21703: Canal: Re: 21692: Nlbo: Is Haiti a French speaking country?

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

rom: Francois Canal <axxaxx@yahoo.com>
----------------------------------------

The Haitian constitution of 1987 recognizes two official languages in the
country: French and Creole. And what it means is that official documents
have
to appear in both languages. On the other hand, the everyday reality of
the two
languages places functional comprehension at 25% and 100% for French and
Creole
respectively.

Do these facts make Haiti a "French speaking country"? If we use France as
an
example, Haiti is not a French speaking country because the overwhelming
majority does not have functional comprehension of French. If Canada, on
the
other hand is used as an example, Haiti is a French speaking country
because a
significant (especially in wealth and formal education) minority does have
functional comprehension of French.

For the purpose of UN peacekeeping mission, the recommendation would be to
recruit Creole speaking police since Creole is shared by all Haitians at
100%.

Cheers :-)

Francois