22522: Corbett in reply to Docteed post 22521

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Docteed,

I tend to agree that arguments which appeal to different "authorities,"
one being the linguistic community and another a religious authority,
leave one in a position of having little to discuss.  It just doesn't go
anywhere.

However, I do want to totally separate myself from the Creole debate.
While I am very much in favor of the new unified Creole orthography, I had
nothing to say about it in my post.  I was STRICTLY concerned with the
name of the Haitian religion in ENGLISH.

There the word is used by a very small and limited group of people with
a spelling other than Voodoo.  The general usage in English is Voodoo.

I understand the would-be reformers are hoping linguistic reform will
spark reform in the way people think about the Haitian religion.

I support the latter part of that desire and have done a lot of work to
that end, but I do not support the linguistic tactic, for the reasons I
expressed in my post.

However, I stay out of the Creole/French debates.  Those are languages I'm
much too weak in to have an personally developed and held views.

Bob Corbett