GOVERNMENT PAMPHLET IN FAKE DIALECT OFFENDS MANY

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) set out to inform Haitian-Americans of their rights and responsibilities as residents of federally subsidized housing, and planned to publish a document in Creole, the dominant Haitian dialect.  Despite these good intentions, the document that was published was written in a fake Jamaican dialect.  Here is a sample of the pamphlet:  “Yuh as a rezedent, ave di rights ahn di rispansabilities to elp mek yuh HUD-asisted owzing ah behta owme fi yuh ahn yuh famibly.”

Critics say that not only is the pamphlet insulting, it reveals a deep ignorance about the languages spoken by Caribbean immigrants.  Haitian Creole is based on French, while Jamaicans read and write standard English.  The Jamaican dialect of the pamphlet is spoken only.  After the pamphlet was translated and returned to HUD, a HUD official approved its publication, saying, “To the best of my knowledge this appears to be a Haiti-type Creole.”  HUD admits it should have sought external review of the translation and has apologized for any offense, but has not called the publication of the pamphlet a mistake.

This incident has raised concerns about the government’s ability to provide accurate translations of census documents.  The government has promised to provide information about the census in numerous languages.  Now many wonder whether this will be possible, or whether the translations will be accurate.

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