17201: Corbett: Hayti and Haiti in the English language

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

I just ran a check on my own library.  I have 59 books in my own library
which have the name HAYTI in the title.

Of those published in the United States the name Hayti appears in books
from 1802 to 1919 (and the 1919 book is The Blue Book of Hayti, a book
with official standing in Haiti).

However, the name Hayti continues to be used in book published in England
as late as 1949.  (HAYTI:  145 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE -- THE BI-CENTENARY
OF PORT-AU-PRINCE -- published in London in 1949.)

I don't have any idea what motivated the spelling change in English
from Hayti to Haiti, but even in England, the name had changed by 1950.

Of the more than 4000 books in my library in English which have the word
HAITI in the title, that spelling is quite common from 1873 (earliest
usage I have).  In all of Frederick Douglass' writings about Haiti (lots),
from 1891 on he was using the spelling "Haiti."

Many Congressional publications after 1873 also used the "Haiti" spelling
in the 19th century.

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Bob Corbett