Benjamin Hebblethwaite
Assistant Professor in Haitian Creole & French
Department of Romance Languages & Literatures
The University of Florida
363 Dauer Hall
P.O. Box 117405
Gainesville, FL 32611-7405

Ben's current curriculum vitae

Some of Ben's publications as PDFs:

In press. Adverb Code-Switching among Miami’s Haitian Creole-English Second Generation. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. [Coming soon!!!]

2009. L’asymétrie et la bidirectionnalité dans l’alternance codique du créole haïtien-anglais de la 2^ème génération à Miami : l’influence sociolinguistique de la syntaxe bilingue. Cahiers de Linguistique, 34.2.103-126. [BRAND NEW!]

2009. Edited and translated in collaboration with Jacques Pierre. Une saison en enfer / Yon sezon matchyavèl. Translation of Arthur Rimbaud’s prose poem. Gainesville: Classic Editions.

2009. Scrabble as a Tool for Haitian Creole Literacy: Sociolinguistic and Orthographic Foundations. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. 24.2.275-305. [You need to log in through UF to access this journal]

2007. Intrasentential Code-Switching among Miami Haitian Creole-English Bilinguals. Bloomington: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation. Ann Arbor: ProQuest.

2007. Editorial assistant. Haitian Creole-English Bilingual Dictionary. Project director, Albert Valdman. Indiana University Creole Institute: Bloomington, Indiana.

2006. Sociolinguistic Aspects of Haitian Creole in South Florida: The Causes of the Failure to Develop the Natural Asset of Biliteracy. Florida Foreign Language Journal 3.1.52-59.

2005. Edited and introduced with Jacques Pierre. The Gospel of Thomas in English, Haitian Creole and French. Classic Editions: Gainesville.

2002. The Universality of Morpho-Syntax: Synthetic Compounding in French, English, Dutch and Korean. The Journal of Universal Language 3.2.1-29.

2001. The Unfolding of the Preposition and Affix de in Latin, Gallo-Romance, French and Haitian Creole. Revue roumaine de linguistique 46.45-68.

Phone: (352) 392-2016 ext. 243
FAX (352) 392-5679

Hello, I’m Benjamin Hebblethwaite! Thanks for coming to my site. I teach Haitian Creole
language classes, Haitian Culture and Society, Introduction to Haitian Creole Linguistics, Introduction to
Haitian Vodou, La linguistique comparée: créole et français, and Haitian Literature classes. 

I love to study and speak Haitian Creole, French and Dutch.

I earned my Ph.D. in French Linguistics (2007) at Indiana University. My dissertation quantitatively
examines the syntax of code-switching among Miami Haitian Creole-English bilinguals. Soon
(sometime before December 2007) you can go to ProQuest to read it for free. My main interests in
linguistics are syntax, code-switching, bilingualism, Creole studies, morphology, sociolinguistics
and historical linguistics. I'm also a passionate student of Haitian culture and religion. 

I’m also interested in publishing important translations in bilingual or trilingual English/Haitian Creole/French 
editions. For example, see I have a dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. below or go to Amazon.com to see:
The Gospel of Thomas in English, Haitian Creole and French (with Jacques Pierre, FIU)
and Arthur Rimbaud's prose poem, Une saison en enfer / Yon sezon matchyavèl. (with Jacques Pierre, FIU).
I’m also interested in Haitian Creole and French literature and Netherlandic languages and cultures, especially
De UF Nederlandse conversatiegroep.

If you want to enroll in Haitian Creole classes at UF, but don’t know where you fit in given your Creole-speaking
background, please send me an e-mail at hebble@ufl edu (This is an anti-spam listing, i.e. insert a dot where a space
occurs). I want to hear from you!
Also, new this semester is the University of Florida's Journal of Intermediate Haitian Creole

Teaching Philosophy
Teaching Evaluations (from Indiana University)

Translations:
First time in print in Haitian Creole:
The Gospel of Thomas in English, Haitian Creole and French, Classic Editions, 2005
Benjamin Hebblethwaite and Jacques Pierre, Hans-Gebhard Bethge and Michel Weber


That's me on the left chatting with a farmer who was purchasing a new head
for his pick-axe at this small supply depot in Bèl Rivyè, South-Eastern Haiti.
He told me that he had D.D.T. in his spray backpack and that it is the most
effective weapon against pests. Note that D.D.T. is illegal in the U.S.A. because
it has been found to cause birth defects. However, it is manufactured in the U.S.A.
and sold to countries like Haiti.

Translations: (All translations Copyright © 2003/2004 Benjamin Hebblethwaite)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Mwen gen yon rèv ~ I have a dream" in bilingual Haitian Creole/English format (translated by Benjamin Hebblethwaite and Nicolas André)

Marie de France
Prefas
"Pyebwa frenn nan ~ Le fraisne" in bilingual Haitian Creole Old French format (translated by Benjamin Hebblethwaite and Jacques Pierre)

Damadada (First Buddhist excerpts to appear in Haitian Creole)
Prefas: Entwodiksyon nan tradisyon boudis la
Vèsè Marasa ~ Twin Verses (translated by Benjamin Hebblethwaite)
Vijilans
Lespri
Flè yo
Sòt la

In this photo I touch the "Tree of Judgment" in Milo where Northern
Haiti's great king, Roi Henri Christophe, passed judgment.
To any Haitian from the north, Roi Christophe is revered with awe. Among
his astonishing accomplishments was the construction of the Sitadèl, an
enormous fortress designed to thwart any attempt by France or any
other nation to reoccupy Haiti. The Sitadèl still stands and is considered to be
an architectural wonder by the UN.

Go to Haitian Creole Courses
Back to the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures' Haitian Creole Homepage

hebble@ufl.edu
Last updated on December 15, 2009