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Do not fill this in! ==Etymology== ''Haiti'' (also earlier ''Hayti''){{efn|name=Hayti}} comes from the indigenous [[Taíno language]], and means "land of high mountains";<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haydn |first1=Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOE8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA321 |title=A Dictionary of Dates Relating to All Ages and Nations: For Universal Reference Comprehending Remarkable Occurrences, Ancient and Modern, The Foundation, Laws, and Governments of Countries-Their Progress In Civilization, Industry, Arts and Science-Their Achievements In Arms-And Their Civil, Military, And Religious Institutions, And Particularly of the British Empire |last2=Vincent |first2=Benjamin |year=1860 |page=321 |access-date=12 September 2015}}</ref> it was the native name{{efn|1=The Taínos may have used ''Bohío'' as another name for the island.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guitar|first1=Lynne|last2=Ferbel-Azcárate|first2=Pedro|last3=Estevez|first3=Jorge|title=Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean|date=2006|publisher=Peter Lang Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8204-7488-5|page=41|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXZeQZMDpgYC&pg=PA41|access-date=10 July 2015|chapter=iii: Ocama-Daca Taíno (Hear me, I am Taíno)|lccn=2005012816}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Edmond|first1=Louisket|title=The Tears of Haiti|date=2010|publisher=[[Xlibris]]|isbn=978-1-4535-1770-3|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1wDXEB1fOUC&pg=PA42|access-date=10 July 2015|lccn=2010908468}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Senauth|first1=Frank|title=The Making and Destruction of Haiti|date=2011|publisher=[[AuthorHouse]]|location=Bloomington, Indiana, US|isbn=978-1-4567-5384-9|page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QBdccuwnqY8C&pg=PA1|lccn=2011907203}}</ref>}} for the entire island of [[Hispaniola]]. The name was restored by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of independent Saint-Domingue, as a tribute to the Amerindian predecessors.<ref>{{cite book|last=Martineau |first= Harriet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lp54N7g2CYQC&pg=PA12|title=The Hour and the Man: A Fictional Account of the Haitian Revolution and the life of Toussaint L'Ouverture|year=2010|isbn=978-99904-1-167-6|page=12|publisher= Aruba Heritage Foundation|access-date=12 September 2015}}</ref> In French, the ''[[ï]]'' in ''Ha'''ï'''ti'' has a [[Diaeresis (diacritic)#French|diacritical mark]] (used to show that the second vowel is pronounced separately, as in the word ''na'''ï'''ve''), while the ''H'' is silent.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stein |first= Gail |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning French|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaT3kj55aTcC&pg=PA18|year=2003|publisher=Alpha Books|isbn=978-1-59257-055-3|page=18}}</ref> (In English, this rule for the pronunciation is often disregarded, thus the spelling ''Haiti'' is used.) There are different anglicizations for its pronunciation such as ''HIGH-ti'', ''high-EE-ti'' and ''haa-EE-ti'', which are still in use, but ''HAY-ti'' is the most widespread and best-established.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/magazinemonitor/2010/01/how_to_say_haiti_and_portaupri.shtml |title=How to Say: Haiti and Port-au-Prince |publisher=BBC |access-date=19 November 2014 |archive-date=19 November 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141119070029/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/magazinemonitor/2010/01/how_to_say_haiti_and_portaupri.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> In French, Haiti's nickname means the "Pearl of the Antilles" (''La Perle des Antilles'') because of both its natural beauty<ref>{{cite web |last=Eldin |first=F. |year=1878 |title=Haïti, 13 ans de séjour aux Antilles |trans-title=Haiti, 13 years of stay in the Antilles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xAIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA33 |access-date=21 July 2015 |page=33 |language=fr}}</ref> and the amount of wealth it accumulated for the [[Kingdom of France]].<ref>{{Cite web |year=1797 |title=Voyage a Saint-Domingue, pendant les années 1788, 1789 et 1790 |trans-title=Travel to Santo Domingo, during the years 1788, 1789 and 1790 |url=https://archive.org/details/voyagesaintdomin00wimp |access-date=31 March 2018 |language=fr}}</ref> In [[Haitian Creole]], it is spelled and pronounced with a ''y'' but no ''H'': {{lang-ht|Ayiti|label=none}}''.'' Another theory on the name Haiti is its origin in African tradition, in Fon language one of the most spoken by the bossales (Haitians born in Africa), [http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti-archive/msg02162.html Ayiti-Tomè] means: From nowadays this land is our land.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} In the Haitian community the country has multiple nicknames: Ayiti-Toma (as its origin in Ayiti Tomè), Ayiti-Cheri (Ayiti my Darling), Tè-Desalin (Dessalines' Land) or Lakay (Home). Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page