zonyon

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French oignon. In French, the plural form oignons is commonly preceded by a determiner- such as aux, les or mes- whose final s or x is pronounced /z/ before vowels (and is otherwise silent). As a result, oignons was reanalyzed in Haitian Creole as beginning with /z/.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɔ̃jɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

zonyon

1. onion

References

• Targète, Jean; Urciolo, Raphael (1993), Haitian Creole-English Dictionary‎^[1], Dunwoody Press, →ISBN, page 208

Seychellois Creole

Etymology

From French oignon. In French, the plural word oignons is commonly preceded by a word, such as aux, les or mes, whose final s or x is not pronounced except in front of vowels, where it is pronounced /z/. As a result, oignons was reanalyzed in Seychellois Creole as beginning with /z/.

Noun

zonyon

1. onion

References

• D'Offay, Danielle; Lionnet, Guy (1982), Diksyonner kreol-franse [Creole-French Dictionary] (in French), Hamburg: Buske, →ISBN