Academic literature on the topic 'Seychelles Creole'

Only two French-lexified creole languages possess de jure official status: Haitian (kreyòl aysisyen) in Haiti, and Seychellois (kreol Seselwa) in the Seychelles. This paper situates the past and contemporary sociolinguistics of Haitian and Seychellois in their respective homelands. The histories and politics of the two states are examined from their times as European colonies to their present-day as independent states. This will be followed by comparing the current state of the languages through three lenses: education, government, and popular discourse. The status of the creoles in each of those roles is discussed in relation to the other official languages of the states (French in both, along with English in the Seychelles.) The relationship between the creole languages and French is highlighted. I conclude with a discussion on the power of governmental support for creole languages generally, and potential lessons to be learned from the Haitian and Seychellois cases.

Abstract Both in Guadeloupe and in the Seychelles a French-based Creole coexists with French. In addition to this shared main ecological parameter, the two areas diverge in several other points of their contact ecology: First, due to the different timing of French colonization, the French variety exported to Guadeloupe in the 17th century differed from the variety exported to the Seychelles a century later. Second, while the Seychelles were a British colony from 1814 to independence in 1976, Guadeloupe always remained French and is still a French overseas department. Therefore, the contact ecology in Guadeloupe may be characterized as a reciprocally dominant monocontact situation (see Gadet/Ludwig/ Pfänder 2009), while the situation in the Seychelles is one of polycontact (Seychelles’ Creole-English-French), with Seychelles’ Creole and English being dominant in their influence on French (while the reverse is not the case). Using data from several corpora of spoken and written French in the Seychelles and Guadeloupe, this paper shows instances of code copying (e.g. Johanson 2002, Kriegel/Ludwig/Henri 2009) from the two Creole languages (and English) on the morphosyntactical level.

Present-day Mauritian Creole has a complex reflexive system with the typologically interesting property that plain pronouns are unmarked for reflexivity [uR]. Corne (1988) describes this system, and argues that the [uR] pronouns developed late, as a result of French influence after the creole had jelled. We propose instead that the [uR] use of the pronouns developed during pidginization to fill a functional gap when the French clitics were lost. Early attestations of [uR] pronouns in Mauritian and comparative evidence from Seychelles Creole converge to support an early development of [uR] pronouns. Our proposal that the early development took place during pidginization is indirectly supported by cross-linguistic evidence: [uR] pronouns appear to be common in pidgins and Creoles, but rare elsewhere, suggesting that [uR] pronouns are one characteristic result of the pidginization process.

This book examines the acquisition of syntax in Seselwa and Morisyen children. Seselwa and Morisyen are historically related creoles spoken in the Seychelles and Mauritius, respectively. Working within Chomsky's (1981) framework, Adone focuses on the acquisition of (non-)reflexive pronouns, double object constructions (DOCs), passive and serial verb constructions (SVCs).

Seychelles creole, a language that was officialized in 1978, is one of the first creole languages to receive the status of language and to become a written language. This fully fledged language with its orthography, grammar, lexicon has gone through some changes since the first written document was published in this language. Since then, much has been done to standardize, modernize and keep track of what is going with and within this language. Furthermore, this French-based creole with a heavy influence of English has evolved as both a spoken and a written language. This evolution is more obvious in writing when it comes to adapting to the orthography and existing phonetic system of the language with the different phenomena brought about by language contact. In this article we take a look at what has been happening with the language across the century since the first written text in creole and also to shed some light on the problems related to the current and standard orthography. Key words: phonemic orthography, Seychellois Creole, linguistic evolution, written language, anglicism.

Seychelles Creole (SC) is one of the few creoles with a grammaticalized reciprocity marker. The grammaticalized use of kanmarad (< Fr. camarade ‘comrade, companion’) is mentioned in the grammars of SC (Bollée 1977; Corne 1977; Choppy 2009) but its evolution and distribution in modern SC have never been analyzed. This contribution first presents present-day data from spoken and written corpora of SC and compares them to data published in the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures, APiCS (Michaelis & al. 2013). Appealing to several grammaticalization mechanisms discussed in the literature, it then traces back the grammaticalization process of kanmarad, a process that is not very advanced in the closely related Mauritian Creole (MC). In accordance with Michaelis & Haspelmath (2020), the evolution of kanmarad in SC can be considered to be an instance of accelerated functionalization which the authors consider to be typical of creole languages. Ultimately, the study’s findings are discussed in light of two complementary hypotheses that try to explain the acceleration of functionalization: the Extra-Transparency Hypothesis (Haspelmath & Michaelis 2017) and the Distinction during Codification Hypothesis which I suggest for SC. Both are considered to be possible factors favoring an ordinary language-internal grammaticalization process.

Abstract Language- and genre-mixing, framing, quotation, and other narrative techniques are practiced both by storytellers in creole societies of Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, and the Comoros and by their collectors, who elaborate and simulate oral texts. Creole folklore, built on creole linguistics, offers a model where-with to understand the cultural convergences of the postmodern world.

This paper revisits the debate between Bickerton on the one hand and Seuren, Corne, Coleman and Curnow on the other on the question of whether serial verb constructions exist in the French creoles of the Indian Ocean (namely Seychelles Creole and Mauritian Creole). It examines data particularly from Mauritian Creole (which was rather marginally represented in that discussion) and argues in agreement with Bickerton (1989, 1996) that serial verbs do indeed exist in this creole just as they do in Seychelles Creole. However, it also argues that their presence in these languages must be attributed not to an innate linguistic mechanism (as claimed in Bickerton 1989, 1996) nor to a substrate source (contra Corne et al. 1996, Corne 1999) but to an independent internal development in which consecutive imperatives were reanalyzed as serial verb constructions. It is assumed that, given the socio-historical nature of creole contact situations, consecutive imperatives would have been a prominent part of early input as interchanges between those who spoke French and those who did not would have mostly been in the form of directives (commands, instructions, etc.) which are more often than not expressed through the imperative . However, it is recognized that this development could have benefited from substrate (particularly Malagasy) influence but it remains in the main the result of an internal diachronic process. The proposal outlined has interesting implications for the role of input and the role that adults may have played in the development of creole languages in general and serial verb constructions in particular. Some aspects of creole languages, it is suggested, can be adequately accounted for without having to implicate either an innate linguistic mechanism or wholesale transfer from substrate sources.

This article examines the development and expression of the moutya from Seychelles, in relation to the sega from Mauritius and the maloya from Reunion. These musical styles and their associated practices are recognised as evidence of an African heritage in the archipelagos. To better understand their connections and singularities, I utilise a diachronic and synchronic approach, at local and regional levels. The purpose is to demonstrate the mobility of musicians and the permeability of musical practices in these islands over time, using history and narratives from the colonial period (from the end of the seventeenth century) to the present, and fieldwork observations. This approach shows how music and dance elements from Africa are creolised on the islands and how they are further adapted as islanders travel around these islands. In the process one musical practice becomes many, although they fall into a matrix of styles sharing similar features. The article approaches the emergence and the transformation of (what would become) moutya in the Seychelles by first describing the emergence of musical creativity in the Mascarenes and Seychelles. This is followed by a discussion of the transition from a marginal and resistance form of music to new musical categories. Finally, the article describes circulations and musical exchanges between the islands, opening the door to a better understanding of Creole culture and music in the south-western Indian Ocean islands.

Much has been said of the tradition of quadrille dancing that exists in the Caribbean. This dance and music repertory was first introduced there in the late eighteenth century by European colonists who wanted to recreate some of the aristocratic lifestyle they would have enjoyed in their country of origin. But soon after its introduction, people of African descent whom the Europeans had forcibly introduced in the Caribbean appropriated the dance and transformed it to fit the new environment.In his overview of Caribbean music, Kenneth Bilby noted that the most ubiquitous music traditions of the Caribbean seem to be the ones that grew out of the European social dances and music genres of an earlier era (1985, 195). Establishing a parallel with the Creole music of the Seychelles, which bears strong resemblance to Caribbean forms, John Szwed and Morton Marks (1988) suggested that the French contredanse and quadrille were instrumental to the emergence of the Creole repertories, primarily because, just like many of the Caribbean islands, the Seychelles were French colonies in the eighteenth century.

Cette thèse propose pour la première fois une étude comparative de deux créoles indianocéaniques avec une langue centrafricaine, à partir des marqueurs préverbaux. Elle s’appuie sur une constatation empirique : il existe un marqueur préverbal a en sango (langue nationale de République centrafricaine) dont la fonction syntaxique peut être comparée à celle du i en créole réunionnais et du créole seychellois. Ce parallélisme forme le point de départ d’une interrogation qui s’est exprimée ainsi : peut-on définir une règle expliquant la restructuration du pronom personnel de la 3e personne en différents morphèmes, quelles que soient les langues d’origine ?Pour répondre à cette question, j’ai comparé les pronoms personnels d’une trentaine de langues de contact présentées dans The Atlas of Pidgin & Creole Language Structures, et j’ai cherché à comprendre les logiques de restructuration qui ont abouti à la formation d’autres morphèmes, notamment des copules et des marqueurs préverbaux. Je constate des logiques parallèles entre quelques langues oubanguiennes et deux créoles indianocéaniques à base française, notamment dans la « fabrication » d’un marqueur préverbal, lui-même issu de la restructuration d’un pronom personnel de la langue-cible. En revanche, la proximité phonologique du préfixe pluralisateur a- avec le marqueur préverbal a du sango ne se retrouve pas dans les créoles indianocéaniques, qui ont chacun un pluralisateur très différent du marqueur préverbal i.à l’instar du a du sango, le marqueur préverbal i est réservé à la 3e personne en seychellois, alors qu’il s’est étendu à toutes les personnes du réunionnais. Ces spécificités ne s’expliquent pas par un présumé « substrat » africain des créoles, car l’étude de divers morphèmes des langues africaines (et du malgache) contributrices des créoles ne montre pas de traces syntaxiques de ces langues. Seule la présence d’un pronom a dans les créoles du golfe de Guinée, issu de l’edo, constitue une exception qui s’explique par l’histoire du peuplement de cette région. Cette particularité n’a pas été reproduite dans les créoles indianocéaniques.Cette thèse montre le caractère « normal » (au sens des règles d’évolution des langues) des créoles réunionnais et seychellois, tout en insistant sur leurs singularités. Réunionnais et seychellois sont les seuls créoles à base française à posséder un marqueur prédicatif, en l’occurrence de forme i, et celui-ci n’obéit pas aux mêmes règles en réunionnais et en seychellois. Cette thèse montre que ces singularités s’expliquent plus par des logiques internes que par des contacts de langues. Elle appelle d’autres comparaisons avec d’autres langues, pour tenter notamment de préciser les descriptions morphosyntaxiques des différents i seychellois
This thesis proposes for the first time a comparative study of two Indian Oceanic Creoles with a Central African language, with particular reference to preverbal markers. It is based on empirical observation: there is a preverbal marker a in Sango (national language of the Central African Republic) whose syntactic function can be compared to that of i in Reunion and Seychelles Creoles. This parallelism forms the starting point of an interrogation that expresses itself as follows: can we define a rule accounting for the restructuring of the 3rd person pronoun into different morphemes, regardless of the original languages?To answer this question, I compare the personal pronouns of about thirty contact languages presented in The Atlas of Pidgin & Creole Language Structures, and I try to understand the restructuring principles resulting in the formation of other morphemes, including copulas and preverbal markers. I note parallel principles between some Oubanguian languages and two French-based Indian Creoles, particularly in the creation of a pre-verbal marker, itself resulting from the restructuring of a personal pronoun of the target language. On the other hand, the phonological proximity of the pluralizing prefix a- with the preverbal marker a of Sango is not found in the Indian Oceanic Creoles, each of which has a pluralizer that is very different from the preverbal marker i.Like the a of Sango, the preverbal marker i is reserved for the 3rd person in Seychelles Creole, while it has been extended to all persons in Reunion Creole. These specificities cannot be accounted for by an alleged African “substrate” of the Creoles, because the study of various morphemes of the African languages (and Malagasy) which contributed to these Creoles does not show any syntactic traces of these languages. Only the presence of a pronoun a in the Creoles of the Gulf of Guinea, inherited from Edo, constitutes an exception which can be accounted for by the history of settlement in this region. This peculiarity has not been reproduced in the Indian Oceanic Creoles.This thesis shows the “normal” character (in the sense of rules of linguistic change) of Reunion and Seychelles Creoles, while insisting on their singularities. Reunion and Seychelles Creoles are the only French-based Creoles possessing a predicative marker (more precisely, a morpheme i). This unit does not obey the same rules in Reunion and Seychelles Creole. This thesis aims to show that these singularities are best explained by internal dynamics than by language contacts. It calls for further comparisons with other languages, in particular in order to try to clarify the morphosyntactic descriptions of the different Seychelles Creole i

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is a modest one. It aims first at clarifying some of the notions and the terminology used in the literature on Predicate Clefting (henceforth PC), and, secondly, at an application of the now sharpened notion of PC to the much debated question of whether the French-based Indian Ocean Creoles, in particular Mauritian Creole, Seselwa (Seychelles Creole), and the Creole of Rodrigues, do or do not have PC. The answer is that they apparently had one or two highly restricted (and now obsolete) constructions that are reminiscent of PC. This evidence is on a par with the extremely tenuous case for serial verb constructions in the same languages, and points to what may have been a very weak West African (Kwa) substrate influence due to the fact that around the middle of the eighteenth century Kwa speakers formed just over 10 per cent of the total slave population.

This chapter begins with an examination of two emancipatory moves in the Mauritian curriculum, namely the introduction of technical subjects and Mauritian Creole at upper secondary level with the responsibility for curriculum development, assessment and certification attributed to local institutions. It offsets these decisions with similar curricular experiences in the Seychelles, another SIDS that shares the geographical location and colonial past of Mauritius. While these enfranchising acts appear momentous against the backdrop of pervasive colonial influences, we choose to adopt a different lens for a better understanding of the phenomenon in current times.