Is the language of Haiti similar to English?

yes! (probably more than you think)

In this post I want to bring attention to something that is great news for English speakers that want to learn Haitian Creole.

MANY creole words are ALMOST the same as English! How? If you didn’t already know, Haitian Creole derives from French. (Later in a future post I’m going to talk a little more about the history of this. So if you haven’t subscribed already to this blog, do that real quick.) Therefore, a LARGE percentage of Creole vocabulary is pronounced almost exactly the same as French, except with a Haitian accent 🙂

So what does this have to do with English?

Well if you do etymology research on English vocabulary you will see that at least 30% of English vocab consist of borrowed words from French. I bet If you looked at a list of English words taken from French you would be very surprised! So heres the deal. If the Haitians took words from French… and the English took words from French … Then it’s only Logical that at least some of those words would have been the same words, right? Well that’s EXACTLY what happened! And it just so happens that the English and the Haitians borrowed A LOT of the same words! Of course over time and generations the pronunciations have changed slightly but they are still recognizable!

This word is my favorite example of that:

Trust me, it’s not just a few related words, there are many! Below I’m going to list just a portion of the related words that I have found in my studies. This is by no means all the coinciding A/B/C words, just a few of each. Check them out!

English-Creole:

A

abandon – abandone

absent – absan

absolute – absoli

Accent – Aksan

accessible – aksesib

Adjust – Ajiste

adolescence – adolesans

adopt – adopte

adoption – adopsyon

advance – avanse

approach – apwòch

approve – apwouve

artist – atis

assurance – asirans

attack – atake

attitude – atitid

authorization – otorizasyon

authority – otorite

_________________

B

benefit – benefisye

bikini – bikini

biscuit – biskit

block – bloke

blonde – blond

blue – ble

_______________

C

*(remember there is no letter C in the language of “Kreyòl”. As you know, the letter C in English always sounds like the letters S or K. Therefore, in Creole you will see either an “S” or “K” in the place where you may believe a “C” belongs)

coincide – kowenside

coincidence – konyensidans

colleague – kolèg

collect – kolekte

college – kolèj

color – koulè

combine – konbine

comedy – komedyen

common – komen

compare – konpare

complement – konpleman

complex – konplèks

compose – konpoze

concept – konsèp

concision – konsizyon

conclusion – konklizyon

It has been pointed out to me many times by my friends that I have an unhealthy obsession with languages. Although this is probably true -__- what I’m hoping is that I can continue to find little interesting parts of languages ( like what I’ve shared here) and hopefully it encourages people to learn a beautiful language like this one 🙂

-Zakari