Orthography Update (’78) “-in”, Haitian Creole


Ti Difé Boulé Sou Istoua Ayiti, is a book written Haitian anthropologist, Michel-Rolph Trouillot.

The book was released in 1977, and throughout the book, there are several instances of outdated orthography being used. For example, on pages 81-82 — (click here) — we can see 8 examples of the word “gin”, used to represent what we know now as “gen.”

Before 1978, < in > used to be a nasal vowel and a digraph making one sound.

ginyin (gin) ⇒ to have
rinmin ⇒ to like, to love

As of 1980, < in > was replaced with “en” (for the one sound).

genyen (gin) ⇒ to have
renmen ⇒ to like, to love

< in > was then moved from one sound to two sounds ⇒ i + n

– like “een” in the English word “seen“
– – machin (ma – chi – n) ⇒ car
– – vin (vi – n) ⇒ to come


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