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The lexical particularities of French in the Haitian press: Readers' perceptions and appropriation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2005

CORINNE ÉTIENNE
CORINNE ÉTIENNE
Affiliation:
Program of Applied Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA e-mail: corinne.etienne@umb.edu
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Abstract

Regional French varieties in language contact situations have been widely discussed in Francophone studies. Defining a variety of French involves showing its specificity when compared to other French varieties, assessing its sociolinguistic functionality, and reporting on its speakers' linguistic representations (Robillard, 1993a). This article probes the reactions of a group of the Creole/French bilingual Haitian elite to a sample of lexical particularities drawn from a corpus of the Haitian press (1986–1998). It reports on participants' tolerance or stigmatization of these particularities and explores the reasons for their reactions. Findings indicate participants' concern with creolisms, notably those that are politically related or literal translations from Creole. This concern reveals participants' linguistic ambivalence and reflects the bilingual elite's linguistic identity, which is still influenced by Haiti's colonial past.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , November 2005 , pp. 257 - 277
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

For their helpful comments on earlier versions of this work, I wish to thank Albert Valdman, Julie Auger, Kevin Rottet, and Pepi Leistyna. I am also very grateful to Rachel Anderson for her invaluable editing assistance.