To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Operational message
There are currently operational disruptions. Troubleshooting is in progress.
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
A Bird’s-Eye View of the Sociolinguistic Landscape of Seychelles
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. (Teaching and Learning in the Humanities)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4429-5720
2025 (English)In: Seychelles Research Journal (SRJ), E-ISSN 1659-7435, Vol. 7, no 2, p. 18-33Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The article gives an overview of Seychelles’ language ecology in various domains  including politics, the judiciary, education, media, religion as well as the language practices ‘in the street’ and of everyday informal communication. In Seychelles, Kreol Seselwa serves as the primary language for informal oral communication, while English dominates in formal oral contexts. This dynamic shifts depending on the domain. For instance, in the judiciary, English is exclusively used for official oral proceedings, whereas all debates in the National Assembly are conducted in Kreol Seselwa. In the education system, Kreol Seselwa is the medium of instruction during the first two years, after which English becomes the primary language. In written communication, English overwhelmingly prevails, except for the verbatim records of political debates in the National Assembly, which are transcribed in Kreol Seselwa. French, meanwhile, plays only a minor role, mainly in religious and cultural contexts, such as traditional songs. Seychellois language ideologies surrounding Kreol Seselwa and English are complex and often contradictory. While many Seychellois take pride in their mother tongue, viewing it as a core part of their national identity and recognizing its importance in national language policy, negative perceptions persist, particularly regarding its formal use in education and professional settings. These conflicting attitudes likely stem from the country’s colonial history and evolving societal structures. The article closes with identifying gaps in current sociolinguistic research where language use and code mixing in social media is identified as a particularly interesting area of investigation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
University of Seychelles , 2025. Vol. 7, no 2, p. 18-33
Keywords [en]
Seychelles, language policy, sociolinguistics, Seselwa, trilingual policy
National Category
Comparative Language Studies and Linguistics
Research subject
Linguistics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-123673DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16730813OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-123673DiVA, id: diva2:1997997
Available from: 2025-09-15 Created: 2025-09-15 Last updated: 2025-09-17Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

A Bird's-Eye View of the Sociolinguistic Landscape of Seychelles(668 kB)147 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 668 kBChecksum SHA-512
fba70500c4b27fe86507da53aae1ab63ab7a7287d1851b5ce4e00994b6c7b71e5aacfcf1798f5e8a9068ef7445731620e37b2ebdb540c7cc8f1a2b7989ba7485
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Deutschmann, Mats

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Deutschmann, Mats
By organisation
School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Comparative Language Studies and Linguistics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 147 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 4701 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf