Here are the Basics
Haitian Creole has two types of vowels: nasal and non-nasal vowels.
There are a total of four nasal vowels and seven non-nasal vowels.
Use this lesson to familiarize yourself with them, but don't worry too much about memorizing what is a nasal vowel and what is not.
Rather, focus more on how to pronounce them
How Nasal Vowels Work
- Air comes out of your nose when you pronounce a nasal vowel.
Go ahead and try pronounce the nasal vowels from the list below. You will notice that air does come out of your nose as you pronounce them correctly.
To hear how the nasal vowels sound like, please play this video
1. an - sounds like /un/ in dunk
2. en - sounds like /en/ in bent
3. on - sounds like /on/ in won't
4. oun - sounds like /oon/ in moon
How Non-nasal Vowels Work
- Air does not come out of your nose when you pronounce a non-nasal vowel.
If you try to pronounce a non-nasal vowel correctly, you will notice that it doesn't cause air to come out of your nose.
To hear how the non-nasal vowels sound like, please play this video
1. a - sounds like /a/ in apple
2. e - sounds like /i/ in It
3. รจ - sounds like /e/ in get
4. i - sounds like /ee/ in feet
Ui is a half-vowel. It sounds like Yoowee
Focus on Pronunciation
As mentioned in the beginning of this lesson, don't worry too much about remembering what is a vowel and what isn't.
You should mainly focus on getting used to hearing and pronouncing those sounds correctly. This is because those sounds are very common, and you will be using them frequently when speaking with others in Creole.