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. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishactivitéaktiviteactivityalcoolalkòlalcoholOcéanieOseyaniOceania 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/. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishÉtats-UnisEtaziniUnited Statescheveuxchevehairseulsèlalone, only Loss of r in the coda When r is in the coda position (i.e. end) of a syllable, it is dropped. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishmercimèsithank yourechercherechèchresearchnoirnwablack Simplification of consonant clusters FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishquestionkesyonquestioncroixkwacross 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/. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishmettre (mettez)meteputvouloir (voulez)vlewantentendre (entendez)tandehear Tendency for verbs to drop their first syllables There is a tendency for verbs to drop their first syllables. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishentendretandehearattendretannwaitécouterkoutelisten 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/. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishdocteurdoktèdoctorfermerfèmencloseconnaîtkonnenknow Merger of /a/ and /ɑ/ All instances of /ɑ/ in French are pronounced /a/. FrenchHaitian CreoleEnglishmâchermachechewpaspanot