Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary

Abstract

Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary. By Albert Valdman. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Creole Institute, 2007. ISBN 0-929236-06-8. 781 pp. $57.50 cloth. Reviewed by Flore Zephir, University of Missouri-Columbia With the recent publication of Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary, Valdman continues the long tradition of Indiana University's Creole Institute of publishing the most authoritative works on Haitian Creole. To a great extent, this work can be compared Freeman and Laguerre's Haitian-English Dictionary first published in 1996, and whose latest revised edition appeared in 2006.1 With a total of 781 pages, 30,000 headwords, and 26,000 subentries, Valdman's latest dictionary is undoubtedly the most exhaustive Haitian Creole-English Bilingual dictionary produced date. The work is highly comprehensive in the sense that it covers a wide spectrum of lexical entries, as well as geographical and sociolectal variants of these entries. As Valdman explains (p. xxiii), the variant that seems reflect urban monolingual is chosen as the headword, and all other variant pronunciations Usted in parentheses, as in, example: chache (cheche) meaning to look for (p. 111); paket (pake, pake) meaning package (p. 527); fwomaj (fwomay, fwonmaj, fwonmay, fomaj, fonmay) meaning cheese (p. 258); and patanko-with ten variants-(panteko, patanko, pateko, pateko, patko, patko, pontko, pontko, potko, potko) meaning yet (p. 539). While some critics, myself included, might have liked see a definition of what constitutes urban monolingual versus rural monolingual speech, or urban bilingual in the introductory section titled Detailed Discussion of the Content of Entries (p. xxiii), one nonetheless cannot fault Valdman not having included all the other variants, whatever speech they happen represent. The listing of all these phonological variants is, in my opinion, one of the strengths of Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary. Furthermore, in addition listing phonological variants under the headword, Valdman is careful include morphological variants under separate entries, while making reference the other entries with which these variants share an identical meaning (synonyms). For example, one finds the headword bouske, with its two phonological variants boske and boskade, (meaning to look for p. 99) cross-referenced with chache (p. 111), which has the same meaning. The forms chache and bouske reflect regional variation. Another important feature of this dictionary is the use of illustrative examples. One can persuasively argue that this characteristic adds the usefulness of the volume, and perhaps its advantage over previous dictionaries that do not include examples of how words are used in everyday speech or writings. To stay with the same entry chache, the reader can clearly see how Creole speakers use the word, as in: Kisa w ap chache? (What are you looking for?). Just as important, the reader can also see how Haitians use the same word in idiomatic expressions, as in: chache gen koze ak (to try have sex with), or chache yon moun ki nimewo pye li (to look someone who is in the same social class). For these two idiomatic expressions, the following illustrative examples are provided: Patwon an ap chache gen koze ak sekrete a (the boss is trying have sex with his secretary) and Mwen vle marye, men fok mwen chache yon fi ki nimewo pye m (I would like get married, but I should look a woman of the same social class as me) (p. 111). The inclusion of this kind of idiomatic expressions attest Valdman's serious effort represent the gamut of meanings that are expressed dirough lexical words. In the same connection, common words, such as men (hand pp. 475-477)) are given extensive coverage, in an attempt capture the complexity of connotations that are embedded in one single word. …