Hi Mandaly,I love your site. 1. How do you say Martial Arts in Creole2. When someones says his or her age, the AN word is linked to the ending consonant sound of the figure. For ex: diZ an, tranT an. But how can I explain twa ZAN or kat TRAN?

Thanks,

In Haiti, Martial Arts is called Karate, Jido, or Kung fu.
Rarely someone would call it by its French name: Art Martial (pronounced Ah-mah-syal both in French and Creole).
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The Haitian Creole word twa (3) comes from the French word trois. So it is really the French sound that you are hearing. The same goes for all  numbers in Creole.  We sound them all after their French spelling.

I am posting the French translation of some numbers so you may see how the laison is formed.

French #     Creole #       number and year in Creole
1 (un)           en                  enan - one year

2 (deux)        de                  dezan - two years

3 (trois)         twa                twazan - three years

4 (quatre)      kat                 katran - four years

5 (cinq)         senk              senkan - five years

100 (cent)     san                santan  - 100 years

Ask me anything