Language and Literacy

The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole. All Haitians speak Haitian Creole, while only about 10% of the population can be considered bilingual in French and Haitian Creole. More than half of this 10% is less than fluent in French. About 90% of the population speaks Haitian Creole only.

Traditionally, the two languages served different functions, with Haitian Creole the informal everyday language of all the people, regardless of social class, and French the language of formal situations: schools, newspapers, the law and the courts, and official documents and decrees. However, because the vast majority of Haitians speak only Creole, there have been efforts in recent years to expand its uses. In 1979, a law was passed that permitted Creole to be the language of instruction, and the Constitution of 1983 gave Creole the status of a national language. However, it was only in 1987 that the Constitution granted official status to Creole.

Attitudes toward French and Haitian Creole have been slow to change, however. Ever since colonial times, fluency in French has served as an indicator of social class. Since only whites and educated mulatto freedmen spoke French in colonial times, knowledge of French became the distinguishing trait between those who had been free before the Revolution and those who had only recently acquired freedom; and it ensured the superior status of the mulattos.

Although Haitians of all classes take pride in their native language as a means of expression, many have built a mystique around French and perpetuated the myth of Haitian Creole as a nonlanguage which has no rules. Thus it is not surprising that almost all Haitian refugees will claim to be able to speak French (even if they don't). In addition, there is still great controversy in Haiti over using Haitian Creole (and teaching Haitian Creole literacy) in schools; the U.S. counterpart of this controvery is evident in the stance of some Haitians against bilingual Haitian Creole programs in their local schools.

What is "Creole"?

Traditionally, the name used to refer to the language spoken in Haiti is Creole, or kreyòl, as the word is written and pronounced by native speakers. However, some intellectuals have recently begun to use the term ayisyen (Haitian), not only to distinguish it from the generic term "creole," which refers to a number of languages, but also as a symbol of national identity. Nevertheless, in this guide we are following tradition and use the term Creole or Haitian Creole.

The term "creole" derives from the Portuguese word crioulo, meaning a person of European ancestry born and raised abroad. A creole language is a natural language that arises from languages in contact with one another and is directly related to a pidgin. Commonly viewed as a trade language, a pidgin is a simplification of a base language, with generous contributions from other languages, used to fulfill special, but temporary, communication needs. Pidgins have been used by sailors, traders, and pirates. They are native to no one; in other words, no one speaks a pidgin as a first language. Since a pidgin is used only for certain kinds of communication, it is restricted in form and usage. However, when a pidgin becomes the native language of an individual (and subsequently, many individuals who form a speech community), a creole language is born.

Although creole languages are often regarded negatively because of their relation to pidgins, it is important to note that a creole language is not just a simplified form of a given language, but a full-fledged language that is capable of serving all the intellectual, psychological, and social needs of its speakers. There are many creole languages in use around the world, such as Afrikaans (a Dutch-based creole language); Neo-Melanesian (an English-based creole language); Chamorro (often regarded as a Spanish-based creole language); and a number of French-based creole languages.

Linguists do not agree on the origins of the various creole languages found around the world, and this is certainly the case with Haitian Creole. Some believe that it emerged from a Romance-based pidgin (Afro-Portuguese), used by sailors, slaves, and slave traders who came in contact with the nonstandard, 17th century French of the first settlers. Others believe that Haitian Creole is a derivative of a pidgin spoken by Portuguese and French sailors in the 15th and 16th centuries, and that its history predates the settlement of Haiti. In any case, it is important to remember that French and Haitian Creole are two distinct languages, and not varieties of the same language. Haitian Creole grammar (or syntax) has strong characteristics of African languages, while its vocabulary is mostly of French origin, with contributions from Spanish, African languages, and, much later, English.

Literacy in Haiti

According to the 1982 census in Haiti, more than 60% of the adult population is illiterate, and the rate of illiteracy is even higher in rural areas. Unfortunately, the census failed to record the degree of literacy and the language(s) in which the population was literate. Although school enrollment has consistently increased since the 1970s, only about 40% of children in the compulsory school-age group (7–13) are enrolled in primary school. This rate is higher in Port-au-Prince and much lower in outlying rural areas. In the rural areas, students' educations are often interrupted during the harvest and rainy seasons.

Attempts to write Haitian Creole date back to the 18th century, but because of its low status in Haiti, until recently there has been little interest in writing anything but French. The first systematic orthography was developed in the 1940s by an Irish Methodist minister, Ormande McConnell, and the American literacy specialist Frank Laubach. This writing system was based on the International Phonetic Alphabet and represented the sounds of the language in a way that is independent of French. In the 1950s, two Haitians, Charles-Fernand Pressoir and Lelio Faublas, philologist and educator, respectively, modified the McConnell–Laubach spelling to include changes that were more closely related to French. The Faublas–Pressoir orthography remained the accepted system of writing Haitian Creole until 1975. At that time, the National Pedagogic Institute (IPN), in preparation for the reform program that later introduced Haitian Creole in the schools, developed an orthography that included elements of the two systems previously in use. This spelling system was given formal recognition by the Haitian government in 1979. Today, most Haitian language materials in Haiti and in U.S. Haitian communities use the IPN orthography, which employs a consistent, one sound–one symbol correspondence.

Despite recent developments, major obstacles remain in helping the masses in Haiti achieve literacy. Although experts agree that it is easier to become literate in one's first language, implementation of the education reform has been slow. Many sectors of the population do not see the value of becoming literate in Creole. This attitude is even found among the poor, who tend to view education as a means of escaping poverty rather than as a means for learning; as a result, they are especially concerned that their children learn French. While the reform had sought to make Haitian Creole the language of all primary grades, the government was forced under pressure to limit its use to the first four grades only. Other obstacles to Haitian Creole literacy are its lack of a body of literature, the small (but growing) number of textbooks in Creole, and the lack of teachers both willing and trained to teach Creole literacy.

www.culturalorientation.net
For more information contact sanja@cal.org.
Designed by SAGARTdesign
This site looks best when viewed using Netscape Navigator 3.0 or higher. Last Updated:02/18/04