WORKING ON MY MAURITIAN CREOLE LANGUAGE BOOK AND HOPEFULLY WILL BE PUBLISHED SOON!
TAKE A PEEK AT LESSON 1:
Lesson 1: You will learn pronunciation of letters and more than 15 new words and phrases
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS PART 1
ARTICLES
VOWELS
Creole is different in pronunciation compared to English but it is quite similar to French.
A (short A sound)
Cat, bat
E (long A sound)
Baby, Hey
Note: ‘e’ is not silent at the end of a word. To help you remember the pronunciation, I will write it as ‘é’
I (Long E sound)
Pizza, He
O (long O)
Photo
OU
Who, Moose, Group
CONSONANTS
B
Baby, Cab
C
Car, Back
Note :'c' sounds like 'k' and not like 's'
L
Light, Bill
M
Sam/ Miss
N
No/ On
P
Pin/ Mop
S
So / Toss
T
Ten, sit
Note: when followed by an ‘i’, the ‘t’ makes a ‘ch’ sound as in ‘chick’
INDEFINITE ARTICLES
For singular, we use the Creole word ‘enn’ to mean ‘a’ and for plural we use ‘bann’ or ‘enn bann’ before the noun. ‘Enn bann’ will be used later on in sentences
Pronuciation of ‘enn’ is ‘Ehn’ as in the English word ‘end’ or ‘hen’
SINGULAR: ‘Enn’
PLURAL: ‘Bann’ or ‘enn bann’
Examples:
Enn Loto – A car
Enn misié – a man
Enn madam – A woman
Examples:
Bann loto – cars
Bann misié – men
Bann madam - women
DEFINITE ARTICLES
For singular, we use the word ‘la’ attached to the noun at the end and for plural we use ‘bann’ before the noun and we keep the suffix ‘la’.
SINGULAR: ‘la’
PLURAL: ‘Bann’+ noun+ ‘la’
Examples:
Loto-la – The car
misié-la – The man
lacaz-la – The house
Examples :
Bann loto-la - the cars
bann misié-la - the men
bann lacaz-la – The houses
VOCABULARY
Nom – name
Zoli - beautiful
Mersi – thanks
Zour – day/ morning
Bon – good
Koz – speak / talk
Wi – yes
Non - no
Bann zoli loto – Beautiful cars
Enn bon lacaz – A good house
Note: sometimes a noun is understood to be definite within the context and does not require ‘la’ after it. This will be covered in later lessons
CONVERSATION
Jim : Bonzour! Kouma to apelé? – Good morning! What is your name?
Claudia : Bonzour, Mo apel Claudia. – Hello, My name is Claudia.
Jim : To koz Kreol? – (Do) You speak Creole?
Claudia: Wi, mo koz Kreole – Yes, I speak Creole
Jim: Bann loto la zoli! – The cars are beautiful!
Claudia: Wi! Mersi – Yes! Thank you.
TAKE A PEEK AT LESSON 1:
Lesson 1: You will learn pronunciation of letters and more than 15 new words and phrases
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS PART 1
ARTICLES
VOWELS
Creole is different in pronunciation compared to English but it is quite similar to French.
A (short A sound)
Cat, bat
E (long A sound)
Baby, Hey
Note: ‘e’ is not silent at the end of a word. To help you remember the pronunciation, I will write it as ‘é’
I (Long E sound)
Pizza, He
O (long O)
Photo
OU
Who, Moose, Group
CONSONANTS
B
Baby, Cab
C
Car, Back
Note :'c' sounds like 'k' and not like 's'
L
Light, Bill
M
Sam/ Miss
N
No/ On
P
Pin/ Mop
S
So / Toss
T
Ten, sit
Note: when followed by an ‘i’, the ‘t’ makes a ‘ch’ sound as in ‘chick’
INDEFINITE ARTICLES
For singular, we use the Creole word ‘enn’ to mean ‘a’ and for plural we use ‘bann’ or ‘enn bann’ before the noun. ‘Enn bann’ will be used later on in sentences
Pronuciation of ‘enn’ is ‘Ehn’ as in the English word ‘end’ or ‘hen’
SINGULAR: ‘Enn’
PLURAL: ‘Bann’ or ‘enn bann’
Examples:
Enn Loto – A car
Enn misié – a man
Enn madam – A woman
Examples:
Bann loto – cars
Bann misié – men
Bann madam - women
DEFINITE ARTICLES
For singular, we use the word ‘la’ attached to the noun at the end and for plural we use ‘bann’ before the noun and we keep the suffix ‘la’.
SINGULAR: ‘la’
PLURAL: ‘Bann’+ noun+ ‘la’
Examples:
Loto-la – The car
misié-la – The man
lacaz-la – The house
Examples :
Bann loto-la - the cars
bann misié-la - the men
bann lacaz-la – The houses
VOCABULARY
Nom – name
Zoli - beautiful
Mersi – thanks
Zour – day/ morning
Bon – good
Koz – speak / talk
Wi – yes
Non - no
Bann zoli loto – Beautiful cars
Enn bon lacaz – A good house
Note: sometimes a noun is understood to be definite within the context and does not require ‘la’ after it. This will be covered in later lessons
CONVERSATION
Jim : Bonzour! Kouma to apelé? – Good morning! What is your name?
Claudia : Bonzour, Mo apel Claudia. – Hello, My name is Claudia.
Jim : To koz Kreol? – (Do) You speak Creole?
Claudia: Wi, mo koz Kreole – Yes, I speak Creole
Jim: Bann loto la zoli! – The cars are beautiful!
Claudia: Wi! Mersi – Yes! Thank you.