Phonological aspects of Haitian French: influence of Haitian Creole

Haitian French (HF) is a variety of French speaking specific to Haiti and different in many ways from other varieties of French. characterized by endogenous norms which result from the contact of French with the Haitian Creole (HC) - but also, to a certain extent, with English and Spanish - and many local specificities. Its specificities can manifest at the lexico-semantic, phonological and, in a least measure, morphosyntactic aspects. Except for Pompilus (1961) and Govain (2009, 2013) who have approached it, the phonological aspect of HF is not much studied. This contribution is interested in this phonological aspect in its synchronic dimension. It briefly describes the specificities of HF while highlighting the influences of HC. Among the elements that we will deal with, we can point out, at the consonantal level: specific realizations of /(sic)/ and /(sic)/, the use of /h/ said aspirated, the (non-)realization of branching consonants in final coda. At the level of vowels: maintaining the /e/ similar to /epsilon/ opposition in all positions and the /(epsilon) over tilde/ /(oe) over tilde/ opposition, the absence of the /a/ similar to /alpha/ opposition, the appearance according to the context of articulation of the glides /j/ or /w/ (or even a /(sic)/ in specific contexts) between two contiguous vowels to avoid hiatus.