A daughter of Haitian letters
Suzanne Sylvain was born in Port-au-Prince in 1898, the daughter of Georges Sylvain (1866-1925), a man of letters and a figure of resistance to the American occupation, and of Eugénie Malbranche. She grew up in a literary, politically engaged household and attended the storytelling gatherings that would feed her later work.
The Sorbonne and a first doctorate
In 1936 she defended a Sorbonne thesis on Haitian tales, becoming the first Haitian woman to hold a doctorate. That same year she published « Le créole haïtien : morphologie et syntaxe », the first research monograph on Haitian Creole by a professional Haitian linguist.
Fieldwork and legacy
As much an ethnologist as a linguist, she carried out fieldwork in Haiti and later in Africa, notably in the Congo and Nigeria. She died in 1975, remembered as the first woman linguist and anthropologist of Haiti.
Based on Comhaire-Sylvain's own 1936 publications, her Île en île biographical entry, and obituaries published after her death in 1975.
Public summary. Primary-source detail is reserved for the research layer.
- [1] Sylvain, Suzanne. Le créole haïtien : morphologie et syntaxe. Wetteren (Belgique) et Port-au-Prince, 1936.
- [2] Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne. Les contes haïtiens. Thèse, Université de Paris (Sorbonne), 1936.
- [3] « Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain », nécrologie. Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 1975.
- [4] « Comhaire-Sylvain, Suzanne ». Île en île.