Dominican Creole French
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2014) |
| Dominican Creole | |
|---|---|
| kwéyòl, patwa | |
| Native to | Dominica |
Native speakers | (43,000 cited 1998)[1] |
French Creole
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAC-ccg |
Dominican Creole French is a French-based creole, which is the generally spoken language in Dominica.[2] It can be considered a distinct dialect of Antillean Creole.
History
It is a sub-variety of Antillean Creole, which is spoken in other islands of the Lesser Antilles and is very closely related to the varieties spoken in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Grenada and parts of Trinidad and Tobago. The intelligibility rate with speakers of other varieties of Antillean Creole is almost 100%. Its syntactic, grammatical and lexical features are virtually identical to that of Martinican Creole, though, like its Saint Lucian counterpart, it includes more English loanwords than the Martinican variety. People who speak Haitian Creole can also understand Dominican Creole French, even though there are a number of distinctive features; they are mutually intelligible.
Like the other French-based creole languages in the Caribbean, Dominican French Creole is primarily French-derived vocabulary, with African and Carib influences to its syntax.[citation needed] In addition, many expressions reflect the presence of an English Creole and Spanish influences are also very much present in the language.[citation needed]
In 1635, the French seized Guadeloupe and Martinique and began establishing sugar colonies. Dominica, for its part, had not been colonized because all attempts to colonize it had failed. Before 1690, lumberjacks (English and French) had traveled to Dominica for its forest resources. Subsequently, French from Martinique and Guadeloupe and their slaves settled in Dominica by establishing small farms of coffee, cotton, wood, and tobacco. Creole thus develops among the slaves, Dominican Creole thus comes from the mixture of the Creoles from Guadeloupe and Martinique, and then it is enriched further with Amerindian and English words. From now on, the Creole would stay until the present. Despite the future transfer of the island to the English and the addition of English words, the Creole remains strongly French in Dominica and despite what is said, is his place in the center of the Dominicans culture. The underdevelopment of the road system in Dominica hindered for a long time the development of English, the official language of the country, in isolated villages, where Creole remained the only spoken language.[3]
Kwéyòl pronouns
| English | Créole | Remarks |
| I | Man, Mwen, An | The three forms are perfectly synonymous |
| you(singular) | Ou/Vou | |
| He/She | I | Creole has a neutral pronoun that can be synonymous with him or her. |
| He | Misyé | Example: Misyé pa djè ni tan (he hardly has much time). |
| She (Unmarried Girl) | Manmzèl | Example: Manmzèl pa djè enmen jwé (she does not like playing much). |
| We | Nou | |
| You(plurial) | Zòt, Zò | This is not a "you" of familiarity. Zò is used in Guadeloupe |
| They | Yo | Example: Yo ka Jwé (they play). |
Kwéyòl alphabet
| Créole | IPA
Transcription
|
Standard pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| g | g | hard G like in Garage |
| h | h | use like in Ham |
| i | i | Pronounced like "ee" as in see |
| j | ʒ | Pronounced as french J. |
| k | k | Replaces hard "C", "Qu". K as in Kick |
| w | w | W replaces R in some words derived from French, but in Creole, they are two different letters. |
| s | s | Replaces the soft "C" and pronounced like "S" in Soft |
| y | j | pronounced like "Yuh" as in Yuck |
| z | z | Replaces "S" when used between vowels, and pronounced as in Zebra |
| an | ɑ̃ | nasalized sound used in French. Does not exist in English |
| àn | an | Pronounced as a not nasalized sound with an emphasis on the "N" "ane" in English |
| ann | ɑ̃n | an nasalised French "an" with long "n" sound "Pronounced like "anne". |
| anm | ɑ̃m | an nasalised French "an" with long "m" sound "Pronounced like "ahmm".[4] |
| ay | aj | Pronounced as "eye" in English |
| in | in | Never nasalised. |
| en | ɛ̃ | Always nasalised |
| enn | Pronounced as in Garden | |
| on | ɔ̃ | Sound does not exist in English. It is a nasal on as used in French. |
| onm | ɔ̃m | Nasal sound + M. |
| onn | ɔ̃n | Nasal sound + N. |
| ch | ʃ | Pronounced as "Sh" in English |
| a | pronounced as a short a as in Cat | |
| b | Pronounced as B en English | |
| f | Pronounced as F in English | |
| d | Pronounced as D in English Like Dog | |
| m | Pronounced as M in English Like Man. | |
| n | Pronounced as N in English Like Never | |
| Ò | Pronounced as "Or" as in More | |
| R | Often replaced by W in beginnings of words, but pronounced as Racquet | |
| P | Pronounced as in Pea | |
| T | Pronounced as in Tea | |
| V | Pronounced as in Volcano | |
| W | Pronounced as in Water |
Articles
Definite articles comes after the noun in Creole, unlike in French where they always precede the noun. "La" follows nouns that end with a consonant or "y". When a noun ends with a vowel, it is followed by "a" only.
| Nonm-la | The Man |
| Fanm-la | The Woman |
| Payay-la | the Papaya |
| Lawi-a | The Street |
| Zaboka-a | The Avocado |
Numbers
Cardinal
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1 000 000 = yon milyon | 1 000 000 000 = yon milya |
1 234 = yon mil + dé san + twantkat
30 153 = twant mil + san + senkantwa
412 489 = (kat san douz) mil + kat san + katwèvennèf
12 356 734 = (douz) milyon + (twa san+senkantsis) mil + sèt san+twantkat
Ordinal
1st = pwémyè
2nd = dézyènm
3rd = twazyènm
4th = katriyènm
5th = senkyènm
6th = sizyènm (Notice the second "s" in "sis" is pronounced as a "z")
7th = sètyènm
8th = wityènm
9th = nèvyènm (Notice the "f" in "nèf" is pronounced as a "v")
All the other numbers are formed like this: Number + [yènm]
See also
- Antillean Creole
- Grenadian Creole French
- Saint Lucian Creole French
- Haitian Creole
- World Creole Music Festival
References
- ^ Saint Lucian Creole French (Dominica) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "The Creole Language of Dominica". Retrieved 31 March 2014.
- ^ Lennox., Honychurch (1995). The Dominica story : a history of the island. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333627768. OCLC 60126665.
- ^ Fountaine, Djamala. Dominica's Diksyonnè.
