The Language We Speak at Home, and the Words You Will Hear in the Kitchen

In Guadeloupe, French is the language of the school, the town hall and the news. Creole is the language of the kitchen, the market, the football pitch and every family argument I can remember.

My mother spoke to the doctor in French and to the fishmonger in Creole. When she was cross with me, it was always Creole. When she was very cross, it was French, and that was worse.

People in Britain sometimes ask me whether Creole is “broken French”. It is not. It is a language, with its own grammar, its own sounds and its own jokes, and about half a million people speak it every day. Here is what it is, how it works, and the words you will hear if you ever eat at a Guadeloupean table.

What is Guadeloupe Creole?

Guadeloupe Creole, which we call kréyòl, is a French-based Creole language spoken in Guadeloupe alongside French. Most of its words come from French, but its grammar, its sounds and its spelling are its own, so a French speaker cannot simply listen and understand it.

It is very close to the Creole of Martinique, and close to the Creoles of Dominica and St Lucia, where it is spelled Kwéyòl. Linguists group them together as Antillean Creole. Someone from Guadeloupe and someone from Martinique understand each other easily, and tease each other about the accent.

Where it came from

Creole was born on the plantations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Enslaved people brought from many parts of West and Central Africa spoke many different languages and had no shared one. French was the language of the colonists, so the new language took most of its words from French and built its own grammar, and children grew up speaking it as their first language.

For a long time it was looked down on. For generations, children were told off for speaking Creole at school, and many parents spoke French to their children to give them a better chance. That changed slowly. Today Creole is taught in schools and at university, there is Creole radio and television, and writers and singers use it with pride. Zouk, the music that went round the world in the 1980s, is sung in Creole. I wrote about that in my piece on the music of Guadeloupe.

Creole Day, the international day of Creole languages and cultures, is celebrated on 28 October.

How it works: the little words before the verb

The clearest difference from French is how verbs work. In French, the verb changes its ending: je mange, j’ai mangé, je mangerai. In Creole, the verb stays the same, and a small word in front of it tells you when.

• ka means it is happening now, or happens regularly: an ka manjé, I am eating, or I eat.
• té puts it in the past: an té manjé, I ate.
• ké puts it in the future: an ké manjé, I will eat.

So manjé, to eat, never changes. Once you know those three little words, you can hear the shape of a Creole sentence even when you do not know the vocabulary.

The pronouns are short too: an or mwen for I, ou for you, i for he, she or it, nou for we, zòt for you all, and yo for they.

Guadeloupe Creole and Haitian Creole

Haitian Creole is the biggest Creole language in the world, spoken by more than ten million people, and it is a cousin of ours. Both grew out of French on Caribbean plantations, and a lot of the vocabulary is shared.

But they are not the same language. The verb markers are the easiest difference to hear: where we say an ka manjé for I am eating, Haitians say m ap manje. The accent, the rhythm and many everyday words are different too. A Guadeloupean and a Haitian can follow each other with some effort and goodwill, a little like a Spanish speaker and a Portuguese speaker.

A few phrases to start with

• Bonjou. Hello, good morning.
• Sa ou fè? How are you? Literally, what are you doing?
• An la. I’m fine. Literally, I’m here.
• Mèsi. Thank you.
• Bon apéti. Enjoy your meal.
• Doudou. Darling, sweetheart. You will hear it in half the songs on the island.
• Timoun. A child. Literally, a little person.

The words you will hear in the kitchen

This is where Creole lives for me. Some of these you will already know from my recipes.

• Manjé. Food, and to eat. Manjé kréyòl is Creole food, which I explain in what Creole food actually is.
• Piman. Hot pepper. And sòs piman is hot sauce, the bowl that sits on every table. The most famous one in the French Caribbean has the strangest name, and I tell its story in sauce chien.
• Lanmori. Salt cod, the fish behind accras.
• Ouassou. The big freshwater prawn of our rivers. The word is not French at all; it is usually traced back to the island’s first peoples.
• Chatrou. Octopus, cooked slowly in a Creole sauce.
• Lanbi. Conch.
• Fwiyapen. Breadfruit.
• Dombré. Small dumplings, rolled between the palms, the heart of dombrés aux crevettes.
• Bokit. The fried bread sandwich of Guadeloupe, sold from vans late at night. The whole story is in my bokit guide.
• Kaz. House, home. A kaz kréyòl is the traditional wooden house with a veranda.

If you want to see these words on a plate, my guide to Guadeloupean food is the place to start.

Why it matters to me, and to Full Feast

When I named my sauces and wrote my recipes, I wrote them in English, because I live in England and I cook for English tables. But I think in Creole when I cook. The way I taste a pot, the way I talk to it when it is not doing what I want, the names of half the things in it.

My Caribbean Hot Sauce is, in my head, a sòs piman. That is the bowl of fire every Guadeloupean table has, and I wanted English tables to have one too.

FAQ

Is Creole a language or a dialect?

Creole is a language. It has its own grammar, sound system and spelling, and children grow up speaking it as their first language. It is not a dialect of French, even though most of its words come from French.

Can French speakers understand Guadeloupe Creole?

Not easily. A French speaker will recognise many words, especially when written down, but the pronunciation, the grammar and the speed make spoken Creole hard to follow without learning it.

Is Guadeloupe Creole the same as Haitian Creole?

No. They are related French-based Creoles with a lot of shared vocabulary, but they differ in grammar, pronunciation and many everyday words. Guadeloupe Creole is closest to the Creole of Martinique.

How do you say hello in Guadeloupe Creole?

Bonjou. Then Sa ou fè? to ask how someone is, and the usual answer is An la, I’m fine.

When is International Creole Day?

28 October, every year.

One small thing to try this week

Next time you put a bottle of hot sauce on the table, call it sòs piman. Say it the Guadeloupe way: sos pee-man.

It will not make the food taste any different. But it will make me very happy.

JP