8458: You say Voodoo, I say Vodou (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jean Jean-Pierre <jean@acd-pc.com>


Conquerors write history, they say.  The case of Haiti could not be more
antithetical.
We kicked the French asses and they (Frères de l' Instruction
Chretienne) wrote our history and imposed on us their culture and
obviously their language.
Our soccer coach  Bob Corbett’s claim on being  politically incorrect
smacks to me of quite the opposite: if Webster says it, it must be
true.  This idea of a rigid English orthography for every proper
geographic locality is basically flawed; France, Paris, Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, Martinique etc… are quite
illustrative of that verity.  Isn’t a fact that just as etymologists
study the history of a particular word, dictionary editors only codify
said word?  If so, isn’t evident that  a people would have to, before
any study, create their language with its idioms by sheer collective
usage?   Nothing is so definitive.  Even in France where there is an
active language academy, I witnessed a few years back a very intense
national debate over the superfluousness of the ê (accent circonflexe)
with a large segment of the population wanting to replace it with the è
(accent grave).

Until about the late 70s, our Kreyol orthography was strictly French
based.   Around that time UNESCO financed a project to standardize the
Kreyol.  Professor  Vernet (his first name escapes me) was among the
leading linguists to have played an important role in the project.  In
1979 the government of Baby Doc passed a law (or a resolution?) adopting
such written standard (brother GuyAntoine got it right).
So after 175 years of relegating our tongue to a second (or worse)
category status, we, as a people, began affirming our identity through
the medium we all speak.
I agree with Bob, when used as an adjective regarding the entire body or
religion, the v does not have to be a majuscule.
Nevertheless, as Guy and the others have so eloquently stated, Voodoo
/voodoo has been so besmirched, soiled, perverted  by racist Hollywood
since the 30s, that I believe, regardless of all logically etymological
assertions, we, as a people, should kill it.
The position of our gracious host is very logical and objective.  But we
are not talking about logic here.
It is more than a “You say potato, I say potåto” dialectic colloquy.  It
is a matter of national affirmation.
Jean Jean-Pierre