[Footnote L:  American Oriental Society, Vol.  I. p. 423, et seq.]

The article un, une, could not have been pronounced by a negro.  It became in his mouth nion.  The personal pronouns je, tu, il, were converted into mo, to, ly, and the possessive mon, ton, son into a moue, a toue, a ly, and were placed after the noun, which negro dialects generally start their sentences with.  Possessive pronouns had the unmeaning syllable quien before them, as, Nous gagne quien a nous, for Nous avons les notres; and demonstrative pronouns were changed in this way:  Mo voir z’animaux la yo, for J’ai vu ces animaux, and Ci la yo qui te vivre, for Ceux qui ont vecu. A few more examples will suffice to make other changes clear.  A negro was asked to lend his horse; he replied, Mouchee (Monsieur), mo pas gagne choual, mais mo connais qui gagne ly; si ly pas gagne ly, ly faut mo gagne ly, pour vous gagne:  “Massa, me no got horse, but me know who got um; if him no got um, him get me um for you.” Quelquechose becomes quichou; zozo = oiseau; gournee = combattre; guete = voir; zombi = revenant; bouge = demeurer; hele = appeler, etc.[M]

[Footnote M:  Harvey’s Sketches of Haiti, p. 292.  See a vocabulary in Manuel des Habitans de St. Domingue, par L.J.  Ducoeurjoly, Tom.  II.  Here is a verse of a Creole song, written in imitation of the negro dialect:—­

  Dipi mo perdi Lisette,
  Mo pas souchie Calinda,[A]
  Mo quitte bram-bram sonette,
  Mo pas batte bamboula.[B]
  Quand mo contre l’aut’ negresse,
  Mo pas gagne z’yeu pour ly;
  Mo pas souchie travail piece,
  Tou qui chose a moue mouri.

The French of which is as follows:—­

  Mes pas, loin de ma Lisette,
  S’eloiguent du Calinda;
  Et ma ceinture a sonnette
  Languit sur mon bamboula. 
  Mon oeil de toute autre belle
  N’apercoit plus le souris;
  Le travail en vain m’appelle,
  Mes sens sont aneantis.

[Footnote A:  A favorite dance.]

[Footnote B:  A kind of tambourine or drum made of a keg stretched with skins, and sometimes hung with bells.]]

The dialect thus formed by the aid of traits common to many negro tribes was a solution into which their differences fell to become modified; when the barriers of language were broken down, the common African nature, with all its good and evil, appeared in a Creole form.  The forced labor, the caprice of masters, and the cruel supervision of the overseers engendered petty vices of theft, concealment, and hypocrisy.  The slave became meaner than the native African in all respects; even his passions lost their extravagant sincerity, but part of the manliness went with it.  Intelligence, ability, adroitness were exercised in a languid way; rude and impetuous tribes became more docile and manageable, but those who were already