Kreyòl ayisyen is the first language of almost everyone born in Haiti. For most of the country's history, though, school, law and print belonged to French, a language only a minority spoke well. Kreyòl became an official language only in 1987. In church the two still sit side by side, and knowing which one belongs where is the most useful thing on this page.
Captions, yes. Preaching from the stage and a voice in the ear, no. Better to know that now than on a Sunday.
No. A speaker cannot preach in Haitian Creole and have the room follow. The talk comes from the stage in one of the spoken languages, and Haitian Creole is one of the languages it arrives in.
No. Haitian Creole is a text language here. Your guest follows the talk on their phone screen rather than in an earbud, while the room carries on in its own language.
Yes. The whole talk in Kreyòl, on a phone or on the big screen, written in the standard spelling Haitians learn at school.
Several pages in this section show real sentences from our own system. We publish sample lines only after a native speaker has read them, and for Haitian Creole that has not happened yet. If you read Haitian Creole, we would welcome your help.
Kreyòl grew up on the colonial plantations, where enslaved people brought from many parts of West and Central Africa built a shared language from French words and a grammar of their own. When Haiti won its independence in 1804, Kreyòl was the language of the new nation. For a long time it was not the language of its paperwork.
For generations, French was the language of school, government and respectability, and Kreyòl was what everyone actually spoke at home, at the market and in the yard. A standard spelling was settled only in the late twentieth century, and the 1987 constitution made Kreyòl an official language alongside French.
That history is still alive in how people feel about the two languages. For one listener, Kreyòl is warmth and truth. For another, French is the language of seriousness, and of church. Neither of them is wrong.
Most Kreyòl words come from French, which leads people to treat it as a dialect. It is a language in its own right, and that matters for a translation.
Kreyòl does not change its verbs the way French does. Small words placed before the verb carry the time: mwen manje, mwen te manje, m ap manje. A translation that copies French grammar sounds foreign to a Kreyòl ear.
A French speaker can follow some Kreyòl, and a Kreyòl speaker some French. Neither is the other. Offering French to a guest who asked for Kreyòl is offering them a different language.
Kreyòl speech is full of proverbs, and preachers use them. Dèyè mòn gen mòn: behind the mountains, more mountains. A sermon that lands in Kreyòl often lands on a proverb.
Many Haitian churches preach in Kreyòl and still sing many of their hymns in French. Older members may have learned to read in French and pray in Kreyòl. Young people raised in Miami, Montreal or Paris may read English or French more easily than Kreyòl.
So the question of which language has no automatic answer for a Haitian guest. Put both on the list and let each person choose. If your pass has room for two languages, running French and Kreyòl side by side needs no extra setup.
Ask a Haitian Protestant about church music and the answer will very likely be Chants d'Espérance, the much loved hymn book that has shaped Haitian worship for generations. It holds hymns in French and in Kreyòl, and many congregations know long stretches of it by heart.
The Bible reached Kreyòl later than French, and for a long time Haitian Christians read Scripture in French and talked about it in Kreyòl. A complete Kreyòl Bible is now widely read, and it gave church vocabulary a settled written form: Bondye for God, Lespri Sen for the Holy Spirit.
In practice, a Haitian guest may recognise a Bible verse in French and understand the explanation of it better in Kreyòl. Kreyòl captions follow the explanation, which is usually what people want.
Haitian churches are among the most visible signs of the diaspora, and many of them share a building with a host congregation.
Large Haitian communities live in Florida, New York and Massachusetts, and in Montreal, where Kreyòl sits next to French in daily life.
In France, in the French Caribbean and in French Guiana, Haitian congregations often meet alongside French speaking churches, which makes the French or Kreyòl question very practical.
The earthquake of January 2010 sent many families abroad, and many congregations grew around those who arrived. Some of the people in your service may have lost a great deal. Be gentle with questions.
Not with MulingStream. Kreyòl is a language guests read here, so the talk needs to come from the stage in one of the spoken languages, such as French, English or Spanish. Kreyòl captions then follow every sentence.
Often, yes. Haitian guests differ in which one they read more comfortably, and offering both lets each person choose. If your pass has room for two languages, this is a good use of them.
Not in Kreyòl, which is a text language here. A guest who would rather listen can choose French, which has a voice.
The standard spelling used in Haitian schools, newspapers and the Kreyòl Bible, in the Latin alphabet with accents such as è and ò. It displays on any phone or screen without special fonts.
The other languages a Haitian guest may choose, and the other pages in this section.
Or open the full list of 200+ and check the three columns for the languages your room actually needs.
Nothing to install, no card, and your guests need nothing but the phone already in their pocket.