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#3534: DeGraff on the linguistics of "mambo" and of "Mambo Sans Bout..." (fwd)
From: Michel DeGraff <degraff@MIT.EDU>
Re:
> << In Haitian Creole, "Mambo" should be written "manbo" --- according to
> Haitian
> Creole orthography. >>
> Incorrect. The word Mambo is not pronounced with an "n" and is not written
> so in Creole.
[...]
> I wish you would read what I wrote. I repeat that my initiatory Houngan
> intended me to write that phrase in French. I freely confess that I do not
> speak or write French nearly as well as I do Creole.
I see. Thus the `correct' Creole spelling "mambo" and the `corrected'
Creole spelling "nom vayan". (See my previous post.)
Reading such arguments, I must admit that my own reasoning powers are
getting exhausted. As I'd say in Creole: "sans mwen bout kounyen an"...
I'll just let other and more patient list readers who ARE competent in
Haitian Creole and its spelling assess the above statements from the "Mambo
Sans Bout...".
> You know you are my neighbor? I am right around the corner from you, in
> Roxbury. Wanna do lunch? :-)
I have a better idea. Perhaps the "Mambo Sans Bout..." will instead want to
consult the various Haitian Creole dictionaries and reference grammars
available "around the corner", in Boston and Cambridge. How about
attending the Creole Institute at UMass-Boston this Summer? This may be a
better way to spend money instead of doing lunch with a Haitian linguist
who (it now seems to the Mambo) doesn't know much about Haitian Creole.
Well, who knows?, maybe one day, the "Mambo Sans Bout..." will be so kind
as to teach me a little about Haitian Creole spelling (over lunch?).
-michel.
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