#3841: 'SE BON KI RA' : Lamour comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:YLamour@aol.com

i would like to share with my fellow corbetteers how i arrived at
an explanation and understanding of the syntaxe 
and perhaps the origins of 'se bon ki ra'...

let's take a close look at the following utterances:

1. se okap ki pwòp...  
2. se bondye ki gran...
3. se satan ki mechan...
4. se ogoun ki puisan... 
5. se madanm li ki bèl...
6. se resin ki te chanpyon...
7. se ayisyen ki frekan...
8. se fanm k'ap mennen...
9. se mango okap ki dous...
10. se datignav ki fanbre...
 
a comparaison and contrast exercise
will first reveal that all 10 utterances partake of
a number of common features such as:
-the presence of the paired construction 'se... ki'...
-a noun interposing 'se' and 'ki'...
-an attribute or a verb follows 'ki'...

the paired construction 'se... ki' denotes emphasis...
(contextually, it is reminiscent of the pair 'se... ye'...
mwen se malere  =  se malere mwen ye...
jan se grannèg  =  se grannèg jan ye...
jàn se granfanm  =  se granfanm jàn ye...)

therefore, 'se bon ki ra' seems to be the emphatic expression of
'bon ra'... haitian creole tends to use emphasis through a linguistic
event called topicalization ? a fixed construction allowing the speaker 
to highlight or bring out his ideas...  

now let's analyze 
our 10 utterances in the context of topicalization....

1. okap pwòp...  =  se okap ki pwòp...
2. bondye gran...  =  se bondye ki gran...
3. satan mechan...  =  se satan ki mechan...
4. ogoun puisan...  =  se ogoun ki puisan...
5. madanm li bèl...  =  se madanm li ki bèl...
6. resin te chanpyon...  =  se resin ki te chanpyon...
7. ayisyen frekan...  =  se ayisyen ki frekan...
8. fanm ap mennen...  =  se fanm k'ap mennen...
9. mango okap dous...  =  se mango okap ki dous...
10. datignav fanbre...  =  se datignav ki fanbre...

while the proverb 'se bon ki ra' may have come from 
the french language, the contruction 'se... ki' appears to
be as haitian creole as the aforementioned 'se... ye'...  moreover,
the 10 examples in this text can attest to this observation... in fact, i am 
not
quite convinced that it originated from french... if it did, it must
have been naturalized very long ago... for we can multiply other instances
where 'se... ki' is used consistenly....

se dòmi ki nan je mwen...
se visye ki nan kò yo...
se grangou ki nan wèl yo...

please share your own question, clarifications, comments, and suggestions...

warmest cheers,
yvon