Kreyol

kreyol: one of haiti’s two major languages, the other being french.

it is a language that has a mixture of french, english, spanish, taino, and west african languages.

it is officially known as haitian creole but many haitians will refer to it as kreyol or (less commonly) kreyol ayisyien.

it is not a vulgar or “ghetto” form of french. kreyol has its own alphabet and its own grammatical system. over 7 million people speak it, making it the most spoken creole language in the world.

it is a common misconception that people who speak french can understand kreyol. in fact most french-speaking people cannot understand kreyol but many kreyol-speaking people can understand french, even if they cannot speak it.
haitian: “i was born in haiti.”
american: “what language is spoken there?”
haitian: “kreyol”.
haitian creole. a vulgar language with french origins.

kreyol is often and incorrectly thought to be a mere dialect of french, but it is a language in its own right, springing from african tongues under french slavery and occupation. it is both spoken and written and had a distinct phonetical and grammatical system.

while kreyol may not be the ‘official’ language of haiti, it is spoken by the vast majority of haitians (roughly 8 million) and all of haiti’s large illiterate population.
if you go to haiti and speak french, some people will understand you, but if you want to get around, you’d better just learn kreyol.