Some Notes on the Development of the Haitian Language in Written Form

Bob Corbett

(Following the lead of Bryant Freeman's new dictionary [HAITIAN -- ENGLISH DICTIONARY], I've now the courage to stop speaking about "Creole" and talk about Haitian as the language of Haiti)

I found the following brief chronology of dates for the development of the written form of Haitian:

• 1801 Proclamatin du Premier Consul
• 1877 Audain: Proverbes Creoles
• 1884 Durand: Choucoune
• 1901 G. Sylvain: Cric? Crac!
• 1922 Catechism au Cap
• 1925 Doret: Vers le Francais par le Creole
• 1936 Faine: Philologie Creole [I have this work in my library, my earliest Haitian work]
• 1936 S. Sylvain: Le Creole Haitien
• 1939 Beaulieu: L'Ecole Reele
• 1944 Luk
• 1943 to 1946 Limie-Fos-Progre
• 1947 Pressoir: Debats sur le Creole
• 1953 Morrisseau-Leroy: antigone; Diacoute
• 1960 Marie Chauvet: Fonds des Negres
• 1961-67 ONEC: Nap Li, Liv pa nou, Parlons Francais, Komite Protestan Montre Moun Li-a

Taken from: "Literacy and the Question of Creole" by Paul Berry, p. 225. which is in: RESEARCH AND RESOURCES OF HAITI Richard P. Schaedel, editor. 1969.

Leslie Desmangles' additions:

• 1968 Louis Deroche's "Abrege istoua Daiti, 1492-1945." Port-au-Prince 1968.
• 1977 Rolph Trouillot's: "Ti dife boule sou istoua Ayiti. New York: Koleksion Lakansiel, 1977."

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