Seychellois Creole encyclopedia topics

Description

Since its independence in 1976, the government of the Seychelles has sought to develop Creole as a separate language, with its own orthography and grammar, establishing Lenstiti Kreol (l'Institut créole, the Creole Institute) for this purpose.

The spelling of words in Creole has been considerably simplified compared to the original French, as demonstrated by the following translations of 'We all need to work together to build our future':

Language	Word
Creole	Nou		tou	bezwen		travay	ansamn	pou	kree	nou	lavenir
French (IPA)	/nuz/	/a.vɔ̃/	/tu/	/bə.zwɛ̃/	/də/	/tra.va.je/	/ɑ̃.sɑ̃bl/	/a/	/kre.e/	/nɔtr/	/av.nir/
French	Nous	avons	tous	besoin	de	travailler	ensemble	pour	créer	notre	avenir
Gloss	We	have	all	need	of	work	together	to	create	our	future

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 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 Éloignés 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"zil/.