Native to Seychelles Dialects Chagossian Creole Regulated by Lenstiti Kreol | Native speakers 73,000 (1998) Official language in Seychelles | |
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Language family French Creole
Bourbonnais Creoles
Seychellois Creole | ||
Seychellois Creole, also known as kreol or seselwa, is the French-based creole language of the Seychelles. It shares official language status with English and French (in contrast to Mauritian and Réunion Creole, which lack official status in Mauritius and Réunion).
Contents
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 Creole, the definite article (derived from the French le, la and les) forms part of the word, so that 'the future' is lavenir (as opposed to the French l'avenir). The possessive is formed by adding the pronoun, so that 'our future' is nou lavenir, literally, 'we-the-future'. Similarly in the plural, les Îles Éloignées Seychelles in French ('the Outer Seychelles Islands') becomes Zil Elwanyen Sesel in Creole. Note the z in Zil, as, in French, les Îles is pronounced /le.z‿il/.
Samples
(Lord's Prayer)
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fables of La Fontaine were adapted to the dialect around 1900 by Rodolphine Young (1860–1932) but these remained unpublished until 1983.
(see also Koste Seselwa)