Haitian Creole French and the Effects of a Contact Language on the Classical Vocal Repertory Composed for it

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1 Haitian Creole French and the Effects of a Contact Language on the Classical Vocal Repertory Composed for it Katherine Page Hughes Majors: Music and Linguistics Faculty Advisor: Sarah Weiss

2 Previous Knowledge Historically, the National language of Haiti was French. Now both French and Haitian Creole French are recognized as official National languages of Haiti. Haiti is one of the most densely populated (more-so than India or China), yet least developed countries in the world. 8 out of 10 Haitians live in rural areas. 5 of those 8 only farm enough to barely support their families. Haitian Creole French is sometimes used by upper and middle classes in private conversation, through the use of code switching and code alternation. HCF is used by the lower class in all aspects of life. Theories of the Formation of Haitian Creole French Slave holders had to be able to communicate with their slaves. One theory of the formation of Haitian Creole French is that slave holders, assuming that the slaves were too unintelligent to understand a language as complex as French, gave orders to the slaves in a simplified form of French or some kind of French baby-talk. Another situation arose in the necessity of the slaves to communicate among themselves. One possibility is that the slaves picked up a limited French lexicon from their masters, which they applied to the grammatical structures of their own African languages to communicate with one another.

3 Goals To collect classical vocal music written in Haitian Creole French To interview Haitians to better understand their ideas about the formation of the Creole To understand Haitian culture that surrounds the Creole To determine why composers would choose to write vocal music in Haitian Creole French, rather than standard French when during the time of composition, the official National language of Haiti was French To determine if there are differences between classical vocal Haitian music written in French and classical vocal Haitian music written in Creole To determine what these differences are To determine why there are these differences

4 Results The subject matter of many Haitian songs written in Creole deals with issues prevalent only to the lower and middle classes of Haitian citizens, thus composers felt that the pieces would better identify with the target audience if written in the native language of those people which is Creole. Several Haitian pieces written in Creole deal with Voudou, a traditionally African religious practice. There is not sufficient vocabulary in standard French to express the Voudou meaning behind many of the Creole texts because Voudou is not a part of French culture and the words that describe the practices do not exist in French. Because of this, the composer is obligated to use Creole in order to access the African vocabulary relating to Voudou and correctly convey the desired meaning of the text.

5 Significance Haitian classical vocal music is not very recognized throughout the world of classical vocal Western music. The Music Library at UNC currently contains no classical vocal music written in Haitian Creole French and thus performers at this University, up until now, have had no access to these pieces, nor an opportunity to understand the culture from which these pieces originate. There is an intense National pride within every Haitian that I have encountered and much of this pride along with the history and very rich culture from the first free black country in the Western Hamisphere is locked within these pieces written in Haitian Creole French. The voice of the country rests within this music and it should be recognized.