22539" Antoine replies to Grey Re: 22509: The Kathy Grey's stand on Haitian Creole (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <guyantoine@haitiforever.com>


> My name is NOT "Kathy Greys".  This perpetual and
deliberate reluctance to spell my name correctly is
offensive.

Kathy, I would have thought this an obvious typographical
error.  I don't think of you in the plural form.  One Kathy
Grey is enough, I think. I don't recall any other time that
I have misspelled your name.  So, this "perpetual and
deliberate reluctance" to spell your name correctly does not
apply to me in any way, shape, or form.

>> Spelling is not Vodou
>The name of this religion is correctly spelled V-o-d-o-u in
both Creole and English.

This is what I said, very clearly in my previous message:
"We all know that spelling is not religion.  Spelling is not
Vodou..."  Perhaps, I should continue to exemplify: Spelling
is not Buddhism.  It is not Shinto nor is it Shingon.  It is
not Catholicism nor is it Protestantism.  In short, spelling
is not religion, and consequently does not fall under any
religious authority, even of the highest order.  Ironically,
and perhaps you have missed this, I spell "Vodou" exactly
the way you do, but not because you say so.  Corbett calls
my way of thinking "linguistic activism", but so be it.  I
embrace it totally, as I cannot reconcile myself with
reinforcing the negative cultural associations that are
inextricable from the word "voodoo", whether it is
capitalized or not.  So, like it or not, on this point we
are on the same side, though perhaps our motivations are of
a different order.

> I am a Mambo of this tradition, and have been for almost
fifteen years.   If you don't want to believe a clergy
person of a particular religion when they tell you how to
spell it, then don't claim to respect the religion or it's
clergy.

This assertion of religious authority over such a mundane
thing as spelling is..., is... well, thank God, this is not
coming from the Vatican.  The next thing we'd hear after
that: the dreaded "excommunication".  Can you imagine
getting excommunicated for spelling Catholicism
"Katolisizim" and then being sent to Hell for ever and ever?

No, even if you were a "Mambo" for 50 years, I still would
not have to BELIEVE you on the spelling on the religion.
But we are on the same side, so let's gang instead on Bob
Corbett, though he is quite a lost cause, so let's forget
about it.

Guy S. Antoine or Gi Antwàn (AntwAn)
Open the Windows on Haiti's Language
http://haitiforever.com/bbs/index.html