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[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com

Madison Bell wrote:
Albert Valdman, in Yale French Studies # 107 quotes the word "zottes" from
a colonial-era text and translates the word to mean "you"  vis

On Zòt:

" Zòt" is not an everyday Haitian word for Haitians and is Old Creole.
Here is what I find in Jules Faines dictionnaire Français -Creole, first
published in the 1930's.
"Autres est employe dans certains patois pour renforcer les pronoms personels
(nous autres, eux-autres,) qui se traduisent ainsi par "zaute" or "zòte".
Mais "zaute"   plus specifiquement l'equivalent de "vous-autres".
D'ailleurs,
meme "zaute" pour "vous-autres" n'est guere usite.   "Nous autres",
"eux-autres" se traduisent le plus souvent par Nous-meme, yaux-meme.
So he basically says that the tendency is to use Nou-menm, yo-menm and that
the meaning of "zot" to mean "you-all" is sort of out of use.

So this does not fully contradict Valdman but it seems that it could   mean
We, they, or you.
Suzanne Sylvain in Le Creole Haitien published in 1936 says that Zot means
"you" second person plural among people around Les Cayes, and means "they",
third person plural among some Nothern Haitians.   She also notes that these
usages are disappearing in favor of "la-yo" for the 3rd person plural.
I believe that in the last few years we have seen a revival of the use of
"Zot" that may be influenced by other Creoles.   I think that in the way I
hear
it these days it means "others" "people"...
Others might chime in on this since language is best described by it's users.
  Maybe people who use it can say what they mean.
Zòt ka di sa yo/nou panse sou sa?
Josiane


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