8425: Re: 8411: Voodoo Exhibition Brochure (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Carrol F. Coates" <ccoates@mail.binghamton.edu>

Somewhere in message 8411, the writer affirms that there still is no
standard orthography for Haitian Kreyol.  This is blatantly untrue:  the
orthography used by Bryant Freedman and Jowel Laguerre is the standard (and
I believe now official--somebody can probably check me on this) orthography
of Kreyol, although a small number of variant spellings ("ou"  / "w", for
example) are still possible.

The fact that Vodou is spelled "voodoo" (and not even captialized as with
other religions) by THE NEW YORK TIMES and other English-language style
guides, newspapers, etc., as well as "Vaudou" etc. by Haitian writers
writing in English, says nothing about the standard orthography which has
been used in dictionaries earlier than the Freeman/Laguerre HAITIAN-ENGLISH
DICTIONARY and the Valdmann LITERARY DICTIONARY OF HAITIAN CREOLE.  I have
argued with one of the New York Times editors on this, pointing out the
inconsistency of their treatment of "voodoo"--and I plan to do the same
with the Merriam Websters editors, although such efforts may be doomed to
failure....