Like its similar Dominican counterpart, some words are derived from the English, French and African languages.
Though it is not an official language, the government and media houses present information in Kwéyòl alongside English.
Saint Lucia was first settled by Amerindian groups, more recently the Caribs, and subsequently colonised by the French and the British, who changed hands of control over the island a total of fourteen times.
It combines Latin-based vocabulary shared by the French with syntax from the various African languages of the slaves.
[6] From French groups immigrating from Martinique, a form of Creole was imported and adopted by the black population living in small, remote mountain settlements as a vernacular.
Kwéyòl monolingualism increasingly became less common over time due to the precedence of English within the education system, which became more accessible to the general population through the mid-1960s.
Kwéyòl is still widely spoken in Saint Lucia and movements from the 1980s onward have increased its use in media, education, and government.
[12] In the mid-19th century, Kwéyòl was exported to Panama, where it is known as San Miguel Creole French and is now moribund.
These are the combinations of letters (digraphs) that represent one sound: alveolar affricate Phonetic notes: Kwéyòl makes no distinction of grammatical case in pronouns: 'mwen' can mean I, me, or my.
Kilès used as the subject directly before the verb is followed by the relative pronoun ki.
Ki moun used to mean 'whose' (belonging to whom) and as such directly follows the noun in question.
The indefinite article is an, on, yan or yon An mabwiya A house lizard On bétjin A barracuda Yan zé An egg Yon fèy A leaf The definite article may take the form -a, -la, -an, or -lan depending on the sounds of the final syllable of the noun it qualifies.
latè a the earth tab la the table mouton an the sheep nonm lan the man He has come pa'a Ng'a palé M'a ka palé Ng'ay alé M'a kay alé We had said We hadn't said pò´ò (pa ankò) Sé timanmay-la pò'ò fè The children had not yet done Verbs in Creole are invariable and are not conjugated.
It also indicates the present perfect, this difference inferred through context: pwèt-la bwè kafé the priest has drunk coffee There is a group of verbs, mostly modals and verbs of emotion which do not follow this rule and instead express the present tense when used on their own.
These verbs are: ni 'to have' sa 'to be able to' pé 'to be able to' vlé 'to want' konnèt 'to know' sav 'to know' enmen 'to love' kontan 'to like' hayi 'to hate' simyé 'to prefer' kwè 'to believe' dwé 'to owe' wigwété 'to regret' Mak ni an pil lahan 'Mark has a lot of money' Kilès kay ou simyé?
Ou vlé witounen denmen 'You want to return tomorrow' Tibway-la ka wè kabwit-la The by sees the goat Fanm-lan ka déjnen The woman is having breakfast Lapli ka tonbé an chay an livènaj It rains a lot during the rainy season Serial Verbs A feature which Saint Lucian French Creole shares with other West Atlantic Creole languages is the ability to string verbs together.
A main verb may be combined with a select group of verbs of motion (namely alé 'to go' vini 'to come' kouwi 'to run' pòté 'to carry' mennen 'to lead' voyé 'to send') I kouwi alé lékòl He went to school running.
Kon kannòt-la wivé alapòté tjé-a, péchè-a mawé kòd-la vitman.
When the boat arrived alongside the dock the fisherman tied the rope quickly.
asi (Guadeloupe) sou (Haiti) Fè sa ba li.
2) I té ni gwo dlo dépi Bèson pou wivé Kastwi.
Ou pé mouté montany-lan ki doubout douvan'w-la.
Sé polis-la awèsté toutmoun ki té adan kay wonm-lan èksèpté nonm sala.
1) Fanm-lan ka wété dis kilomèt hòd twavay li-a.
Nou maché tout owon vilaj-la ka chaché timanmay sala.
alantou (Guadeloupe) otou (Haiti) 1) Bondyé sové nou pa lagwas li.
2) Yo ka vann zowanj dé dòla pa liv.
2) Machann-nan vann dé bwapen ba li pou sis dòla.
The Vocabulary of SLC is mostly derived from French with important contributions from English and West African languages.
potèkté Creole is a language historically and primarily spoken in rural areas.