Haitian Creole phonology

Haitian Creole
kreyòl ayisyen
Pronunciation	[kɣejɔl]
Native to	Haiti
Ethnicity	Haitians
Native speakers	9.6 million (2007)
Language family	French Creole Haitian Creole
Writing system	Latin (Haitian Creole alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Haiti
Regulated by	Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen (Haitian Creole Academy)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ht
ISO 639-2	hat
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	hait1244  Haitian
Linguasphere	51-AAC-cb
IETF	ht
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Haitian Creole (/ˈheɪʃən ˈkriːoʊl/; Haitian Creole: kreyòl ayisyen,Haitian Creole pronunciation: [kɣejɔl]; French: créole haïtien) is a French-based creole language spoken by 9.6–12 million people worldwide, and the only language of most Haitians. It is a creole language based largely on 18th century French with influences from Portuguese, Spanish, English, Taíno, and West African languages. Haitian Creole emerged from contact between French settlers and African slaves during the Atlantic slave trade in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Haitians are the largest creole-speaking community in the world. Haitian Creole should not be confused with Haitian French, which is a variety of French spoken in Haiti.

The usage and education in Haitian Creole—which is not mutually intelligible with French—has been contentious since at least the 19th century: where Haitians saw French as a sign of colonialism, Creole was maligned by francophone elites as a miseducated or poor person’s French. Until the late 20th century, Haitian presidents spoke only French to their fellow citizens, and until the 2000s, all instruction at Haitian elementary schools was in French, a foreign language to most of the students.