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Haiti Changes in Language Use
The use of Creole, even in formal settings, increased
throughout the 1970s and the 1980s. Conversations at elite
dinner
tables, once held rigidly in French, switched fluidly
between
French and Creole, even within the same sentence. Radio
and
television stations increased broadcasts in Creole as
advertisers
learned the utility of reaching the vast majority of their
market. Radio provided widespread access to news, which
helped to
break down the isolation of the peasantry and to galvanize
the
population during the crisis that led to the fall of the
Duvalier
regime. In 1986 it became obvious that important changes
had
taken place in Haiti, as people who had been in exile for
years
began to return home to run for the presidency. Many
arrived at
the Port-au-Prince airport with French speeches in hand
but found
themselves confronted by journalists who insisted on
speaking
Creole.
The emergence of English as an important language of
business
affected attitudes toward French. Growing trade with the
United
States and the development of assembly industries funded
by
investors from the United States led to greater use of
English in
commercial settings. English also became more important as
Haitians migrated to the United States and as many members
of the
elite sent their children to North American educational
institutions.
English cut across class lines. Hundreds of
French-speaking
elite families spent years of exile in the United States
during
the Duvalier period, and they returned to Haiti fluent in
English. Many Creole speakers who went to the United
States also
returned to Haiti as fluent English speakers. Haitian
migration
to the United States and trade with North America also
resulted
in the introduction of English words into the Creole
lexicon. For
many monolinguals, learning English appeared more
practical than
learning French, and English posed fewer psychological and
social
obstacles. The availability and the popularity of Englishlanguage television programs on Haiti's private cable
service
helped familiarize Haitians with the language. Spanish
also had
become fairly wide in Haiti, largely because of migration
to the
Dominican Republic.
Data as of December 1989
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