Seychellois Creole (/seɪˈʃɛlwɑː/), also known as Kreol, Seselwa Creole French, and Seselwa Creole is the French-based creole language spoken by the Seychelles Creole people of the Seychelles. It shares national language status with English and French (in contrast to Mauritian and Réunion Creole, which lack official status in Mauritius and France).
| Seychellois Creole | |
|---|---|
| kreol, seselwa | |
| Native to | Seychelles |
| Ethnicity | Seychellois Creoles |
Native speakers | (73,000 cited 1998)[1] |
French Creole
| |
| Dialects | |
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Seychelles |
| Regulated by | Lenstiti Kreol |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | crs |
| Glottolog | sese1246 |
| Linguasphere | (& -ceb) 51-AAC-cea (& -ceb) |
 Location of Seychelles where the creole is spoken | |
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History
editThe Seychelles were first settled in 1770, by French settlers from the island of Mauritius. The islands population was mostly made up of slaves with a few whites and free blacks. Over time the Mauritian creole that was spoken by the slave population diverged enough from Mauritian Creole to be considered its own creole separate from Mauritian Creole. It further diverged after the freeing of Seychelles slaves in 1835 and the subsequent influx of Bantu peoples from East Africa to the islands.[2]
49 fables of La Fontaine were adapted to the dialect around 1900 by Rodolphine Young (1860–1932) but these remained unpublished until 1983.[3]
Status
editThe Seychelles gained independence in 1976 and since 1978 Seychellois Creole has been one of the country's three official languages. It is currently the native language of over 99% of the country's population.[2] Seychellois Creole is the primary language of music, literature, politics, public usage, and mass media in the Seychelles. Though Seychellois literature has been increasingly replaced by English literature.[4]
While Seychellois laws are written in English, the working language of the National Assembly is Creole and the verbatim record of its meetings provides an extensive corpus for its contemporary use in a formal setting.[5]
On June 27th 2024 Google announced it would be adding Seychellois Creole to Google Translate. Later Seychellois Creole was added under the name Seselwa Creole French.[6]
Morphology and syntax
editSeychellois Creole follows in subject verb object word order.[2]
Pronouns
editPronouns in Seychellois Creole fall into three categories: dependent subject, independent subject, and adnominal possessive, with there being no gender distinctions.. dependent pronouns can only be subjects not objects but independent pronouns can be both.[2]
| dependent | independent | adnominal possessive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | mon | mwan | mon |
| 2nd singular | ou | ou | ou |
| 3rd singular | i | li | son |
| 1st plural | nou | nou | nou |
| 2nd plural | zot | zot | zot |
| 3rd plural | zot | zot | zot |
Verbs
editVerbs in Seychellois Creole take one of two forms, long and short. Short verbs are used when the verb is directly followed by a noun or when an adverb is present and the long verbs being used otherwise.[2]
| Long Verb | Short Verb |
|---|---|
| retourn-en | retourn |
| donn-en | donn |
| sant-e | sant |
Causative voice are marked by the word fer (make) while Reflexive voice is marked with either the express lack of a marking; or the words li, mekor, and limenm.[2]
Dialects
editThere is some variation in the language spoken in the Seychelles based on geography with limited differences in morphosyntax and lexicon, but not enough to speak of separate dialects.[4] The only distinct non-standard dialect of Seychellois Creole is Chagossian Creole spoken by Chagossians in the United Kingdom, Mauritius, and the Seychelles.[7]
Lexicon
editIn several Seychellois Creole words derived from French, the French definite article (le, la and les) has become part of the word; for example, 'future' is lavenir (French l'avenir). The possessive is the same as the pronoun, so that 'our future' is nou lavenir. Similarly in the plural, les Îles Éloignées Seychelles in French ('the Outer Seychelles Islands') has become Zil Elwanyen Sesel in Creole. Note the z in Zil, as, in French, les Îles is pronounced /le.z‿il/.
| Language | Word | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creole | Nou | tou | bezwen | travay | ansanm | pou | kre | nou | lavenir | ||
| French (IPA) | /nu‿z/ | /a.vɔ̃/ | /tus/ | /bə.zwɛ̃/ | /də/ | /tʁa.va.je/ | /ɑ̃.sɑ̃bl/ | /puʁ/ | /kʁe.e/ | /nɔtʁ/ | /av.niʁ/ |
| French | Nous | avons | tous | besoin | de | travailler | ensemble | pour | créer | notre | avenir |
| Translation | We | all | need | to | work | together | to | create | our | future | |
| Gloss | We | have | all | need | to | work | together | for | create | our | future |
Loanwords
edit| English | French | Eastern Bantu | Malagasy | Indian Languages | Portuguese | Can languages | Chinese | Arabic | Unknown | Total Loanwords | Non loanwords | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nouns | 5.6% | 2.6% | 2% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 1.1% | 14.6% | 85.4% |
| Verbs | 2.4% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.8% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 4.1% | 95.9% | ||||
| Adjectives | 2.2% | 1.6% | 1.4% | 2.2% | 7.3% | 92.7% | ||||||
| Adverbs | 0% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Function Words | 0.9% | 0.9% | 99.1% | |||||||||
| total | 4.2% | 1.6% | 1.4% | 1.2% | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.7% | 10.7% | 89.3% |
Among loanwords in Seychellois Creole they have different frequencies words for the modern world, warfare/hunting, food and drink, animals, and the home show loanword rates over 10 percent. while words relating to cognition, emotions, social and political relationships, and the physical world show no loanwords.[8]
Samples
edit| Seychellois Creole | English |
|---|---|
|
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; |
Notes
edit- ^ Seychellois Creole at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e f g "APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Seychelles Creole". apics-online.info. Retrieved 2024-10-06.
- ^ Fables de La Fontaine traduites en créole seychellois, Hamburg, 1983; there is also a selection at Potomitan.info
- ^ a b Michaelis, Susanne Maria; Rosalie, Marcel (2013), "Seychelles Creole structure dataset", Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, retrieved 2024-10-08
- ^ National Assembly - Hansard - Verbatim
- ^ "Launching New Languages". 27 June 2024.
- ^ Arends, Jacques; Muysken, Pieter; Smither, Norval (1994). 26. An annotated list of creoles, pidgins and mixed languages. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 347.
- ^ a b Tadmor, Uri; Haspelmath, Martin (2009-12-22). Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 222. doi:10.1515/9783110218442. ISBN 9783110218442. OCLC 642692803.
References
edit- Annegret Bollée. 1977a. Le créole français des Seychelles: Esquisse d’une grammaire, textes, vocabulaire. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
- D'Offay, Danielle & Lionnet, Guy, Diksyonner Kreol - Franse / Dictionnaire Créole Seychellois - Français. Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg. 1982. ISBN 3-87118-569-8.
External links
edit
- Seychelles Creole Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
- Seychelles Creole Magazine (Discover the Creole Culture)
- Liv Servis online triglot text in English, French and Seychellois Creole digitized by Richard Mammana
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Seychellois Creole