Search

Dans le contexte de l’intronisation de l’Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen (Académie du créole haïtien) dont l’une des tâches serait d’« encourager des travaux de développement d’outils linguistiques tels grammaires, dictionnaires, lexiques en créole dans tous les domaines », nous traitons de deux aspects fondamentaux de la standardisation et de l’instrumentalisation du créole haïtien. Premièrement, nous examinons la normalisation de l’orthographe officielle, en particulier, le traitement de la variation morphophonologique en prenant comme exemple la variation entre la forme pleine et la forme élidée du pronom de la troisième personne du singulier. Deuxièmement, nous faisons l’inventaire des dictionnaires bilingues créole haïtien-français existants publiés en Haïti dans la perspective de leur utilité pour un lectorat scolaire et de la description du lexique de la langue. Nous terminons par des remarques sur la question de la création d’une métalangue pour l’élaboration de dictionnaires unilingues conformes aux normes de la lexicographie professionnelle. In the context of the official founding of the Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen one of whose task would be : « encourager des travaux de développement d’outils linguistiques tels grammaires, dictionnaires, lexiques en créole dans tous les domaines » (‘to encourage the development of linguistic tools such as grammars, dictionaries, lexicons in creole in all domains’), we treat two fundamental aspects of the standardization and instrumentalization of Haitian Creole. First, we examine the normalization of the official spelling, in particular the treatment of morphophonological variation taking as example the variation between the full and elided variants of the third person singular pronoun. Second, we dress the inventory of existing Haitian Creole-French bilingual dictionaries published in Haiti from the perspective of a school readership as from the description of the lexical resources of the language. We end with observations on the issue of the creation of a metalanguage for the preparation of monolingual dictionaries that meet the standards of professional lexicography.

Among French-based creoles, Haitian Creole has the highest degree of standardization, with a written norm, Standard Haitian Creole (SHC), based on Port-au-Prince monolinguals’ speech. To evaluate the influence of SHC on regional varieties, we conducted, in and around Cap Haïtien, a sociolinguistic study of Northern Haitian Creole (Capois). In addition to stereotypical features such as the possessive kin a + pronoun (vs. SHC pa + pronoun), we uncovered several Capois features still in widespread use in Northern Haiti. In this article, we focus on the most frequently occurring variable, the third person singular pronoun (3sg), which alternates between SHC li/l, and Capois i/y. We show that SHC li has yet to replace Capois i, which is preferred by a large proportion of community members. For both the rural and urban populations, this variable is conditioned by syntactic and phonological factors. Despite shared tendencies, urban speakers’ lower rate of Capois variant use and stronger phonological conditioning may be due to their greater exposure to speakers from other areas of Haiti, and to closer contact with the standard. Although most speakers, especially older ones, recognized SHC’s higher prestige, they evidenced more positive attitudes toward their own speech.

This article describes a project aiming to produce the first bilingual Haitian Creole-French/French-Haitian Creole dictionary aimed for school pupils. It opens with an inventory of the major bilingual dictionaries of French-based creoles. Next, it reviews the level of standardization attained by Haitian Creole and then discusses basic methodological issues in bilingual lexicography, namely the delimitation of the nomenclature, the classification of phonological variants, and the selection of illustrative examples. It concludes with a demonstration of the use of computer technology in lexicography and describes a computerized lexical data base for Haitian Creole from which can be generated various types of bilingual dictionaries and, eventually if such a need is felt by the Haitian Creole speaking community, of a monolingual dictionary for that language.

Cette contribution passe en revue les problemes fondamentaux qui se posent dans la creation d’une norme ecrite pour le creole haitien : (1) la selection parmi les variantes topolectales et stratolectales ; (2) l’elaboration d’une orthographe autonome systematique a base phonologique au lieu d’une graphie etymologique refletant celle du francais standard ; (3) la normalisation face a des alternances morphophonologiques libres ou refletant la variation diaphasique. Elle aborde la question de la preparation d’un dictionnaire unilingue, veritable pierre de voute de l’œuvre de standardisation.

Albert Valdman traces the history of AILA through his memories of its origins in the early 1960s in France to its place today as the umbrella organization of over 30 national associations from all over the world. He begins with a discussion of AILA’s early days — centered in Western Europe and focused on language learning — and follows its expansion in North America and the rest of the world and to other domains of applied linguistics. Along the way, he cites significant meetings, resulting publications, research groups, the question of language use within the organization and many linguists who have contributed to the evolution of AILA.

A signal event in the history of language policy in France was the recognition in 2000 of French-lexifier creoles as languages that students in secondary schools could select as subject matter. This decision by the ministry of education placed these languages on an equal footing with the heretofore officially recognized regional languages, such as Breton or Corsican. For these languages to be taught in French secondary schools, teachers needed to be certified by an examination, the CAPES (Certificat d'Aptitude au Professorat de l'Enseignement Secondaire). This book by the leading creolist of the French Antilles is part of a series of handbooks for prospective candidates for that diploma.

Saint Barthélemy (SB) has long remained a linguistic enigma. This islet – home of an indigenous, mostly White population of about 3,000 – is divided into at least three linguistic zones: one whose vernacular is a French-based creole; the second, a northern French (oïl) dialect; and the third, English. Calvet, a leading French sociolinguist, and Chaudenson, an eminent French creolist, have set out to explain how, as a result of social insularity triggered by intertwined geographical and economic factors, an apparently ethnically homogeneous population, established on a 25-sq.-km. isolate, became so linguistically diverse. They also provide a brief comparative description of the French-related varieties used by this population, and an indication of its linguistic attitudes (as reflected by the testimony of teenage members of its two subcommunities).

This response to Jean-Marie Salien's editorial “Quebec French: Attitudes and Pedagogical Perspectives” (MLJ, 82, 1998, pp. 95–102) deals with linguistic variation—particularly as it exists in Quebec—and aims at familiarizing students of French as a foreign language in the U.S. with variation in that language. The article stresses how important it is for French teachers to have an accurate understanding of the French spoken in Quebec. A characterization of Quebec French should include the different varieties spoken, recognize sociolinguistic differences, and acknowledge the functional effectiveness of all varieties. To acquaint American learners of French with language variation, it is appropriate to expose them to the varieties that can be found in neighboring communities, such as Quebec. This exposure can begin early so that learners will be able to recognize local particularities and variation. The use of a “pedagogical norm” is advisable, however, in guiding the learners’ own usage, because attitudes toward linguistic variants can produce negative reactions to nonnative speaker use of these features.

On April 23rd of this year, at the initiative of the current group of editorial assistants (Elizabeth Grace Winkler, Llorenç Comajoan, and Donald F. Reindl), a symposium was organized on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University to celebrate the 20th anniversary of SSLA's founding. Presentations on the past, present, and future state of research on second language acquisition were presented by Editorial Board and Advisory Committee members Susan Gass, John Schumann, Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig, and Patsy Lightbown. It is noteworthy that this commemorative event, the creation of SSLA, would not have taken place without the direct intervention of another group of graduate students, the Indiana University Linguistics Club. Without the IULC producing and disseminating the fledgling publication that was SSLA in 1978, the journal would never have made it beyond the drawing board. In this note prefacing the last issue of Volume 20, I would like to narrate the conditions of SSLA's birth and comment on the journal's contribution to second language acquisition research.

This paper presents a hypothesis for the genesis of Creole French by drawing conclusions from an illustrative comparison of Louisiana Creole and Haitian Creole, and by presenting a depiction of the social-historical context in which Louisiana Creole developed.Bickerton's bioprogram and Baker and Corne's model comparing Mauritian Creole and its Reunionese congener are considered and found to be inadequate descriptions of the genesis of Creole French, since they assume that all parts of colonial Saint-Domingue, the île Bourbon (Reunion) and the île de France (Mauritius) had the same demographic mix and social structure. This paper offers and alternative model which suggests that French planation colonies did not constitute monolithic socio–politico–economic entities. On the contrary, differences in social setting were reflected by variartions in the local form of Creole French. Furthermore, certain structural features were diffused from one territory to another via the focal centres that also diffused the colonial model of social, political and economic organization. These are considered together to account for the range of variation found today in Louisiana Creole, and to explain the striking similarities between Louisiana Cre le and its geographically most proximate Creole French congener, Haitian Creole.

Francophone literature and culture have become the leading area of growth in French studies in the US; thus this broad-ranging critical examination of the notion of francophonie constitutes a timely contribution.

Valdman Albert. L'évolution du lexique dans les créoles à base lexicale française. In: L'Information Grammaticale, N. 85, 2000. pp. 53-60.