UF Center for Latin American Studies
Kreyòl pale, practical Haitian Creole for beginners, available for free online
July 18, 2025
The Haitian Creole textbook Kreyòl pale (Creole is Spoken), funded by Title VI funding from the UF Center for Latin American Studies, was recently published by LibraryPress@UF, an imprint of University Press of Florida. A free PDF version is also available online.
Co-written by Center affiliate Benjamin Hebblethwaite (Languages, Literatures and Cultures) and David Tézil (University of Alabama), Kreyòl pale is designed to engage beginning learners of Haitian Creole with meaningful communication scenarios important for navigating daily life in Haiti and its Diaspora. Dialogues encompass greetings, traveling, and ordering food, as well as going out, finding a roommate, and expectations at a new job.
“Our textbook heavily emphasizes a communicative model, so the activities and images are designed to encourage conversation, debate, and deep learning in and outside the classroom,” Dr. Hebblethwaite explains. With extensive full-color imagery, each chapter offers in-depth lessons on Haitian culture and society, including English glosses and questions that stimulate discussion and debate. Cultural notes include topics such as Haitian music, architecture, art, literature, and philosophy.
“Kreyòl pale translates literally as ‘Creole is being spoken,’ and it is often used in a popular proverb, Kreyòl pale, kreyòl konprann, ‘Kreyòl speaks, kreyòl understands,’ to express the idea that Haitian Creole is unambiguously the language that all Haitians speak and understand,” Drs. Hebbelthwaite and Tézil note in the textbook’s introduction. “Kreyòl pale embodies the notion that Haitian Creole facilitates not only the understanding, but also the inclusion and advancement of everyone in Haiti and its diaspora. Our goal, too, is the expansion of knowledge about Haitian Creole and its speakers, as well as the promotion of this awesome language of national and international unity.”
The textbook project is over nine years in the making; it was originally encouraged by former Center Director Philip Williams in 2017. In addition to Title VI funding from the Center, Kreyòl pale received support from the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. After encountering roadblocks working with an academic press, Drs. Hebblethwaite and Tézil turned to LibraryPress@UF for publishing, fostering strong collaboration among UF on the project.
“Thanks to LibraryPress@UF and generous funding from the Center for Latin American Studies at UF, we were able to develop an editorial partnership that facilitated a task that was too challenging for the original press,” Dr. Hebblethwaite says. “We hired the talented UF undergraduate Brielle Jean Baptiste as our photo editor and book designer, and she worked for nearly a year on layout. Some big jobs are better left to ambitious and energetic editors!”
Congratulations to Dr. Hebblethwaite, Dr. Tézil, Brielle and team on putting together such a comprehensive, engaging, and practicable textbook!
View and download the free online PDF here
