26075: Jrigdon: (reply) Re: Walton (Discuss) RE: 26021: JRigson: REPLY Books in Creole (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: jrigdon@researchonline.net

Bob  Watson raises some interesting issues and ones that I have thought of
extensively.  As a publisher I know the ins and outs of the business and the
costs involved.  The REAL challenge is not in producing the books at a cost
that they can get into the right hands, but in finding people with the
skills and time to do the translation and illustration.

We have a saying in the computer industry that "once a software program is
written, it's paid for" and the same is pretty much true now for print on
demand and short run publishing.  That was not true even 5 yeas ago, but
things have changed dramatically in the publishing industry.

To illustrate and emphasize the problem however, let me relate two recent
contacts.  I received a brochure from a young man in Haiti written in
Creole, English and French.  This person is in his early twenties.  His
English translation was acceptable and needed few edits.  In my limited
knowledge of French, I also see that the grammar / spelling is pretty good
and I have shown it to two native French speakers who concur that only minor
editing is needed.  The Creole on the other hand - even with my limited
exposure to the language - needs a lot of editing  for words which he
spelled phonetically but do not match the spelling I have in my dictionaries
and word lists at hand and almost all of the technical concepts presented
have a French or English phonetic which means that the average Haitian
seeing the word could only surmise its meaning.  As a comparison in grammar
I have compared this writing with those found on School system's web sites
and such and I see that those who wrote those sites in Creole have a much
better command of the written language.

A second example involves a couple who I know locally who came to the U.S.
about 1985.  They both speak French , Creole, and English fluently having
finished high school in Haiti and pursued further education here in the U.S.
Neither can read the items I have written in Creole.  They stumble at the
words much as a 5 year old would before they finally say "that's the word"
and what they pronounce in Creole is close, but not the same as what is
written.  They often go on to say, "that's frenchy"  We would say it like
this...

So we have a new and unstable written language and a small subset of the
population who can read it.  I think it's much the same challenge that
Tyndale, Luther, Gutenberg, et. al. must have faced in Europe 500 years ago.

John Rigdon