Seychellois Creole (), also known as kreol, is the

French-based creole language A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole for which French is the lexifier. Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th- or 18th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the ...

spoken by the Seychelles Creole people of the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

. It shares

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

status with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

(in contrast to

Mauritian Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably I ...

and

Réunion Creole Réunion Creole, or Reunionese Creole ( rcf, kréol rénioné; french: créole réunionnais), is a French-based creole language spoken on Réunion. It is derived mainly from French and includes terms from Malagasy, Hindi, Portuguese, Gujara ...

, which lack official status in Mauritius and France).

Description

Since its independence in 1976, the government of the Seychelles has sought to develop the language, with its own orthography and codified grammar, establishing ''Lenstiti Kreol'' (the Creole Institute) for this purpose. In 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/.

Samples

(

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

) :Ou, nou papa ki dan lesyel, :Fer ou ganny rekonnet konman Bondye. :Ki ou renny i arive. :Ki ou lavolonte i ganny realize :Lo later parey i ete dan lesyel :Donn nou sak zour nou dipen ki nou bezwen. :Pardonn nou pour bann lofans :Ki noun fer anver ou, :Parey nou pardonn sa ki n ofans nou. :Pa les tantasyon domin nou, :Me tir nou dan lemal. 49 fables of La Fontaine were adapted to the dialect around 1900 by Rodolphine Young (1860–1932) but these remained unpublished until 1983. While Seychellois laws are written in English, the working language of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

is Creole and the verbatim record of its meetings provides an extensive corpus for its contemporary use in a formal setting.National Assembly - Hansard - Verbatim
/ref> (See also Koste Seselwa, the national anthem.)

Notes

References

Annegret Bollée Annegret Bollée (4 March 1937 – 20 August 2021) was a German linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Bamberg, specializing in Romance linguistics and creole languages. Education and career Annegret Bollée née Alsdorf was born ...

. 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. .

External links

Seychelles Creole Vocabulary List
(from the World Loanword Database)
Seychelles Creole Magazine (Discover the Creole Culture)
online triglot text in English, French and Seychellois Creole digitized by Richard Mammana
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Seychellois Creole
{{#related:History of Seychelles Languages of Seychelles French language in Africa