Anne
In 1961 Kreyol was recognized as one of Haiti’s official languages along with French. Haitian Kreyol is based on French and other languages such as Spanish and some west African languages. It is often described as a “French Dialect” or as a “broken French.” I have always asked myself if Kreyol was a broken French, why do people who speak French do not fully understand when someone speaks in Kreyol?
In Haiti, only 10% of the population speaks French, and a Haitian who speaks Kreyol is sometimes unable to understand another Haitian speaking French. It is unlikely to see the opposite because in Haiti the colonizing language has been prioritized over the Kreyol. Within Haiti there are three forms of dialect of Kreyol: the northern dialect of Kreyol, spoken in Cap-Haitian, the second-largest city; the Central dialect, spoken mainly in Port-au-Prince, which is the capital of Haiti, and also spoken by the majority of the population, and finally the southern dialect, spoken in “Les Cayes,” another big city located in the south.
Like any other language, Kreyol has its own and distinctive grammar that is different from French. One such example is the use of verbs, we do not have subject verb agreement and there are also no verb tenses. Instead we have markers that precede the verb to indicate the tense. For instance, we use “te” to indicate the past tense, “ap” for progressives, and “pral” for the future
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