Haitian

Haitian Creole (Haitian Creole: kreyòl ayisyen, [kɣejɔl ajisjɛ̃]), or simply Creole (kreyòl), is a French-based creole language. It is spoken by over 13 million people worldwide, primarily Haitian citizens and the Haitian diaspora. It is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. It is also the most widely spoken creole language in the world.

The three main dialects of Haitian Creole are the Northern, Central, and Southern dialects; the Northern dialect is predominantly spoken in Cap-Haïtien, the Central in Port-au-Prince, and the Southern in Les Cayes.

The language emerged from contact between French settlers and enslaved Africans during the Atlantic slave trade in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although its vocabulary largely derives from 17th- and 18th-century French, its grammar reflects a blend of West African languages (particularly Fongbe and Igbo), regional French dialects (such as Norman and Gallo), and internal creole innovations. It also has influences from Spanish, English, Portuguese and Taíno. It is not mutually intelligible with standard French. Some estimate that Haitians are the largest community in the world to speak a modern creole language; others estimate that more people speak Nigerian Pidgin.

From Wikipedia · Haitian Creole · CC BY-SA 4.0