Genetic Descent/Haitian Creole

[Mikael Parkvall]

Steve Long wrote:

>Haitian Creole speakers were largely descended from West African speakers.
>Haitian Creole used West African lexicon and 17th Century French affixes.
>What is the possible usefulness of calling it French and not African?

My comment doesn't really address the issue under debate, but only this
specific detail of Steve's argumentation.

To the best of my knowledge, no variety of Haitian Creole has ever been
attested in which African words make up more than a couple of per cent (at
the very best) of the vocabulary. The lexicon of Haitian is normally
considered to be more than 80% (citing from memory, but I could probably
come up with references if neccessary) of French origin, regardless of
whether you consider the core lexicon or the whole vocab. Given that most
French affixes -- though they do exist -- have got lost on their way, it
would make more sense (which doesn't mean it would be correct) to describe
Haitian as French lexicon and no affixes rather than Afro lexicon and
french affixes.

More relevant to the debate, I think it is unfortunate that creoles
sometimes are cited on par with intertwined languages in debates on genetic
descent. A pidgin or a creole is not neccessarily -- contrary to belief
among non-experts (and quite a few experts) -- particularly mixed, and it
should be obvious to anyone who bothers to take a closer look that Tok
Pisin and Michif certainly aren't very structurally alike.

A deliberate oversimplification which would need to be taken by more than a
grain of salt, but which have some truth to it is that while a non-contact
language has one parent, an intertwiner has two, and a pidgin or creole none.

Mikael Parkvall