22796: Gariot (Palm Beach Post) Delray site doesn't offer Creole (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: GariotGreot@aol.com

Please post on listserve... of note is the comment from the city's PIO

Delray site doesn't offer Creole

Meghan Meyer
Tuesday, July 27, 2004



DELRAY BEACH -- In an effort to reach Haitian residents, the city on Monday added a translation link to its Web site.

But the site does not translate into Creole, the language spoken by 90 percent of Haitians and used in sample ballots printed before elections.

French, city officials said, will have to do.

"It's the same thing," city spokesman Ivan Ladizinsky said. "People who speak Creole can read French. Creole is just a bastardized version of French. It's a compilation of dialects from the islands."

Actually, according to a Web site run by the University of California at Los Angeles Language Materials Project, Haitian Creole "is about as closely related to French as modern Italian is to Latin." Haitian Creole developed in colonial Haiti as a way for plantation owners to communicate with slaves who spoke West African languages. It is mainly a spoken language. Though French is taught in Haitian schools, about 90 percent of the population speaks only Haitian Creole.

"Some people might say that's a little bit of a compromise," Ladizinsky said, adding that he does not know of a search engine that translates English into Haitian Creole. "We feel it will be acceptable to the Haitian community."

It would be nice for the city to translate the site into Creole, Haitian community leaders said. But French probably will be fine. "Anyone who is educated navigates anyway in English," Daniella Henry said, executive director of the Haitian American Community Council in Delray Beach. "I don't know if it would make any difference in Creole."

The AltaVista search engine link translates only the general information pages posted in text form on www.mydelraybeach.com. Images, such as the section titles "Departments," "News" and "Contact Us," are not translated. Neither are city commission agendas, the minutes of meetings, application forms, registration forms or public notices. News releases, advisory board and election information are not translated either.

The link -- a multicolored bar at the bottom of the city's home page -- translates English into French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. It also translates into Chinese, Japanese and Korean if the user's computer has software that displays those languages' characters. Ladizinsky said the city wants to reach growing Haitian, Jamaican, Bahamian and Hispanic populations. He said he knows most Jamaicans' and Bahamians' primary language is English.

"What's most important to us are the Haitian community -- French -- and Spanish," Ladizinsky said.