Language
The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole. All Haitians speak Haitian Creole, while only about 10% of the population can be considered bilingual in French and Haitian Creole. More than half of this 10% is less than fluent in French. About 90% of the population speaks Haitian Creole only.
Traditionally, the two languages served different functions, with Haitian Creole the informal everyday language of all the people, regardless of social class, and French the language of formal situations: schools, newspapers, the law and the courts, and official documents and decrees. However, because the vast majority of Haitians speak only Creole, there have been efforts in recent years to expand its uses. In 1979, a law was passed that permitted Creole to be the language of instruction, and the Constitution of 1983 gave Creole the status of a national language. However, it was only in 1987 that the Constitution granted official status to Creole.
Attitudes toward French and Haitian Creole have been slow to change, however. Ever since colonial times, fluency in French has served as an indicator of social class. Since only whites and educated mulatto freedmen spoke French in colonial times, knowledge of French became the distinguishing trait between those who had been free before the Revolution and those who had only recently acquired freedom; and it ensured the superior status of the mulattos.
Although Haitians of all classes take pride in their native language as a means of expression, many have built a mystique around French and perpetuated the myth of Haitian Creole as a nonlanguage which has no rules. Thus it is not surprising that almost all Haitian refugees will claim to be able to speak French (even if they don't). In addition, there is still great controversy in Haiti over using Haitian Creole (and teaching Haitian Creole literacy) in schools; the U.S. counterpart of this controversy is evident in the stance of some Haitians against bilingual Haitian Creole programs in their local schools.
Read more about this topic: Haitian People
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