This research project will be the first large-scale study of the social factors and attitudes that influence the use of different varieties of Haitian Creole, the most widely spoken creole language in the world. It unites the eight million Haitians of all backgrounds living in Haiti with the Haitian Diaspora in the United States, Canada, France and other countries around the world. The United States boasts the largest and most important segment of the Haitian Diaspora, numbering more than one million, and for whom Creole is a heritage language. In Haiti, Haitian Creole is recognized along with French as the co-official language; however, 90% of the population speak only that language. Haitian Creole has the distinction of being one of the few creoles that has developed a standardized written form used in the administrative and educational spheres and disseminated by the media, especially through radio. The standardized written form is based principally on the variety spoken in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince. It differs widely from the dialect spoken in the Cape Haitian region, which was the main urban center during the French colonial period. A significant innovation of the proposed study is its focus on the interaction between the standardized variety and the Cape Haitian dialect. Another important contribution is the compilation of a massive database illustrating the heretofore little described Cape Haitian dialect that will be made available to the scholarly community and interested persons in the form of a CD-ROM.
The spread of a prestige form of a language from the capital city outward, which characterizes the development of major languages like English and French, can typically only be reconstructed indirectly. This study will make possible direct observation of the processes that shape this development. The research will help to determine the extent to which the pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary that characterize the Cape Haitian dialect are being replaced by corresponding forms of the standard variety spoken in Port-au-Prince. Moreover, since the Cape Haitian dialect reflects earlier forms of the language, the study will also shed light on the development of Haitian Creole, as well as that of creole languages in general. Data will be collected in Cape Haitian and in the surrounding rural areas from older subjects as well as middle school students who are being schooled in Haitian Creole. Faculty and students of a teacher-training college located in Cape Haitian will collaborate in conducting the research along with American graduate students. The Haitian collaborators will gain valuable training in studying the social factors that shape language use, while their American counterparts will be provided with an opportunity to conduct fieldwork in a cultural context highly different from their own.
