Page created by Noël-Bernard Biagui, INALCO PhD in association with the LLACAN, 2010.

Data on the language

Alternative names: Kriyol, Lingu Kristoŋ.

Classification: Portuguese-based Creole language of West Africa (CPAO).

Main dialects:

Very few intern variations are accounted for (Creole spoken in Ziguinchor city, Sindone, Niaguis, Fanda, Adéane, Kougnoundou, Djifanghor, Agniak).

Geographical area:

Casamance Creole is spoken in West Africa, in Casamance (southern Senegal), in the Ziguinchor Region (Ziguinchor city, Sindone, Niaguis, Fanda, Adéane, Kougnoundou, Djifanghor, Agniak).

Number of speakers:

Estimates account for some 50,000 speakers (Châtaigner 1963:54).

Language status:

Casamance Creole is a non-official language, and it is not taught in school. It is the trade language for thousands of speakers of Baynunk, Jola, Mankanya, Manjack (etc.)

Vitality & Transmission:

Casamance Creole remains the mother tongue of a fair number of children, though it faces decline in favor of Wolof, Maninka, and French.

Media/Literature/Education:

A one-hour weekly radio program (“Housewife”) airs on the RTS (“Radio Télévision du Sénégal”) in Ziguinchor.

Casamance Creole is also used in Catholic religious education (catechism is conducted partly in Creole in most of the churches in Ziguinchor, as well as in Creole-speaking villages, hence the production of a few Creole catechesis textbooks).

Ethnographic observations

The majority of Casamance Creole speakers belong to the Baynunk ethnic group, and are Catholics.

Linguistic observations

Casamance Creole appeared in the course of the 17th century with the establishment of the Ziguinchor presidio (trading post), during the Portuguese colonisation, and bears strong similarities with the current Creoles of Guinea-Bissau (Cacheu), Cape Verde (Cape Verdean), and the Netherlands Antilles (Papiamentu).

The structure of Casamance Creole is in SVO (Subject-Verb-Object). Its morphology is regular, with a significant amount of vocabulary from Romance and African languages.

Sources & Bibliography

BIAGUI, N. B. (thèse en cours), Description générale du créole afro-portugais parlé à Ziguinchor (Casamance), Dakar / Paris: Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) / Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INaLCO).

CHATAIGNER, A., « Le créole portugais du Sénégal : Observations et textes », Journal of African languages, Vol. 2, part I, 1963, pp. 44-71.

DONEUX, J. L., Systèmes phonologiques des langues de Casamance et français parlé par les élèves casamançais du CM1 (cours moyen première année), Dakar, CLAD (Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar), 1979, 82 p.

ROUGE, J. L., En apprenant le créole à Bissau ou Ziguinchor, l’Harmattan, Paris, 1988, 113 p.

ROUGE, J. L., Formation et évolution du créole de Guinée Bissao et de Casamance, Université de Lyon II, 1985.