Creole Languages

CREOLE: THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF HAITI

Haiti has two official languages,

* French

* Haitian Creole also called French Creole or just Creole

* Haitian Creole is the true national language of the Republic of Haiti. The official status was maintained under the country's 1987 constitution

* spoken by about seven million people, All Haitians speak the language, but a small minority of about 10% of the population also speak French, which they have learned either at home or at school

* creole is a language in its own right with its own pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and pragmatics. the grammar of Creole is just as complex or simple as that of English or French, and its vocabulary meets all the needs of its speakers

* Even though some Haitians have mastered French they still consider Haitian Creole, which they use for most everyday communication, as the symbol of their national identity.

* The term creole comes from a Portuguese word meaning "raised in the home."

* It first referred to Europeans born and raised in the overseas colonies. 

* It was later used for languages that arose on the plantations that the Europeans established, using slaves imported from Africa.

* Haitian Creole has three main geographical dialects

* Northern dialect, spoken in Cap-Haitien, the second largest Haitian city;

* Central dialect, spoken in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti;

* Southern dialect spoken in the area of Cayes, an important city in the south of Haiti.

How was Creole formed? 

* It is based largely on 18th Century French and on African languages spoken by slaves brought from West Africa to work on plantations

* Creole resulted from African slaves' efforts to speak the French that they heard when they arrived in the colony of Saint-Domingo (now Haiti). 

* Slaves came from all over West Africa and spoke many different languages. 

* On any one plantation, several African...