Haitian Creole/Etymology

Most of the lexicon in Haitian Creole is derived from French. Here are some patterns involving the pronunciation of the words borrowed into Haitian Creole.

Phonetic spelling

The standard orthography of Haitian Creole is phonetic, more so than French.

French	Haitian Creole	English
activité	aktivite	activity
alcool	alkòl	alcohol
Océanie	Oseyani	Oceania

Unrounding of front rounded vowels

/y/, /ø/, /œ̃/ and /œ/ are unrounded to /i/, /e/, /ɛ̃/ and /ɛ/, respectively. /ə/ also becomes /e/ because it sounds similar to /ø/.

French	Haitian Creole	English
États-Unis	Etazini	United States
cheveux	cheve	hair
seul	sèl	alone, only

Loss of r in the coda

When r is in the coda position (i.e. end) of a syllable, it is dropped.

French	Haitian Creole	English
merci	mèsi	thank you
recherche	rechèch	research
noir	nwa	black

Simplification of consonant clusters

French	Haitian Creole	English
question	kesyon	question
croix	kwa	cross n.

Tendency for verbs to end in e

There is a tendency for verbs to end in e. This might be because they are derived from the vous form of the present tense, or because the largest group of verb infinitives in French end in /e/.

French	Haitian Creole	English
mettre (mettez)	mete	put
vouloir (voulez)	vle	want
entendre (entendez)	tande	hear

Tendency for verbs to drop their first syllables

There is a tendency for verbs to drop their first syllables.

French	Haitian Creole	English
entendre	tande	hear
attendre	tann	wait
écouter	koute	listen to

Confusion between close-mid, open-mid and nasal vowels

/e/, /ɛ/ and /ɛ̃/ are sometimes substituted for one another. Likewise with /o/, /ɔ/ and /õ/.

French	Haitian Creole	English
docteur	doktè	doctor
fermer	fèmen	close
connaît	konnen	know

Merger of /a/ and /ɑ/

All instances of /ɑ/ in French are pronounced /a/.

French	Haitian Creole	English
mâcher	mache	chew
pas	pa	not