are not inflected based on the noun. These are important considerations when working on Creole translation.

by: Richard Allenby

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