![]() Enslaved Africans and their descendants spoke dozens of different West and Central African languages, and contact with speakers of Amerindian and European languages led to the languages that we identify today as “Creole languages.” Of course, there were already Creole languages spoken in West Africa before European expansion in the Americas, and experts have also identified Creole languages in many other parts of the world, such as Australia. The Creole languages of the Americas saw most of their development during the 200 years of the Transatlantic Slave Trade when Africans, primary from West and Central Africa, were forcibly brought to the Greater Caribbean, then to North and South America. Haitian Creole (kreyòl to its speakers) is such an important and vital language, and technology represents a new horizon for passing this language to new learners, alongside its legacy of revolution and forward thinking.Īs with many Afro-Latino and Afro-Indigenous languages, Haitian Creole has a history of perseverance under oppression. Without them, this language might not exist in the present day. The language has mostly been preserved through the spoken word and informal teaching until the late 1970s, intentionally passed down by mothers, aunties, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers through culture, spirituality, and everyday life. A “mother language” is often defined as the first language a person learns to speak-but as we discuss Haitian Creole, there’s another layer. As we note the importance of languages spoken in people’s homes, it’s a perfect time to celebrate the launch of Duolingo’s latest course, Haitian Creole (our 41st language!). This year, International Mother Language Day has a theme that’s near and dear to our hearts at Duolingo: using technology for multilingual learning. This post was co-authored by Nyya Flores Toussaint, Cécile Accilien, and Nick André
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