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26296: Mercure: (ask) Studies of Kreyol Grammar (fwd)




From: mercure1@verizon.net

Dear List,


I am now near to completing a little study of Haitian Creole grammar: a simple reference grammar with copious examples, detailing the tense system, uses of the infinitive, the gerund, purpose and result clauses, a phenomenon I call "reiteration to show subordination," &c. &c.

Before I began this, I looked into what was out there. I did not get the impression that there were any grammars of HC that combined accuracy, readability, and completeness.

I will now list the bibliography I have accumulated. I have not actually looked at many of these books, because copies exist only in distant libraries, or are only available for purchase. It would have been an expensive and time-consuming process to consult all of these works, and so I had to reply on informal (but generally negative) evaluations from individual linguists I knew.

The only book I was able to find that seemed to be on target was Valdman's Ann Pale Kreyol. This was thoroughly admirable, and in my own book I have done no more than build on his excellent foundation, expanding in areas space and the aims of an introductory textbook prohibited.


If anyone on the list is able to contradict the negative impression I recieved of the literature out there, and could support this by emailing me. oh let us say, the recommended grammarian's explanation of the function of TE when prefixed to a non-modal verb (e.g., m' te rive lakay le li rele m.), that would be quite good. (hint: if they say it makes the verb a perfect or a pluperfect, they miss the point. That describes what happens when we translate into English, but not of what TE always does to a non-modal verb).

The grammars I have seen or been told of are as follows:

I was unable to find a copy of Jean TARGETE, Advanced grammar of Haitian Creole,ort-au-Prince, Editions Fardin,1972. I did see Valdman's, Le créole: structure, statut et origine, Paris: Klincksick, 1978. This was splendid, but concentrated on the larger field of french Creoles., There are several books written by Pradel Pompilus in the 1970's or early 80's, which I found.

I was also unable to access a copy of Vedrine's Grame Keyol.

I am also aware of, though I have not seen, discussions of HC syntax by Chomskian linguists: Claire Lefebvre et al. La syntaxe de l'haïtien (Ann Arbor: Karoma), 1982, and Michel DeGRaff. He lists his recent articles on his WEB page.


this morning to I browsed the website of the Haitian book center, and found a number of works which may render my efforts superfluous. "Comment ecrire le crole haitien" by Yves Dejean; "Elements de Grammaire Creole" by Robert Damoiseau, "Haitian Creole in Ten Steps" by Robert Savain, "La Langue Creole d'Haiti" by Gerard Montes, :"Le Creole Haitien" by Dominique Fatier, "Spoken Creole for Intermediate Learners" by Marc Prou.

Do none of these people present the material thoroughly and well? I don't reject this as a possibility. On the other hand, there are quite as many dictionaries available which do not come within telescope range of Freeman's. It may be a similar situation.

My completed Grammar will be only about 30 pages long and should be done in a usable version by the end of October. I will be posting this online in PDF format without charge.

On my own behalf, I will say that it is a very direct and unpretentious little work, adopting a "nuts and bolts" approach. I am myself quite pleased with it, since it has enabled me to read through all the texts in Hall's collection, correctly parsing every construction, identifying the rare errors in transcriptionas well as the impossible corruptions, and, (for me most satisfyingly,) making clear the apalling errors in the translation of the Gospel of Luke into Creole. (Yes, the infamous TE construction. Lordy!)

At this point however, any advice about works that are worth the (sometimes considerable) trouble of consulting will be warmly appreciated. The explanation of the TE construction will be the my touchstone for the recommended works.

thanks to any who write in,


Jacob Rabinowitz