=?x-unknown?q?27397=3A__JhudicourtbRe=3A_27379=3ABerggren=3A=A0_?==?x-unknown?q?=28reply=29=A0_=A0=A0_Haitian_Creole_Conversational?==?x-unknown?q?_Patterns_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

jhudicourtb@aol.com

There is not an abundance of work in   Haitian Creole Sociolinguistics.
There is a lot in phonology and grammar. But you can get some information by
drawing bits and pieces from different sources.

You might want to look at the work of Anthropologist Karen Richman.   You can
look at my article in the Harvard Education Review (Spring 2003) called
"Argumentation in Haitian Creole Science Classrooms" .   You might want to read

comments by Folklorist Diane Wolkstein in her book "The Magic Orange Tree"   It

is a collection of stories from Haiti but it includes a lot on behavior during
story telling.     For example she says somewhere that the most entertaining
storyteller is not necessarily the one telling a story that has the best
structure when you write it down.   You can also look for work by Paul
Brodwin,
 an
Anthropologist.   I found very useful information in his book "Medicine and
Morality in Haiti."    For example, if you take public transportation from
Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes for example, the passengers are silent throughout
the
city and the Carrefour neighborhood, then when the truck starts going fast on
an uncrowded road, people start talking and often have arguments about very
important things   such as religion.   This is something you would never
witness

in the United States.
The most important thing I believe about Haitian Conversational Patterns is
that people often talk for entertainment.   You'll hear people say "Nou te
chita, nou t'ap bay odyans".   Literal translation would be, we were sitting,
we

were talking.   "Bay Odyans" is a mix between chatting and telling stories.
Canada-based researcher George Anglade calls "la lodyans" a literary style
unique to Haitian writers.   Many Haitian writers use it, sometimes without
even

knowing that it is a style that has been named.  A "lodyans" is sometimes
considered a story that meanders, sometimes a "mosaique" of loosely related
short
stories.   Edwidge Danticat's Krik Krak, and the Dew Breaker are such books,
other writers like Anglade himself, Marie Alice Theard, and Jean Desquiron have

published books of short stories in French.   Those books sort of follow the
greater pattern of an evening on a porch or under a tree.   Stories are sort of

connected, but you are not always sure what the connection is.
Finally my advice to you as a researcher is that you should collect your own
data by recording conversations among Haitians in a natural setting like a
barber shop or beauty parlor, and in family gatherings on a porch/galeri.   And

then make sure you look for "patterns of behavior".    No matter what people
tell you about how things Haitian don't make sense, they do.   All human
behavior is creative but follows some patterns.   Otherwise new members of
communities would not be able to learn.
There are a couple of Florida researchers called Sandra Fradd and Okhee Lee
who have done comparative research with Haitian students.   Because they could
not get the students to respond to their questions they qualified Haitian
children in negative ways (basically calling them stupid in fancy words).   Be
careful with that.   Silence has many meanings.   You need to find people in
places where they feel free to talk in order to hypothesize about
conversational

patterns.   You need to be welcomed and accepted in a way that your recording
doesn't affect your research.   In the US Haitians interject their Creole with
a lot of English.
Feel free to write to me in private if you wish to discuss this more.