Language Discrimination in Haiti: French Vs Haitian Creole

Even though Creole was influenced by French, the language has different grammar and sentence structure. This led to the birth of Creole as a separate language. Despite being the sole literary language since Haiti's independence, Creole received its status as the official language of Haiti in 1961 with orthography standardization taking place in 1979.

Michel DeGraff, linguistics professor of MIT, says that there is no point why Creole should not be considered as a legitimate language. He points out that French itself is derived from Latin and evolved in a process which is almost similar to Creole. So, if French is a legitimate language, so is Creole. Given the fact that 90% of Haitians speak Creole, it should get equal recognition as French. Through efforts of many intellectuals, Creole is gradually gaining popularity. Many literary works are now created in Creole. Television and radio programs as well as newspapers are also supporting the same through production in Creole language.

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Read more: Creole, Culture, Discrimination, French, Language, Michel DeGraff, Culture

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