HAITIAN CREOLE

French-based creole language spoken on the island of Hispaniola, in the Caribbean Sea. An official language of Haiti since 1987, Creole is spoken by more than 90 percent of that nation's population; only 10 percent speak French, Haiti's other official language. Probably 90 percent or more of Haitian Creole vocabulary is French in origin (the remainder is mostly of African origin, with a few Spanish words), but its pronunciation differs from that of French, and the grammar and syntax are also somewhat modified. A set of verbal prefixes, for example, has been derived from French auxiliary verbs or modifying phrases, replacing or changing standard French methods of verb conjugation. This new use of verb prefixes to mark tense and aspect was probably a result of the influence of African grammatical structures. Haitian Creole orthography was not fixed until recently because Creole was not recognized as a standard language of Haiti. The language is written, however, and a number of different spelling systems have been devised. The general tendency was to make use of spellings that emphasized the language's French origin, thereby giving confusing or incorrect reflections of Haitian pronunciation. A Gallicized adaptation of a reasonably straightforward orthography, the McConnell-Laubach-Pressoir orthography, invented by a Protestant missionary, was officially recognized by the Haitian government in 1961. Several other French creoles are spoken in the Caribbean area, among them Louisiana Creole and several Antilles creoles, including those of Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago, and French Guiana. These are usually mutually intelligible. Examples of Haitian Creole (in phonemic transcription; the tilde marks nasalized vowels) are Li tbe n dlo, French Il tombait dans l'eau, He fell in the water; and Li pa-t-isit, French Il n'etait pas ici, He was not here. From Louisiana Creole is T-ale reste kushe, French Tu vas rester couch, You are going to remain lying down.