Haitian language
| Haitian (Kreyòl) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Haiti | |
| speaker | over 10 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in |
 Haiti
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
ht |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
Has |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
Has |
|
The Haitian is a Creole language , which in Haiti is spoken by about 10 million people, or almost the entire population of the country (only 5% of the population speaks French ). One to two million speakers of the Haitian language live in other countries. Haitian is the Creole language with the most speakers.
The Haitians themselves call their language kreyòl ayisyen (or French créole haïtien ), but in everyday life simply kreyòl (French créole ).
features
Haitian Creole has mainly French roots and a “creolized” grammar. Linguistic influences of various West African languages (especially from Wolof , Fon and Ewe ) as well as Indian languages (especially from Arawak and Carib ) exist only in the vocabulary. The Swadesh list for Haitian only includes entries from the French vocabulary.
There are two dialects : Fablas and Plateau .
history
Emergence
Due to the linguistic diversity in Africa in general and in West Africa in particular, the newly arrived slaves had no generally understandable means of communication. In order to be able to communicate with each other and with their masters, they had to learn a new language. The language consisted predominantly of words from the language of the gentlemen, but with a different, initially often greatly simplified grammar. As this pidgin language became a mother tongue, a Creole language developed from it .
Writing and standardization
From 1940 to 1943 the Haitian language was put into writing by H. Ormonde McConnell and Frank Laubach, which was used by the Haitian government for literacy until 1979.
In 1979 the National Pedagogical Institute ( Institut Pédagogique National ) standardized spelling according to principles that had been worked out at Indiana University under the direction of Albert Valdman.
Current status
Since 1961, the Haitian language has had the status of the official language and the language of instruction . All lower-grade textbooks are already published in Haitian. There are newspapers, radio and television programs in Haitian. The literary language is emerging.
Many speakers are bilingual with French, but Haitian has a lower social status, especially among the mulatto and white Haitians.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wittmann, Henri & Robert Fournier (1996): “Contraintes sur la relexification: les limites imposées dans un cadre théorique minimaliste.” Mélanges linguistiques , ed. Robert Fournier, 245-80. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières
- ^ Wittmann, Henri (1973). "The lexicostatistical classification of the French-based Creole languages." Lexicostatistics in genetic linguistics: Proceedings of the Yale conference, April 3-4, 1971 , dir. Isidore Dyen, 89-99. La Haye: Mouton. ( PDF ( Memento of October 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ))
- ^ Robert A. Hall: Haitian Creole: Grammar, texts, vocabulary (= American Anthropological Society, Memoir No. 74). American Anthropological Association, Menasha 1953, pp. 25-27.
- ^ Yves François Déjean: Comment écrire le créole d'Haiti . Diss., Indiana University, Bloomington 1977.
