Un Article sur le Creole

Le texte que je vais partager avec vous est une courtoisie de "Biscayne Boulevard times", un journal publié tous les mois a Miami en Floride. Ecris par une jeune Haitienne, etudiante en langue (Vanessa Armand), je l'ai trouvé interressant, et j'ai voulu le partager avec vous.

*Je vous signale que je ne suis pas l'auteur de ce texte.
C un texte de Vanessa Armand qu'on peut trouver sur www.biscayneboulevard.com

A bientot!

Babbas!!!

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November 2005: Kréyol: The Buried Language, Now Emerged Posted by: bbtnews on Tuesday, November 01, 2005 - 12:00 AM


By Vanessa ArmandBBT Contributing WriterAt CreoleTrans, a Haitian Creole translation service located at 375 N.E. 54th Street in Miami, Faidherbe Boyer, or Fedo, works with the language daily as his tool for business.

Their seventh year in business, CreoleTrans usually works on small projects, providing quality translations to its clients. Recently, CreoleTrans has been working in association with Dave Lawrence, president of the Early Childhood Foundation in Miami to create Haitian Creole materials for young Haitian students. CreoleTrans has just completed the translation of series of books for children printed by the Hutton Mithlin Company.

“Chen gen kat pyé men li pakab maché nan kat chemen” is Boyer’s favorite Haitian proverb. Translation: “Dogs have four legs but they can’t walk in four paths.” This proverb is an example of how complex and meaningful, but beautiful, Haitian Creole is. It is an incredibly important aspect of the Haitian culture, and plays a role in Haiti’s past, present and future by reflecting the country’s history and development through time, from slavery to independence to 2005.

Haitian Creole is a language that developed out of slavery. The contact of West African tongues with European languages, predominantly French, forms the roots of Haitian Creole. Because of its connection with slavery, “Kreyol se yon lang stigmatizé,” Creole is a language that carries a stigma, according to Jean Robert Cadely, who is a professor in the Modern Languages Department at Florida International University. Upon learning that I speak Haitian Creole as well, Cadely insisted on speaking to me in his native language.

Although Haitians have been speaking Creole since before independence in 1804, it is only in 1979 that a law permitted it to be a language of instruction. The Constitution of 1983 declared both French and Creole as the country’s national languages but specified that French would be the official language. However, it was in 1987 that the Constitution granted Creole to be an official language to Haiti.

Boyer and Cadely both agree that Haitian Creole was not a language taught to them in school. On the contrary, they grew up speaking Haitian Creole outside of school because French was the dominant and accepted language in school. The French language holds the prestige and socio-economic weight that their parents wanted them to have. As teenagers, Boyer and Cadely each had individual influences that changed their perspective of the Haitian Creole language and made them realize the beauty in it, although they were taught the contrary.

Attending a bilingual high school in New York, Boyer heard Haitian Creole poetry and became interested in learning more about reading and writing Haitian Creole, since the language has usually been an oral tradition rather than a written language. In Haiti, Cadely was a staff member of a newspaper during the Francois Duvalier dictatorship in the 1970’s. As a rebellious act, the students decided to begin printing the newspaper in Haitian Creole instead of the conventional French. From then on, Cadely became interested in Haitian Creole and now teaches it at FIU.

It is only recently that schools have decided to include Haitian Creole in their curriculum. Their delay in doing so creates a problem for students to learn effectively in school. “Instruction is a prolongation of education, but in Haiti, it’s like home education and school education are fighting,” explains Cadely. Creole is the informal, everyday language, while French is used in formal situations: schools, newspapers, the law, official documents, etc. “Even now sometimes you go to a bank and you address someone in Creole and they look at you like ‘What do you mean? Are you assuming that I can’t speak French?’” says Boyer.

The process has been extremely slow, but attitudes toward French and Creole are changing. French still serves as an indicator of higher social class, while Creole is viewed as the language of the poor masses. 100 percent of Haitians use Creole as a means of expression, but there has been a mystique built around French by those who speak it in order to perpetuate the myth that Creole is a non-language without grammar. This is one reason why many Haitian refugees prefer to say that they do speak French, even if they don’t, not knowing that Spanish would be a more helpful language to them in Miami.

In Miami, wherever Haitians are, Creole is. On the Haitian Television Network, the radio, and in the streets of Little Haiti especially, Haitian Creole is the primary language to be heard. “The society functions in Creole,” says Boyer, “It’s our language.” Creole is the means of expression and communication among Haitians in Miami. It is the factor of identification as a Haitian. Before the “griyo” and “bannann pezé,” fried pork and flattened green plantains, Creole is the introduction to the Haitian culture to a foreigner. It is the unifying element for all Haitians around the world.

Via immigration, hundreds of thousands of Haitian Creole speakers live in other countries like Canada, France, Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas, as well as many other Caribbean nations. Haitian Creole’s usage in literature is small but growing. Educators, writers, and activists have emphasized the pride and written literacy in Creole, making the advancement and development of the language expand and grow. Haitian artists and scholars like Franck Etienne, Pradel Pompilus, and Yves Dejean prove that “Gason pa poté kanson pou bèl twèl,” Men do not wear pants to show off nice fabric. They have been the movers and shakers who have helped in slowly changing the negative perception of Haitian Creole and exposing the importance and beauty of the language. BBT