'Haitian' or 'Haitian Creole'?

[Bambi Schieffelin]

Echoing Ron Kephart's response, in our 1994 American Ethnologist article (12, 1:176-200) on the orthography debates in Haiti, Dr. Rachelle Doucet and I referred to Haitian as kreyòl which was the term used in Haiti at the time (see fn 1). Such language naming practices do change over time, and vary according to place, users, and context.

BBS

----- Original Message -----
From: Ronald Kephart <ronkephart at COMCAST.NET>
Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 12:30 pm
Subject: Re: [LINGANTH] 'Haitian' or 'Haitian Creole'?
To: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG

> For what it's worth, Yves Dejean calls it "kreyòl" in his nifty little 
> 
> book /Ann etidiye lang nou an /[Let's study our language] (Demen Miyò, 
> 
> 1995). Which is entirely in Kreyòl, by the way.  But it is really a 
> difficult issue, this business of what to call a language.  I think 
> (and 
> I may be wrong) that people in the Seychelles call their French Creole 
> 
> "Seselwa."  On Carriacou where I work, people call their French Creole 
> 
> either "Patwa" or "Broken French."  They also call their English 
> Creole 
> "Broken English."  What to do....  I have a paper in progress titled 
> Taking the "Broken" out of "Broken English."  Belizeans on the other 
> hand have taken to calling their (English) Creole "Kriol."
> 
> Ron
> 
> 
> On 1/12/11 7:47 AM, Damien Hall wrote:
> > Apologies for cross-postings. This message has just appeared on the 
> 
> > LINGUIST List:
> >
> > http://linguistlist.org/issues/22/22-188.html
> >
> > Damien
> >
> > =================
> >
> > Date: 11-Jan-2011
> > From: Hyppolite Pierre <hpierre at irsp.org>
> > Subject: Language Name: Haitian instead of Haitian Creole
> >
> >
> > My name is Hyppolite Pierre and I am Haitian-American. I am very
> > interested in the debate about the way we call the language. In 
> fact, I
> > absolutely refuse to call the language "Haitian Creole" and instead, 
> I
> > simply call it "Haitian", which I believe is the appropriate term.
> >
> > Could you point me to any other scholarly material where linguists like
> > yourselves use the term "Haitian" as well?
> >
> > I am glad that there is a growing body of scholars and intellectuals 
> who
> > see and understand the danger in calling the language "Haitian
> > Creole", but would like to know of any other links, scholarly materials,
> > and intellectuals who also call the language "Haitian".
> >
> > I know among others, that Jean Price-Mars, Pradel Pompilus and
> > also Maximilien Laroche preferred the term "Haitian". I also know that
> > Roger Savain and Michel Rolph Trouillot have done the same. Are
> > there any others?
> >
> > This is a very serious and "live" debate that can benefit Haiti, and 
> I
> > would love to know more about it.
> >
> > Very best to you,
> > Hyppolite Pierre