English-Haitian Creole Bilingual Dictionary 9781532016011, 9781532015991, 9781532016004

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ENGLISH- HAITIAN CREOLE BILINGUAL DICTIONARY Project Director:

Albert Valdman

Editors:

Albert Valdman Marvin D. Moody Thomas E. Davies

Assistant Editor:

Michael A. Kunz

Editorial Assistant:

Karen S. Smith



Indiana University Creole Institute

ENGLISH- HAI TIA N CREOLE BILINGUA L DIC TIONARY Copyright © 2017 Albert Valdman. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. iUniverse 1663 Liberty Drive Bloomington, IN 47403 www.iuniverse.com 1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677) Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them. Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock. ISBN: 978-1-5320-1601-1 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-5320-1599-1 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-5320-1600-4 (e) Library of Congress Control Number: 2017903469

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Editor Biographies Preface Introductory Remarks on Haitian Creole Orthography and Sound System Grammatical Sketch Numbers in Creole A User’s Guide to the Dictionary Detailed Discussion of the Content of Entries List of Abbreviations Bibliography English-Haitian Creole Bilingual Dictionary

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Given the amount of work and time it requires, the preparation of a dictionary is a collaborative achievement. We would especially like to thank the many speakers of Haitian Creole, most of them in Haiti, who have provided information on the form, meaning, and use of the Haitian Creole material contained in this dictionary. We are also grateful to the team that prepared the first existing bilingual Creole-French/French-Creole dictionary: Diksyonè Kreyòl-Français/Français-Kreyòl (DKFFK). A work that certainly meets the norms of professional lexicography. Destined for middle and high school students in Haiti and published by Editions haïtiennes, this very important project was led by André Vilaire Chéry and included, as contributors, Geneviève D. Auguste and Rogéda D. Dorcil a former Dean of the Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée. Several of the Haitian Creole examples of the present dictionary are derived from the DKFFK. It would be a presumptuous venture indeed for lexicographers not to consult preceding dictionaries. Thus, it behooves us to give special acknowledgement to the utility of the subsequent works by the following authors to whom we are beholden: Bryant C. Freeman who has prepared the most extensive EnglishHaitian Creole bilingual dictionary to date, English-Haitian Creole Dictionary (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas, 2010); Féquière Vilsaint & Jean E. Berret and their English-Haitian Creole/Haitian Creole-English Word to Word Dictionary (Coconut Creek, FL: Educa Vision, 2005); Jean Targète and Raphaël G. Urciolo with the Haitian Creole-English Dictionary (Kensington, MD: Dunwoody Press, 1993); Lodewijk F. Peleman, C.I.C.M. and the Dictionnaire créole-français (Port-au-Prince: Bon Nouvèl, 1976); and finally Alain Bentolila, Pierre Nougayrol, Pierre Vernet, Charles Alexandre, and Henry Tourneux’s Diksyonnè kreyòl-franse (Port-au-Prince: Editions Caraïbes, 1976). However, the most important source for this dictionary is the Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Creole Institute, 2007), prepared under terms of the research contract No P017A0004, funded by the United States Department of Education, International Research and Studies Program. We are likewise grateful to the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University that have provided partial funding for the preparation of the present dictionary.

EDITOR BIOGRAPHIES Albert Valdman, Emeritus Rudy Professor of French/Italian and Linguistic, Director of the Indiana University Creole Institute, a leading international specialist in French-based creoles, is the author of the recent comprehensive descriptive study: Haitian Creole: Structure, Variation, Status, Origin (2015) and the basic introductory instructional manual, Ann Pale Kreyòl, as well as lead editor of Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (2007), Dictionary of Louisiana Creole (1998) and Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Communities (2010). Marvin D. Moody was from 1970 to 1979 a member of the French Linguistics faculty in the Department of French and Italian at Indiana University where he also directed the First Year French Program. He authored A Classification and Analysis of “noun + de + noun Constructions in French (1972). From 1981 to 2005, he worked as a Software Engineer in Colorado and California where he also taught Computer Science course at various universities and junior colleges. Upon his retirement in 2005, he returned to Indiana University where he has served as Research Associate in the Department of French and Italian and the Creole Institute. In this capacity, he has provided programming support for the Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Communities (2010). With A. Valdman, he is currently working on an online version of the Differential, Historical, and Etymological Dictionary of Louisiana French at Indiana University funded by NEH and to be completed in 2018. Thomas E. Davies has lived and worked in the Haitian diaspora in Florida and Montreal for more than 30 years. He was the lead translator of Haitian Creole for the Florida, Fort Myers School District from 2004 to 2011. The author of a spell checker for Haitian Creole, he collaborated in the preparation of the Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary (2007), and was part of the team conducting research on the Cape Haitian dialect (2007-2009) funded by the National Science Foundation. He is completing a PhD in Curriculum Studies at Indiana University and planning research on the role of Haitian Creole in the Haitian educational system.

PREFACE Purpose of the English-Haitian Creole Bilingual Dictionary The primary function of the English-Haitian Creole Bilingual Dictionary (EHCBD) is to help English speakers speak and write Haitian Creole, the target language, by providing Haitian Creole equivalents of English words and phrases. Speakers of Haitian Creole may also use this dictionary to improve their oral and written skills in English as well as to extend their knowledge of the vocabulary of their own language. While an official orthography exists for Haitian Creole, it is important to understand that the written language is not yet fully standardized. That is, there are no extensive grammars meeting current standards of linguistic description written in the language, nor do monolingual dictionaries exist designed for native speakers of the language such as the Merriam-Webster for American English or the Grand Robert or Larousse for French. Thus, in some cases, we are not absolutely sure of the precise meaning of a Haitian Creole word or expression when we strive to provide exact equivalents of English words or phrases. However, as is the case for bilingual dictionaries that meet current standards of lexicography, such as the Diksyonè Kreyòl-Français/FrançaisKreyòl, this bilingual dictionary provides an excellent starting point for the preparation of monolingual dictionaries, with specifically targeted readerships, to be used in Haiti. It is outside the scope of this dictionary to have it assume a partially encyclopedic function as it provides little information about Haitian history, culture, etc. For example, there are few proper names referring to historical personages and geographical proper names are reduced to main cities. In the case of terms referring to Vodou, minimal information is provided to help the reader situate them within the framework of Haiti’s primary religion. Scope and nature of the EHCBD As is the case with its predecessor and companion volume the Haitian CreoleEnglish Bilingual Dictionary, the present dictionary stands as the most thorough bilingual dictionary dealing with Haitian Creole. First, it is broader and more extensive than any existing dictionary designed to provide Haitian Creole equivalents for English words and expressions. Its nomenclature (the list of English headwords) contains more than 30,000 entries, many of which,

especially verbs, have multiple senses, and about 25,000 subentries, multiword units or idiomatic expressions whose meanings cannot readily be derived from the individual meaning of the constituent words. Second, it features the most developed microstructure (the content of individual articles) for its entries. In addition to the headword, identification of parts of speech, and the gloss(es) (Haitian Creole equivalents), it provides abundant sentence-length English examples with Haitian Creole translations. Moreover, careful semantic analysis distinguishes between homonyms (words that share the same pronunciation but differ in meaning) and polysemes (words with several closely related senses). For the latter, senses are ordered on the basis of primarily semantic criteria, generally from a concrete or basic meaning to a more abstract or figurative meaning.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON HAITIAN CREOLE Much ink has been spilled over how one is to name the language spoken by all Haitians and which stands as the only means of communication and selfexpression for 90% of the country’s population. In addition to Haiti, Frenchbased Creole languages are spoken in four principal areas: 1, the Lesser Antilles: Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barth, and Saint-Lucia; 2, French Guyana; 3, Louisiana; and 4, the Mascarene Archipelago: Reunion, Mauritius, and the Seychelles of the Indian Ocean. Since they show significant differences in vocabulary as well as some at the levels of grammar and pronunciation, these languages are not always mutually intelligible, especially between those of the Atlantic Ocean and those of the Indian Ocean. However, mutual comprehension is more easily achieved between neighboring Creoles, for example, between that of Haiti and those of the Lesser Antilles. There is a tendency among creolists—linguists that specialize in the study of creole languages—and some speakers of these languages to refer to them simply by the place where they are spoken and the term creole, for example, Mauritian Creole or Haitian Creole. However, in the case of Haitian Creole, most native speakers call the language simply kreyòl ‘creole’. In this dictionary, we will retain the anglicized version of this traditional label: Creole. Creole is the principal language of communication in the Republic of Haiti. It is spoken by all Haitians and is the sole means of communication for the vast majority of the population of about ten million. In the 1987 Constitution, both French and Creole were promulgated as official languages of the Republic of Haiti, but a certain dominant/subordinate relationship still exists between them. A mastery of French is still highly valued by all segments of the population. Although the use of Creole has continued to expand into all domains (media, education, administration, literature), French is often still preferred for literary expression and in the educational and administrative sectors. Nonetheless, Creole is considered by all Haitians as the true national language of their country. A rural speaker poignantly expressed how many Haitians view their country’s two languages: Fransè se pa lang pa n, se lang achte … Ti moun fèt pou konn kreyòl paske se lang ni, li pa achte l.

French is not our language, it’s a ‘bought’ language … A child is born to know Creole because it’s her language, she didn’t ‘buy’ it. The speaker is making an analogy with loas, Vodou spirits. Like loas that are bought from Vodou priests—and are more capricious and demand more expensive offerings—French is viewed as alien and not inherited as part of one’s lineage. For rural Haitians, Creole is the only authentic language. French and Creole share a great deal of lexical items, many of which are false cognates, and phonological features but they differ substantially at the grammatical level rendering them mutually unintelligible under most circumstances. Creole arose through a process of what linguists term creolization within the context of a slave-holding plantation society in which French was the language of most of the original European settlers with European indentured servants, artisans, military personnel, and administrators arriving later. The variety of French that evolved into the varieties of the language currently used in North America, in the French overseas departments in the Caribbean, and in the Indian Ocean is usually referred to as Colonial French. In their attempt to acquire Colonial French second-hand, as it were, without ready access to a proper model, the slaves modified its structure considerably. In the social context of the plantation colonies, the French available to them was highly variable reflecting the everyday speech of ordinary people from different parts of France rather than the more standardized language of the elite. Imported slaves spoke a variety of African languages. These operated as filters through which the slaves decoded Colonial French. However, it is simplistic to characterize the Creole that evolved from this attempt by the slaves to acquire Colonial French language intertwining consisting of French vocabulary embedded in African grammar. Instead, Creole is a language in its own right whose pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, though grounded in French, clearly show the influence of African languages. For the small minority of the population that is bilingual, the use of the two languages is largely determined by the interaction of two sociolinguistic variables: those of public versus private context and of formal versus informal situations. As is the case for all languages, Creole shows geographical and sociolinguistic variation manifesting itself primarily at the levels of pronunciation and vocabulary. The speech of the Cape Haitian region in northern Haiti differs most strikingly from that of the rest of the country, although there are also some salient differences in the speech of the western part of the southern

peninsula. Differences also exist between the speech of urban and rural inhabitants of each region, but the sharpest differences are noted when comparing the speech of the bilingual minority and that of the monolingual masses in the rural areas and in the lower urban social strata.

ORTHOGRAPHY AND SOUND SYSTEM The oldest extant texts in Creole date from the end of the 18th century. The orthography used is unmistakably adapted from French spelling conventions. This type of spelling system was the rule until the 1940’s. In 1941, a Methodist minister from Northern Ireland, H. Ormonde McConnell, and an American literacy specialist, Frank Laubach, using the first description of the language by the Haitian linguist Suzanne Sylvain (1936) as a springboard, devised an alphabet based on a systematic phonological representation of the language. This system, somewhat modified by two Haitians, the journalist Charles-Fernand Pressoir and the then Minister of Education Lélio Faublas, had a semi-official status and was used in all educational and religious works. It was also adopted by the government’s literacy and developmental agency, the Office National d’Alphabétisation et d’Action Communautaire (ONAAC). In 1975, a slightly modified version of the Pressoir-Faublas alphabet was introduced. Labeled IPN because it was devised by persons affiliated with the Institut Pédagogique National (IPN), this alphabet was given official recognition in 1979 by the government headed by Jean-Claude Duvalier. It is used today in all official publications, in a wide variety of written texts, and in material destined for school programs where some instruction is provided in Creole. This is the orthography that is used in this dictionary. A guide providing correspondences between spelling and pronunciation is provided below. Most phonological descriptions of Haitian Creole use as a standard the speech of monolingual Creole speakers from the central part of the country that includes the Capital, Port-au-Prince. This was also the standard used in the preparation of this dictionary. We have not included those features that are particularly characteristic of middle class bilingual speakers, such as the front-rounded vowels /y/, /ø/, and /œ/. For example, for the word for ‘rice’ we have opted for the form /diri/ rather than /dyri/. Nonetheless, these phonemes could be represented using new symbols compatible with the IPN orthography: u for /y/, eu for /ø/, and èu for /œ/. In fact, we use the graphic symbol u to represent the vowels of the word zuzu, which refers to a Frenchified way of speaking. Like all languages, Creole shows variation in the spoken form of words. For example, the word for now is pronounced koulye, konnye, kounyeya, or kounye a. There are frequent cases of phonological variation where speakers sometimes use variants interchangeably. These involve the vowels e and è and o

and ò in non-final syllables: grese, grèse ‘to oil’, sòti, soti, sòt, sot ‘to go out’; corresponding oral and nasal vowels: ansasen, asasen ‘murderer’, makòn, makonn ‘bunch’. malonnèt, malonèt ‘dishonest’, beni (benni) ‘blessed’. There is also variation in word-final position between the consonant j and the semivowel y. In some of these examples the preferred pronunciation is j (zoranj, zorany ‘orange’, chatwouj, chatwouy ‘octopus’), in others, the preferred pronunciation is y (lizay, lizaj ‘manners’, paryay, paryaj ‘betting’). For these variations, in the glosses (the Creole equivalents of the English headwords), we show the most common written variants or those that we have observed most frequently in speech; in the illustrative contextual examples, we show the equivalent occurring in the particular written or oral sources we consulted. For example, bunch, we only show ‘makòn’. In the HCEBD, we show all variants, and readers are invited to consult that dictionary for alternative orthographies. Because Haitian Creole is not fully standardized—no monolingual dictionary comparable to the French Grand Robert or the American Merriam-Webster exists—written texts show variation in the spelling of words composed of several morphemes (meaningful units). For example, for the interrogative pronouns, some authors and editors treat them as single units, others separate the general interrogative element ki from the one that bears identifiable meaning: ki lè (‘hour’) or kilè ‘when’, ki moun (‘person’) or kimoun ‘who’, pou ki sa (‘that’) or pou kisa, poukisa ‘why’. We have chosen to represent these as two words (ki lè, ki moun) when the second part is semantically clear, but as a single unit when it is not, as is the case for ‘why’: poukisa. As a rule, we follow the general Haitian practice in writing words composed of several semantic elements as unitary forms: alèkile ‘at the present time’ (a ‘at,’ lè ‘hour’ kile ‘that is’, literally, ‘at the time that is’. The pronunciation of the personal pronouns varies greatly between the long and short form: mwen/m, li/l, nou/n, yo/y. In the case of the 2nd person singular, variation exists between the vowel ou and the semivowel w. When the official spelling was first used, that form was, in most cases, written ou even where it is usually pronounced with the semivowel. However, there is, at present, a tendency to have the written form reflect actual pronunciation, and in many texts one finds matant ou ‘your aunt’ versus sè w ‘your sister’; m ap jwenn ou ‘I’ll find you’ versus mwen wè w ‘I see you.’ We follow the general scriptural practice that alternates freely between the long and short forms, except after a word ending in a consonant where only ou is used, as in matant ou, In the presentation of the IPN alphabet below, we provide letters of the alphabet

followed by an indication of their pronunciation with the use of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols. Illustrative words contain the particular distinctive sound, and, where applicable, an English word containing a sound that is close to the pronunciation of the specific Creole sound. HC Spelling

IPA Symbol

HC Example

English Equivalent

Oral vowels a

/a/

afè, pat

pot

e

/e/

ede, pre

lake

è

/ε/

otèl, lanmè

let

ou

/u/

ouvè, chou

pool

o

/o/

ofri, dlo

broke

ò

/ɔ/

oktòb, lò

caught

i

/i/

imid, li

meet

an

/ã/

lank, ban

no equivalent

en

/ ɛ̃/

senk, chen

no equivalent

on

/ ɔ̃/

bonm, pon

no equivalent

y

/j/

youn, pye, nway

yet

w

/w/

wouj, nwa, kaw

with

u

/y/

uit

no equivalent

p

/p/

pou, apa

pit

b

/b/

bat, kabann

bite

f

/f/

fou, kafe

fake

v

/v/

vire, neve

vim

t

/t/

tou, watè

take

d

/d/

do, gonde

deck

s

/s/

sèv, panse

save

z

/z/

zouti, peze

zoo

k

/k/

kou, pakèt

cup

g

/g/

goumen, figi

gas

ch

/∫/

cho, achte

shape

j

/ʒ/

janm, aji

pleasure

m

/m/

moun, tomat

might

n

/n/

nèf, kadna

nap

ng

/ŋ/

lang

sing

l

/l/

lakay, salon

left

r

/ɣ/

rad, fatra

no equivalent

Nasal vowels

Semivowels

Consonants

GRAMMATICAL SKETCH The following description is intended only as a brief sketch of Creole grammar. It does not aim to provide an exhaustive treatment and it does not cover all grammatical features. Its purpose is to assist the reader in understanding the Creole translation of the illustrative examples provided in the dictionary. 1. Determiner Phrases 1.1. Determiners In general, determiners in Creole are placed after the noun or noun phrase that they modify. A notable exception to this pattern is found with the indefinite article. 1.1.1. Definite Determiners The definite determiner in Creole surfaces as the singular la (with variants lan, nan, a, and an) and the plural yo that is invariable. The basic singular variant la occurs after non-nasal consonants, lan or nan after nasal consonants, a after oral vowels, and an after nasal vowels. The variant lan also occurs after a nasal vowel followed by a non-nasal consonant, mont lan ‘the watch’. The variant an also occurs after i and ou preceded by a nasal consonant, pitimi an ‘the millet’, jenou an ‘the knee’. A semivowel, not reflected by the spelling, is inserted: 1) y, when a is preceded by words ending with the vowels i or e, fiya ‘the woman’, pyeya ‘the foot’, or when an is preceded by words ending in en, chenyan; 2) w, when a is preceded by ou or o, jouwa ‘the day’, dlowa ‘the water’. As mentioned above, the determiners follow the noun or nominal clause (underlined in the examples below) that they modify: Kote liv la ak kreyon an?

Where are the book and the pencil?

Ou bay chen yo manje?

Did you feed the dogs?

M pa te konprann sa ou te di a.

I didn’t follow what you said.

Li fè nou konnen li resevwa

He informed us that he received the

envitasyon nou voye ba li a.

invitation that we had sent him.

1.1.2. Indefinite Determiner The singular indefinite determiner is yon, which is generally pronounced on in normalspeech while it is conventionally represented in written materials as yon. We have maintained this convention throughout the dictionary. As in English, no article is used with the indefinite plural.

Yo fè yon bon valè travay.

They did a good amount of work.

Nou gen chat ak chen.

We have cats and dogs.

Older Creole texts show the use of la preceding the plural. In this case, yo functions as a purely plural marker rather than bearing both the semantic notions of plurality and definiteness: Se mesye la yo.

These gentlemen.

1.1.3. Demonstrative Determiner Creole has a single postposed demonstrative determiner: sa. It is always combined with the definite article forms a or yo, depending upon whether the noun to which it relates is singular or plural, respectively. There are no forms corresponding to the spacial distinction made in English between ‘this/these’ and ‘that/those.’ Rad sa yo tou nèf.

These/those clothes are brand new.

Bwè te sa a.

Drink this/that tea.

Wòb sa a sal.

That/this dress is dirty.

Another form, occurring infrequently, sila followed by a in the singular and yo in the plural, seems to vary freely with sa: Jaden sila a.

This garden.

Jaden sila yo.

These gardens.

To distinguish ‘near’ versus ‘remote’ effected in English with this versus that, one may use sa a for remote versus the use of bò or kote meaning ‘place’ and sila a: Pye bwa sa a.

This/that tree.

Pye bwa bò sila a.

This tree.

1.2. Adjectives Except for a few common exceptions, for example bèl ‘beautiful’, bon ‘good’, gran ‘great’, gwo ‘big’, and ti ‘small’, adjectives generally follow the noun they modify: Li jwenn yon ti djòb dous.

S/he’s found a cushy job.

Pase yon twal mouye sou li.

Wipe it with a damp cloth.

Se yon bon chofè.

S/he’s a good driver.

2. Personal Pronouns The same personal pronouns function as subject and object of verbs and as object of prepositions. As pointed out in the Orthography and Pronunciation section above, pronouns have short variants that are frequently used: mwen/m (I, me, my), ou/w (singular you, your); li/l (he, she, it, him, her, his, its); nou/n (we, us, plural you and your, our); yo/y (they, them, their). Note especially that nou/n refers to both the first and the second person plural, and in some cases to the first person singular. Y ap kouri fè laviwonn kay la.

They’re running around the house.

Nou bay tou sa n te genyen.

We gave all we had.

Ki kote nou prale?

Where are you (all) going?

Mwen t ap pale ak li.

I was speaking with her.

W a rete isit avè m?

Will you stay here with me?

Ki sa w ap manje?

What are you eating?

Ki jan ou ye? —Nou la.

How are you? —I’m okay.

The long form of personal pronouns is used obligatorily after a consonant: Ou te pou kont ou avèk li, enpi

You were alone with her/him, and

ou pa pale avè l?

you didn’t talk to her/him?

Note that in the third person singular there is no distinction between masculine, feminine, or neuter. Li/l is equivalent to ‘she/her/hers’, ‘he/him/his’, and ‘it/its’. In the illustrative examples of this dictionary, we translate the 3rd person pronoun, both singular and plural, with one of its English equivalents, sometimes depending on the context sometimes to alternate the English equivalents. Similarly, we translate nou/n sometimes by ‘we’ and sometimes by ‘you’, its usual English equivalents, or in much less frequent cases, by ‘I’. 3. Expressing Possession The equivalent of English possessive adjectives in Creole is the use of the personal pronouns following the noun. If the preceding noun ends in a consonant, the full form is used. If the preceding noun ends in a vowel, either form is used. The full form yo is used after consonants and after vowels. chat mwen

my cat

papa m/mwen

my father

pitit li

her/his child

sè li/l

her/his sister

matant yo

their aunt

neve yo

their nephew

The pronouns used as possessives can combine with the definite article, providing for a greater specificity on the part of the modified noun. Compare the contrastive pair of sentences below: Kote manje mwen?

Where’s my food?

Kote manje mwen an?

Where’s that food of mine?

In the second example, the use of the definite article an indicates that the food had already been given to the individual, but that, not finding it, (s)he wonders what happened to it. Although we are trying to provide translations that are as close as possible to the Creole meaning, such subtle nuances are lost in translation. The definite determiner is often used with kinship terms. Note that, as indicated in Section 1.1.1. above, the determiner variant used depends on the last sound of the segment that precedes it. Kote pitit mwen an?

Where is my child?

Men frè m nan.

Here’s my brother.

4. Verbal System Unlike English or French, verbal forms in Creole are generally invariable. Creole has a number of pre-verbal particles, termed verbal markers, which serve to indicate distinctions of tense, mood, and aspect. In addition, the meaning of a contextualized verb is strongly tied to the semantic properties inherent to the verb itself: whether it is a verb denoting an action (active verb), for example ‘to clean’ or whether it is one that expresses a state (stative verb), for example, ‘to seem’, ‘to like’, or ‘to know.’ The base form of a stative verb generally refers to the present with universal or habitual extension: Ou konn kote l rete?

Do you know where she lives?

M pa renmen pwason.

I don’t like fish.



The base form of an active verb usually refers to a relatively recent past: Li monte sou yon nechèl.

He climbed a ladder.

Li fè li san m pa konnen.

Sh did it without my knowledge.

Adverbials expressing time, underlined in the examples below, help to determine the tense of active verbs, the past in the first example, the habitual present in the second: Mèt la rive an reta maten an.

The teacher arrived late this morning.

Li manje de fwa chak jou.

She eats twice each day.

4.1. Verbal markers In the case of the various pre-verbal markers discussed below, we offer a short, general characterization which we illustrate with a set of representative examples. 4.1.1. ap/ape/pe, event in process or immediate/definite future: Dwèt li ap senyen.

Her finger is bleeding.

Li toujou ap pase moun lòd.

He’s always bossing people around.

M ap mennen ou tounen.

I’ll bring you back.

The marker ap/ape/pe combines with the verb base ale ‘to go’ to form the combina-tions pral that carries the meaning of an action or an event about to take place: Sa ou pral fè avè l?

What are you going to do with it ?

M pa pral mande l lajan.

I’m not going to ask her for any money.

4.1.2. a/va/ava, prospective/indefinite future: Pa manje l, w a malad.

Don’t eat it. You’ll get sick.

Nou va viv ak li ajamè.

We will live with her forever.

M ava vini wè ou yon jou.

I will come to see you one day.

4.1.3. te is used obligatorily with stative verbs to indicate past tense: Vyann nan te gen anpil grès.

The meat had alot of fat.

It is used with active verbs to emphasize past tense: Nou bezwen achte pen.

We need to buy bread.

— Jan te achte pen deja.

—John already bought bread.

It may also indicate that a past event preceded another, and it is then equivalent to the English pluperfect: M te deja rive lakay mwen lè li

I had already arrived home when she

rele m nan.

called me.

4.2 Verbal Marker Combinations 4.2.1. t ap, past progressive: Fa a t ap mouri limen.

The lighthouse beacon was blinking.

M te panse li t ap tonbe.

I thought he was going to fall.

4.2.2. ta, anterior marker te plus the indefinite future marker variant a, is equivalent to the conditional: Ki laj ou ta ba li?

What age would you give her ?

Si chemiz la te sal, yo ta lave l.

If the shirt was dirty, they’d wash it.

4.2.3. t av ap Three marker combinations are used in complex sentences to describe future events occurring or assumed to occur at some point following another future event: Si m te pati yè, m t av ap dòmi

If I had left yesterday, I would be

nan kabann mwen kounye a.

sleeping in my own bed by now.

4.3 Aspectual and Modal Verbs These verbs express various modal and aspectual distinctions. Aspectual verbs describe the characteristics of the process: whether it is starting, continuing, or ending. Modal verbs most often express the attitude of the speaker towards the statement: desire, demand, and suggestion. 4.3.1. Aspectual Verbs a. fèk, fenk, fin, immediate past actions:

M fèk leve anba yon grip la a.

I just got over the flu.

M te fenk al kouche lè l rele a.

I’d just gone to be when she called.

M fin manje.

I just finished eating.

b. konn, habitual action: M konn leve nan zòn sizè.

I usually get up around six a.m.

Li pa konn fè lapli lematen.

It doesn’t usually rain in the morning.

c. pran, tonbe, to begin to: Li pran kriye.

She began to cry.

Yo tonbe kodase.

They began to cackle.

d. vin, to come: Tifi a vin renmen l.

The young girl came to love him.

4.3.2. Modal Verbs a. mèt, permission: Ou mèt chita.

You may sit down.

b. ka/kab/kapab, capability: Li ka kondi machin sa a.

She can drive this car.

Li pa kab fè l.

He can’t do it.

c. dwe, fò/fòk, obligation: Fòk ou al rann tèt ou lapolis.

You should go to the police and give yourself up.

Fò m jwenn verite a.

I have to get at the truth.

Ou dwe travay.

You must work.

d. vle, volition: Pou ki sa ou pa vle fè l?

Why don’t you want to do it?

e. pito, suggestion: Pito ou chwazi yon lòt otèl.

You’d better choose another hotel.

f. pinga, warning: Pinga ou al pale sa!

Don’t you go and say that!

4.4. Serial Verbs Creole features the use of a sequence of verbs of which the total meaning is idiomatic; that is, it is not the sum of the meaning of the constituent verbs. These combinations are called serial verbs. The meaning of Li voye rad sa yo jete is not ‘She sent and threw these clothes’ but rather ‘She threw these clothes away’. The second verb functions, as it were, as an adverb. Serial verbs fall into two main groups: 4.4.1. Combinations with verbs of motion where the verb of motion imparts a relatively fixed meaning. In these examples ale ‘to go’ has the meaning of the adverb ‘over’: Li janbe ale Fisi.

He crossed over to Furcy.

Ti Djo kouri ale lakay li.

Ti Djo ran over to his house.

4.4.2. Idiomatic combinations, where the total meaning of the combination cannot be predicted at all from that of the constituents: Pa voye liv mwen an jete.

Don’t throw away my book.

Pa vire tounen tout lide sa yo nan

Don’t keep turning all these thoughts

tèt ou.

over in your mind.

The verb bay/ban/ba ‘to give’ began as a serial verb but today it functions as the equivalent of the preposition ‘to’. On the other hand, pote vini is a serial verb: Pote liv la vini ban mwen.

Bring the book (back) to me.

4.5. Copula (linking verb) The use of a copula equivalent to the English ‘to be’ is not obligatory in Creole. Predicated elements such as adjectives or expressions of place and time are connected directly to the subject: Li gwo.

It’s big.

Li nan fatra a.

It’s in the trash.

Bis la an reta.

The bus is late.

Li ta.

It’s late.

The fact that there is a sort of “ghost” linking element is shown by the fact that verb markers may occur with these constructions: Ti gason an te pè.

The boy was afraid.

L a malad.

She will be sick.

When copula sentences differ from the normal declarative order, such as is the case with questions or emphatic constructions, the element ye normally appears in final position: Nan ki pati politik ou ye?

To which political party do you belong ?

Pou byen di ou, m pa konn kote l ye.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know where she is.

The element se is generally used when the predicate is a noun: Li se yon bòs.

He’s an artisan.

Nou se Ayisyen.

We’re Haitians.

Finally, se also functions as a sentence introducer and it is often used in emphatic sentences. In this latter case, it is accompanied by ye: Se yon bagay fasil.

It’s an easy thing.

Se yon timoun li ye.

She’s just a child.

4.6. Imperative In imperative sentences no second person pronoun is used. For the first person plural commands the imperative marker annou/ann is used: Chita isit.

Sit here.

Annou sòti aswè a.

Let’s go out tonight.

Ann pale kreyòl.

Let’s speak Creole.

5. Negative Sentences In negative sentences the particle pa is placed before the predicate: M pa nan foto sa a.

I’m not in this picture.

Pa met twòp sèl ladan.

Don’t put too much salt in it.

Ou pa te ale lekòl jodi a.

You didn’t go to school today.

A common exception to this ordering occurs in sentences with se, in which case pa follows se: Sa m te di a se pa pou ou.

What I said doesn’t involve you.

6. Interrogatives Yes-no questions are formed by only changing the intonation from falling to rising: Ou rele m?

Did you call me?

Ou ka ban m yon woulib?

Could you give me a lift?

M mèt antre?

May I come in?

Information questions are generally formed with the placement of interrogative adverbs or pronouns at the beginning of the sentence. Most of these consist of the particle ki followed by a noun bearing the particular meaning: time ki lè ‘when’, place (ki) kote, ki bò ‘where’, manner ki jan ‘how’, person ki moun ‘who, whom’. Other interrogative pronouns are (ki) sa ‘what’, kilès ‘which (one)’, ki ‘which’; interrogative adverbs are kouman ‘how’, konben ‘how much’, and poukisa, ‘why’: Ki moun ki ouvè baryè a?

Who opened the gate?

Ki lè yo marye?

When did they get married?

Ki jan ou degaje ou nan egzamen an?

How did you do on the exam?

A ki lè match la?

What time is the soccer match?

Kilès ladan yo ou pito?

Which one among these do you prefer?

Ki ekip ki devan?

Which team is leading?

Kote plim nan ye?

Where is the pen?

Sa ou genyen?

What’s the matter with you?

Ak ki sa ou limen dife a?

What did you light the fire with?

Konben tan batri sa a ka fè?

How long will the battery last?

Pou ki sa tout babye sa a?

What’s all this grumbling about?

7. Comparison of Adjectives The comparative of equality is expressed by placing tankou or kou between the two elements being compared: Li lejè tankou pay.

It’s as light as a feather.

Li blanch kou koton.

He’s as white a a sheet.

To express a comparison of inequality, pi ‘more’ or mwen ‘less’ is placed before the adjective. When two elements for comparison are included in a sentence, pase introduces the second element: Sa a pi enteresan lontan.

This is a lot more interesting.

Fim sa a pi enteresan pase lòt la.

This movie is more interesting than the Other one.

Li mwen difisil pase jan m te kwè a.

It was less difficult than I thought it would be.

8. Coordination and Subordination In Creole the conjunction ak is used to coordinate two nouns: Wobè ak Mari ale lavil.

Robert and Mary went to town.

Two sentences or phrases are coordinated without any conjunction or with the conjunctions epi/enpi or e ‘and’ and men ‘but’: Vantilatè a rete, m pa konn sa l genyen.

The fan stopped, and I don’t know what’s wrong with it.

Medikaman an efikas epi l aji vit.

The medecine is effective and it acts quickly.

Li bèl e li gen bon jan.

She’s beautiful and she’s easygoing.

Wòch la lou men m kapab leve l.

The stone is heavy but I can lift it.

In complex sentences involving the modification of the main clause by a subordinate one, as is the case in English, the use of a conjunction is optional. The use of the conjunction ke is associated with the Frenchified variety of bilingual speakers: Ou ta di m (ke) ou ap vini.

You could have told me (that) you were coming.

Se lèt (ke) li voye ban mwen yo.

These are the letters (that) she sent me.

There is a variety of conjunctions with semantic content, for example, paske ‘because’, lè ‘when’, etan ‘while, at the same time’: Etan m ap sòti, li vin rive.

At the sam time I was leaving, he arrived.

Eskize li paske l pa ka vini.

Excuse her because she can’t come.

In relative clauses ki/k is used when the relativized element is the subject. That element is underlined in the examples below: Moun ki fè byen pral nan paradi.

People who do good deeds go to heaven.

Se li k bay kòb pou antèman an.

She’s the one who provided the money for the funeral.

When the relativized element is an object, a relative pronoun (ke) is generally used only in Frenchified Creole: Yo montre n kay (ke) yo achte a.

They showed us the house (that) they bought.

Kote mayi (ke) yo achte a?

Where is the corn (that) they bought?

9. Means for Expressing Emphasis An element in Creole may be emphasized by moving it to the front of a sentence. In most cases, the fronted element will be introduced by se. The emphasized element in the examples below are underlined: Ou fè m yon move bagay.

You did a bad thing to me.

Se yon move bagay ou fè m lan.

It was a bad thing you did to me.

Y ap rive aswè a.

They’ll arrive tonight.

Se aswè a y ap rive.

It’s tonight that they’ll arrive.

In cases of predicates introduced by the copula se, the copula is replaced by the form ye. The se that occurs before the fronted emphasized element is the introducer, not the copula: Mwen se doktè.

I’m a doctor.

Se doktè mwen ye.

I am a doctor.

In the case of predicates containing adverbs or adverbial expressions that, as was pointed out above, do not require a copula, ye is also added at the end: Kay la sou bò lekòl la.

The house is locate next to the school.

Se sou bò lekòl la kay la ye.

It’s next to the school that the house is located.

When a verb or an adjective is emphasized, the verb is duplicated and the copy fronted. Note that verbal markers and/or personal pronouns are not duplicated; they remain attached to the original verb or adjective. An introducer, generally se, precedes the copy. In the examples below, the element emphasized is underlined and the fronted copy appears in bold face: Ala bèl li bèl!

How beautiful she is!

Se pa bezwen li pa bezwen l.

It’s not really the case that he doesn’t need it (i.e., he really needs it).



Compare this construction to the non-emphatic versions corresponding to the third example above: L ap travay.

She’s working.

Li travay chak dimanch.

She works every Sunday.

Another emphatic construction involves adding a quantifier and the negative marker pa to the nominal equivalent of the verb. Strictly speaking, this is not a case of duplication but rather one of addition, in fronted position, of the matching noun. This makes possible the use of a quantifier: Se pa de manje yo manje.

They really ate a lot (literally : It’s not (only) two eats that they ate).

The same construction may be used with adjectives: Se pa de bèl li bèl.

She’s really beautiful (literally: it’s not only two beauties that she is).

NUMBERS IN CREOLE Numbers in Creole present a certain degree of variability, depending upon the context in which they occur. In the chart below, the first column shows the numbers from 1 to 20 as they are pronounced (and written) when counting and in isolation. The second column provides the numbers acting as modifiers, and the third column presents their special forms before an ‘year’ and è ‘hour, o’clock.’ The special consonant that appears before these two words is indicated in bold face. The numbers 5, 7 and 8 show no variation regardless of context. This is also the case for the numbers from 11 to 18. Note that in the third column, the numbers whose form differs from that of the form used in counting are appended to the noun they modify, whereas those whose form is identical to the counting form are written separately. This convention is adopted in the representation of numbers in the dictionary. Counting

Number as a modifier

Modifier before an and è

1

en

yon ane

‘1 year’

ennan, inè

2

de

de timoun

‘2 children’

dezan, dezè

3

twa

twa fi

‘3 women’

twazan

4

kat

kat gason

‘4 men’

katrè

5

senk

senk chat

‘5 cats’

senk an

6

sis

sis chen

‘6 dogs’

sizè

7

sèt

sèt asyèt

‘7 plates’

sèt è

8

uit

uit vè

‘8 glasses’

uit an

9

nèf

nèf kay

‘9 houses’

nèvan

10

dis

dis poul

‘10 hens’

dizè

11

onz

onz bèf

‘11 oxen’

onz è

12

douz

douz wòb

‘12 dresses’

douz an

13

trèz

trèz chemiz

‘13 shirts’

trèz an

14

katòz

katòz jou

‘14 days’

katòz an

15

kenz

kenz mwa

‘15 months’

kenz an

16

sèz

sèz semenn

‘16 weeks’

sèz an

17

disèt

disèt kouzen

‘17 cousins’

disèt an

18

dizuit

dizuit matant

‘18 aunts’

dizuit an

19

diznèf

diznèf liv

‘19 books’

diznèvan

20

ven

ven kreyon

‘20 pencils’

ventan

The numbers from 21 to 99 are listed below. The numbers from 21 to 69 and

80 to 89 are formed according to the same basic pattern as that found in English, namely by the addition of the numbers from 1 to 9 to that of the form for the two digits, 20, 30, etc. However, there is some internal variation within each multiple of ten. The final consonant t is used for 21/31, 28/38 and 29/39. The forms for the other numbers contain a final n instead. The numerical system of Creole is inherited in large part from that of French, which partly features 20 as a base. Thus, 80 is four times 20: French quatre-vingts, Creole katreven. Note that this system is residual in English: We bought three score boxes (60). He has reached three score and ten years of age (70 years). In Creole, the forms of the numbers for the seventies and nineties follow the French pattern of combining the forms for 10 through 19 with those for 60 and 80. Finally, note that the forms for the eighties do not show the internal variation that was seen in those for the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties. For that reason they are represented as two words. 20

ven

30

trant

40

karant

21

venteyen

31

tranteyen

41

karanteyen

22

vennde

32

trannde

42

karannde

23

venntwa

33

tranntwa

43

karanntwa

24

vennkat

34

trannkat

44

karannkat

25

vennsenk

35

trannsenk

45

karannsenk

26

vennsis

36

trannsis

46

karannsis

27

vennsèt

37

trannsèt

47

karannsèt

28

ventuit

38

trant uit

48

karant uit

29

ventnèf

39

trant nèf

49

karant nèf

50

senkant

60

swasant

70

swasanndis

51

senkanteyen

61

swasanteyen

71

swasannonz

52

senkannde

62

swasannde

72

swasanndouz

53