Found in Translation

The Challe ng e of Translating Cre ole s
A creole language is a natural language developed from mixed parent languages. It is established
when it is spoken natively by children as their primary language. To better understand how a creole
language is formed, it can help to compare the composition of creoles with other languages.
According to MIT professor of linguistics Michel DeGraff, Haitian Creole derives 90 percent of its
words from French, whereas English, a Germanic language, derives 35 percent of its words from its
Germanic ancestors.
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The millions of speakers of more than eighty creole languages worldwide
have struggled to have their languages recognized as “real languages.” This disparity often results
in fewer resources for the development of the language, for its speakers, and for translators.
Love It or Leave It?
“This is America. Speak English.” That’s the sentiment of many people who
believe that immigrants should not receive any translation or interpreting
assistance. “They should learn English, just like my ancestors did.” That’s
another common refrain of many American citizens who weren’t around to see
how those same ancestors may have struggled to communicate on their arrival
in America. Yet America is not exactly unique for its multilingual status. Of the
193 recognized countries in the world, only politically isolated North Korea is
considered monolingual.
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America has long been a “pull country” for immigrants, and with
immigrants come foreign languages. According to the U.S. Census, 18 percent
of all U.S. citizens speak a language other than English at home, and the vast
majority of these individuals were born abroad.
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But it isn’t just foreign
languages that are spoken on American soil. There were approximately a
thousand languages spoken in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans.

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About 250 of these were used in the present territory of the United States.
Contrary to popular belief, these languages were not mutually intelligible, but
rather were grouped into diverse branches or families.
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Today, only eight indigenous languages have significant numbers of
speakers. Navajo, an Athabascan language spoken in Arizona, New Mexico,
and Utah, has approximately 170,000 speakers. Cree and Ojibwa, both Algic
languages, have around 100,000 speakers combined. Cherokee, an Iroquoian
language spoken in Oklahoma and North Carolina, has just over 20,000
speakers left. Choctaw, a Muskogean language present in Oklahoma,
Mississippi, and Louisiana, has around 10,000 speakers remaining.
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For both the foreign-born and for the people whose languages were spoken
in America before the United States became a country, language is the key that
unlocks the door to basic human rights. In fact, the U.S. federal government has
protected individuals’ rights to communicate in their native languages since
1965. That’s when a federal law was enacted called Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act.
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The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin, which
includes the language a person speaks. So if an organization that receives
money (even grant funds) from the federal government denies services to
someone because they do not speak English, they can be found in violation of
the federal law. Also, hundreds of state laws require the same thing, especially
in the context of healthcare services. In other words, failing to provide
interpreters and translated materials is, in many cases, illegal.
The United States has no official language, and this is by design. Certainly,
there were some Founding Fathers who argued for one, but others vehemently
opposed this notion.
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On the whole, the nation’s founders believed in
tolerance for linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity within the population.
Creating an official language would have restricted this tolerance. How so?
Language barriers should not prevent people from exercising their basic
human rights. Yet all across America, those rights are violated each day.
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A Korean woman in the United States who was seeking a restraining order
against her husband, who had threatened to kill her, was denied the order by the
judge because he claimed he could not understand her testimony (he did not get
an interpreter). In Wayne County, New York, a woman who called the police
because her husband was attacking her was found guilty of domestic violence
herself when the police used her husband as the interpreter. An Oregon man
who spoke Mixtec, an indigenous language from Mexico, was released after
spending four years in prison before it was discovered that he had not
understood the Spanish-speaking interpreter. In Florida, a man accidentally
pled guilty to a felony instead of a misdemeanor because of an interpreter

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error.
In one instance, a doctor used the husband of a female Arabic-speaking
patient to interpret for her instead of using one of the professional medical
interpreters on staff. When the patient went to the bathroom, she noticed an
Arabic-speaking interpreter in the hallway and begged her to interpret for her
instead. The reason? The doctor had asked if the woman had any prior
pregnancy losses. The woman had, but was afraid to reveal this information in
front of her husband because they had taken place before she had met him.
When the husband was dismissed and the professional interpreter revealed this
information to the doctor, the additional information changed the diagnosis
significantly and affected the course of treatment provided.
The notion that all Americans should be encouraged to learn English goes
without debate even by the most ardent supporters of language access. After
all, English is the language of power and prestige in U.S. society—it’s nearly
impossible to live the American dream without it. Most immigrants and Native
Americans do try to gain proficiency in English, but it takes time to become
perfectly fluent, as anyone who has ever tried to learn a foreign language
knows all too well. Simply failing to communicate with someone in their
native language does not turn them into an English speaker overnight. In short,
to deny access to translation and interpreting services not only oppresses
human rights and violates laws. As the Founding Fathers pointed out long ago,
providing language access is the American way.