#3962: Corbett's confusion: Blanchet comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>

As I understand it, the Haitian authorities did not try
and fix the spelling of each and every word.
They simply fixed the alphabet to be used when
writing proper Creole: "k" instead of "c" or "q", "y"
instead of "gn", elatriye.

In this, they were guided by the principle that each sound
should be rendered by one letter to the extent possible.
In this, they have been successful, more so than those
who engineered -- a complicated process to be sure --
the spelling of French or English. In this regard, the
linguists on the site might discuss how Spain, that
backward appendage of Europe, could have developed
such a marvelously logical system where Cartesian France
failed so miserably.

The various dictionaries on the market - Freeman/Laguerre,
Laguerre ... -- all give a sense of the regional or dialectical
variations to be found in Haitian Creole. And I will maintain
that they are fewer in Creole than in French or English. And
should of course not be used to deny Creole the status of
a fully-developed language. Anyone who has read Marcel
Pagnol or Richard Wright will understand what I am talking
about.

Again, the important next step --  using the official alphabet
to be sure -- is universal education in Creole so that the
empowerment of the Haitian people in an economic, political,
cutural and social sense may become a reality. And as a
bonus, the Haitian Chaucer, Rabelais, Cervantes, Camoens,
Twain, Marques, Carpentier, Neruda, Borges, elatriye
who are lurking "anba chal" because they are denied the
fundamental right to learn to read and write in Creole will
emerge and occupy their rightful place in the world's
literary arena.

Instead of bashing each other on trivial matters having
to do with style, we ought to take the Lavalas
Administrations to task for their signal failure to launch
a literacy drive in Creole and to make Creole a working
language of the Haitian State on a par with French.

All the rest is blablabla, radòt ...