Saturday, July 21, 2012

I'm learning Kreyol & every program spells words differently. Is there not a government recognized, official spelling for words? Don't the Haitian schools teach a standard spelling? If so, is there a website with the correct spellings? Thanks so much! :)

Yes there is a standard spelling based on notes and letters sent to all the schools in Haiti in the1980's by the Depatman Edikasyon Nasyonal (National Education Department). And these standards have been taught in Haiti's Primary/Elementary classes since Haitian students were being introduced to Haitian Creole as an official language.

In the recommendations made by the Haitian educational department it is acceptable to continue to have words with two or more different spellings such as gerizon or lagerizon for healing; otèl or lotèl for hotel; sante or lasante for health; etc...


Sometimes different regions may speak a word differently such as ponko, poko, pako for not yet; ide, ede, ride, ende for to help; etc...  That's acceptable.

Or a French-derived expression might be written two different acceptable ways such as: salamanje or sal a manje for dining room; maltèt, malotèt, tètfèmal, or tèt fè mal for headache


You will also find that Haitians have the options of using a dash, apostophe, or nothing at all when using contractions.  And the biggest thing of all, I believe there's still a debate on whether to call the language Kreyòl or Ayisyen.

Most Haitian Creole documents that I find online are pretty much following the guidelines of the new Òtograf Kreyòl.  But you must remember that although every Haitian speaks Creole only a very very small percentage have learned how to write Creole (as of now).

So a good Haitian Creole dictionary would definitely give you an alternative spelling for a word if it exists.  Fequière Vilsaint and Jean Evens Berret's English - Haitian Creole Haitian Creole - English Word to Word Dictionary (although not a complete dictionary) does that. Raphael G. Urciolo and Jean Targète's Haitian Creole - English Dictionary does a very good job at that too (this dictionary might not be available, I have not been able to find it anywhere).
And, the following Wikipedia site, written in Creole, is a good resource for the correct usage and spelling of Haitian Creole: http://ht.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lengwistik_kreyòl_ayisyen

Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words

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