What is Kreyol?
Kreyol Ayisyen (Haitian Creole) is one of two official languages of the Republic of Haiti, a nation located in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Kreyol is spoken by about 7 million people in Haiti, 200,000 in the US, 159,000 in the Dominican Republic, over 12,000 in Canada and others throughout the Caribbean. Total number of speakers in estimated at 7.4 million. Outside of Haiti, large communities of Kreyol speakers can be found in Montreal, Quebec in Canada and New York City, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, and Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Florida in the US.
Kreyol is the descendent of 18th Century French mingled with the influences of African languages, Taino, Portuguese, Spanish and English.
Classes in Kreyol are taught in many colleges in the United States as well as in the Bahamas, among these colleges are Indiana University, the University of Kansas at Lawrence, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Florida International University, the University of Florida, Brown University, Columbia University and the University of Miami.
