2669: Adieu to Dr. Pradel POMPILUS: Valdman comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: valdman <valdman@taloa.unice.fr>

I have had great esteem for Pradel Pompilus every since I made his
acquaitance at the home of Charles-Fernand Pressoir in 1964; the Dejean
brothers, Paul and Yves, were also present during my initiation to the
language planning issues in Haiti during the Papa Doc days.


His Ph.D. dissertation, La langue française en Haiti, stands as the only
thorough description of the French spoken in the country.  His secondary
thesis, a glossary of Haitian Creole, was also one of the first
lexicographic works on the language.  A decade after his major book, he
switched his interest to HC, and we owe him several descriptions of the
language readily accessible to any educated lay person.  As I pointed out
in a biographical sketch I did for the Carrier Pidgin (I will supply the
bibliographical reference when I return to Bloomington and have access to
my files), Pradel Pompilus introduced many young Haitians to the systematic
study of their national language during very difficult circumstances.  His
passing away deprives us of a scholar and teacher who was a model of
courage allied with modesty and dignity, probably the most influential
Haitian linguist of his generation.


Albert Valdman