12362: Haitian Creole in the _Haitian Times_ (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Michel DeGraff <degraff@MIT.EDU>


Dear all,

The journal _Haitian Times_ is to be commended for, among other
things, its regular column in Haitian Creole and, now, the one in
French, alongside its English articles.  This is a valuable effort
vis-a-vis Haiti's linguistic profile.

It's also commendable that the Creole column, by Roger Savain, often
addresses substantial, not cartoon-ish, issues and that it
systematically follows the official spelling rules for Haitian Creole
(as sanctioned by Haitian laws).  Roger: Chapo ba!

This said, it's quite shocking that _Haitian Times_ occasionally (for
example, on page 7 of the issue dated June 12-18, 2002) publishes
cartoons by "Ti Tosh" of the "Labapen Gallery" whose ad hoc Creole
spelling is far removed from our legally-sanctioned orthographical
standards.  No such mis-spellings can be found in the English and
French articles published in the journal.  Yet the Creole orthography
standards are, in many ways, even more straightforward than the
English and French ones.  Plus the Creole standards should be readily
available to the _Haitian Times_ editors.

The aberrant nature of Ti Tosh's Creole spelling is all the more
puzzling that the _Haitian Times_ staff now includes one
linguist/creolist on his staff, namely Professor Hugues Saint-Fort.

As a linguist myself, I am raising this point in a mode of
constructive criticism, so the _Haitian Times_ can keep up its
editorial standards and show due respect to Haiti's national language.

While "bridging the gap", the _Haitian Times_ should be as rigorous
in its Creole spelling as it is in its French and English spelling.

Thank you,

                                 -michel.
___________________________________________________________________________
MIT Linguistics & Philosophy, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02139-4307
degraff@MIT.EDU        http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/degraff.home.html
___________________________________________________________________________