I still find it hard to call people who are older than me by their first names.
Yes, we do use matant (mant), tant, monnonk even if the person is not our aunt or uncle.
We tend to call our boss or people who practice a trade bòs. We put sè (females) or frè (males) in front of the names of people who frequent the same church. We sometimes put matmwazèl in front of a young unmarried woman's name. We use the title of madan (or man) for married women. Doctors are dòk. Nurses are mis. We are more comfortable addressing anyone by a title which describes the roles they play in our lives.
Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words
Yes, we do use matant (mant), tant, monnonk even if the person is not our aunt or uncle.
We tend to call our boss or people who practice a trade bòs. We put sè (females) or frè (males) in front of the names of people who frequent the same church. We sometimes put matmwazèl in front of a young unmarried woman's name. We use the title of madan (or man) for married women. Doctors are dòk. Nurses are mis. We are more comfortable addressing anyone by a title which describes the roles they play in our lives.
Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words
Can "mant" be used for males? What words, if there are any, are used for or refer to young unmarried men in Creole? I have seen that "mesye" is used to refer to both married and unmarried men. Is that accurate? Is there are a particular word for both respectively?
ReplyDelete"Mant" is short for "matant" which means "aunt". So we don't use it for males. People will use "monnonk", "onk", "nonk", "monk" or "tonton" which means uncle for males.
DeleteYou know, among friends, there are so many endearing names or title that Haitians use. First of all Haitians tens to give you ti non jwèt or ti non gate which a nickname that often describe waht you look like or what you do, or what you're good at, such as ,blan or grimo, girmèl for a person who is not even white, bòs la if you're, for example, good at fixing things, or dòk, for a man who works in the healthcare field, not necessarily a doctor. Otherwise, they might call you by titles like frewo, lamitye, jeneral, kòmandan, mèt, etc...
Thanks for your question :)