22616: Canal: Re: 22612: Vishnusurf: Re: 22609: DeGraff on Ms. Grey's

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Francois Canal <axxaxx@yahoo.com>
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> moreover, even if in official haitian creole orthography the "AN" is
"the
nasalized
> counterpart of the vowel "A," there is still an "M" pronounced at the
transition to the
> second syllable in "manbo".

I am very glad that the discussion is mentioning the syllable structure of
the
word /manbo/. Based on the official orthoghaphy of Haitian Creole, the
word
should be spelled as "manbo" based on the numbers of syllables it
contains.
When referring to a vodou priestess, a native Creole speaker uses two
syllables: two syllables: /man/[CV] and /bo/[CV]. If it were spelled
faifthfully according to official orthography as "mambo", the syllable
parsing
would reveal three syllables: /ma/[CV], /m/[C], and /bo/[CV]. The evidence
of
this claim is empirical and widely shared among native Creole speakers
(even
the limited survey on this list favors the bisyllabic claim). In referring
to a
vodou priestess, native Creole speakers use two groups of sounds, not
three and
on that basis, the "mambo" spelling should be rejected because it does not
capture the intent of the speaker.

In passing, I am a native Haitian Creole speaker and my knowledge of the
language is adequate for me to serve as a reliable informant for this
discussion.

Cheers :-)

Francois