#3922: Regional differences in Creole (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:Racine125@aol.com

<< My Haitian sister tells me quite emphatically that in the Nord the people 
speak "Kreyol", while down around PauP they speak "Kreyol-Fransey". >>

There are of course regional differences in Creole, just as people from New 
England speak English a bit differently than people from Alabama.

There is particularly one little endearing peculiarity I love in the Creole 
of southern Haiti, namely the tendency to turn the "ay" sound into "aj", thus:

M pral Okay ak tout bagay mwen  --------> M pral Okaj ak tout bagaj mwen.

Of course we all know that Cap Haitian Creole is different, too - I was 
surprised, really, just how different!  When I went to Cap Haitian the first 
time I could scarcely understand what people were saying to me! 

Manje pam --------->  manjam
Sa ki pou mwen ------->  Sa ki nam
Pa ou  --------->  Ki na ou
etc.

And remember "koke", as in "koke rad sa pou mwen", hang up this piece of 
clothing for me?  In Cap Haitien, you have to say "pann" instead of "koke", 
because in that Creole it is men and women who get "koke" together.  :-)

Artibonite Creole seems to me the least "Frenchified" of "standard" (i.e. 
non-Capois) Creole, and the most likely to employ proverbs and idiomatic 
expressions.  And in the Artibonite, "rara", as in the rara festival, is 
often pronounced "lara", although I have no idea why.

Any more examples?

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra", 
     Good is rare - Haitian Proverb

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