Creole Vowels
The sound system for this page will be based on Standard American English sounds and examples, since the exercises are destined for non-Creole-speaking Americans of Creole descent.
a
The A Louisiana Creole is pronounced /ah/.
Examples in English: the soft ‘o’ in shot, mott, lot, hot, mop, top; the soft ‘a’ in father, water, wash.
Examples in Creole: ka/kapab, wa, mâché, apé, jardin, char, etc.
e
The E in Louisiana Creole, without an accent on top has two, depending on placement in a word: /eh/ and /uh/.
Examples in English /eh/: Bed, Med, Red, Led, Let, Fed.
Examples in English /uh/: the ‘ou’ in Tough, Rough, Enough; the ‘u’ in Bluff, Fluff, the ‘o’ in Come,
Some.
Examples in Creole /eh/: DeBlanc /deh blawn/, De la Houssaye /deh lah oosay/, Colette /Co leht/
Examples in Creole /uh/: LeBlanc /luh blawn/, de rien /duh ree’yain/, pas de kwa /pah duh kwah/
i
The I in Louisiana Creole has two pronunciations, /ee/ and /ih/, depending on placement within a word.
Examples in English /ee/: the long ‘e’ in Pete, Sheet; and the ‘ea’ combination in meat, beat, leak.
Examples in English /ih/: the soft ‘e’ in Hen, When, Pen; and the short ‘i’ in Pin, Shin, Kin.
Examples in Creole /ee/: Hismel /ee mel/, Griyé /gree yay/, Bijou /bee zhew/, Minou /mee new/.
Examples in Creole /ih/: Caroline /kah row len/, Babine /bah ben/, Édith /ay diht/, Bibitte /Bih biht/.
o
The O in Louisiana Creole is the same as in English, /oh/.
Examples in English: Old, Only, Okay, Oreo.
Examples in Creole: Oreste /oh rest/, Odette /oh det/, Odille /Oh deal/, Ozémé /Oh zay may/.
u
The U in Louisiana Creole is a bit tricky.
Traditionally, in French, the U is pronced almost the same as in English, except in pronouncing the U alone, remove the Y in the beginning and you’re left with /ew/. This is sound made when an obscene odor is smelled: ewwwwww.
The twist though, is that in Louisiana Creole, the French U proved to be a difficult sound to reproduce correctly by African and Native American slaves. They almost universally erroneously mispronounced it as an I /ee/.
Therefore the Creole U is almost always pronounced /ee/.
Here’s another twist. There’s another sound for the Creole U: /ay/.
These differences you will learn with time and practice.
Examples in English /ee/: Same as the I above.
Examples in Creole /ee/: Ulger /ee zhay/, Ulysse /ee les/
Examples in English /ay/: Pay, Play, Shay, May.
Examples in Creole /ay/: Ulyssia /ay lees syah/.
Vowel-Consonant Sounds
There are particular sounds created when a vowel stands before certain consonants. Follow with the chart below. These sounds will make more sense once we’ve the recordings available for you. Meanwhile, this will have to do.
These are mostly vestiges from the French language, and usually will appear in place names, personal given names, surnames and set expressions. The rule in French goes that ANY consonant at the end of a word having a vowel just before it, is SILENT.
/AH/ SOUND [Short 'o' sound in American English - e.g. Hot, Top, Lock]
Word endings: ad, as, at, (The ‘d’, ’s’, and ‘t’ are silent)
Examples: Soniat /sohn yah/, Fossat /foh sah/.
/AWN/ SOUND [Same sound as 'awn' in 'yawn' and 'lawn' in English]
Word Endings: an, and, ant, en, ent, em, emd, emt (All of the ending consonants are silent, the ‘n’ is nasalized)
Examples: L’an /lawn’/, L’année /law nay/, Entèrmen /awn’ tair mawn’/.
/AY/ SOUND [Long 'a' sound in English - e.g. crazy]
Word Endings: Ed, es, est, er, et, ey, ay, aye /ay/ (The ‘d’, ’s’, ‘t’ and ‘y’ are silent)
Examples: Cormier /cohrm yay/, Châtaigner /shah tan yay/, Lemay /leh may/,
Babet /bah bay/, Lancelet /lawn seh lay/, de la Houssaye /deh lah hoo say/.
/OH/ SOUND [Long 'o' sound in American English - e.g. Show, Row, Moe, Joseph]
Word Endings: au, aud, ault, aut, aux, eau, eaux, os, ot, out
Examples: Braud /broh/, Brault /broh/, Breaux /broh/, Lanclos /lawn kloh/, Lanclot /lawn kloh/, Thériot /teh ree oh/, Robichout /roh bee show/.
/EE/ SOUND [Long e sound in English - e.g. Beet, Sheet, Meet, Sleep]
Word Endings: id, il, is, it (The ‘d’, ’s’, and ‘t’ are silent)
Examples: Dumesnil /jew may nee/, Jadis /zhah dee/, Duplantis /jew plawn tee/, Habit /ah bee/
/AIN’, EHN/ Sound [Sound really isn't common to English language. It is similar to the sound
one makes when a kid is whining, the "wain wain wain, crybaby, crybaby". It is very nasal,
the n is nasalized.]
Word Endings: in, ain (Again, the ‘n’ is nasalized, not fully pronounced)
Examples: Bodin /boh dain’/, Boudin /boo dain’/, Beaudoin /boh dwain’/, Chastaing /shahs stain’/, Catin /kah tain’/.
/OHN’/ Sound [Similar to above, no English equivalent. Extremely nasalized sound,
common to French. When Americans make fun of French sounds, that's usually one:
"hee hee hohn' hohn'", like a pig.
Word Endings: ON, ONT ('N' nasalized, not fully pronounced, T completely silent)
Examples: Bâton /bah tohn'/, Manon /mah nohn'/, Pognion /pohn nyohn'/, Dont /dohn'/.
/EW/, /EE/ Sounds [Here's that 'U' again. It's a particular sound. Corresponding to the "ew"
sound in the word 'compUter', except there is no 'y' before the 'u', as in computer /kum pyew ter/,
use /yewz/. Sometimes it's pronounced as a long 'e' - e.g. Ulysse /ee lees/]
Word Endings: ud, us, ut (The ‘d’, ’s’, and ‘t’ are silent)
Examples: Sud /sewd/, Bus /bews/, fut /few/
