Kreyol & Creole

Creole, or as it is natively spelled, Kreyol, is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French). In actuality, it is estimated that only about 15% of Haiti’s population speak French fluently. So for most purposes, one living in Haiti needs a good understanding of Kreyol.  French is the designated language for official documents of state, etc.

I have been searching for a tutor in Kreyol, surprisingly, or not, there does not seem to be any school here and the one tutor I found was overcharging. So for now, I will begin my studies in two ways. Fortunately for me, Stéphane’s generation was one of the first in Haiti to be taught a proper, standardized, written form of Kreyol in school. Before then there hadn’t been “rules” for spelling. So, we’ve ordered some materials and very soon I will be under the tutelage of one Professor S. Thomas.

Additionally, and this is very lucky, on a Google search for “learn creole, haiti” I came across a website called Haiti Hub which was beginning discussion groups/classes on Skype last week! FOR FREE Friday night I participated with one other student and our teacher, Carlo, they are both on the Pacific side of the U.S. – gotta love technology. It was helpful and fun – we spent an hour learning some of the very basics, a few I knew already just from osmosis but I will share some below with you!

Koman ou ye? – How are you?

Mwen Byen. – I am well.

Pa pi mal (gras a dieu). – Not too bad (thank the lord).

Koman ou rele? – What is your name

Mwen rele Hana. – My name is Hana.

M’ap aprann kreyol.

I am learning creole.

*Creole is a phonetic language, this means that words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled. Forget all the French pronunciation rules you may think apply. Also – there are no Hs standing alone, thus my name is pronounced as Ana.

Lastly, Stéphane found this great  online dictionary for English–>Creole and Creole–>English, in case you’re curious.