Abstract
This paper provides the outlines of a postdoc project on two diasporic varieties of Haitian Creole, which is currently being carried out by the author at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. The project aims at documenting the Haitian Creole varieties spoken by Haitian migrants in Cuba and the Dominican Republic’s Samaná Peninsula. These two diasporic varieties have developed in relative isolation from Haiti and can thus be expected to be linguistically conservative. By documenting these varieties, the project strives to provide a window on the early stages of the development of Haitian Creole and, in doing so, to make a breakthrough in the ongoing debate on creole genesis, a debate in which Haitian Creole plays a pivotal role.
