Normally, when you think of France, you likely picture a Parisian landscape in Western Europe. Indeed, metropolitan France accounts for most of the territory and population of France, but the country maintains several overseas territories across the Americas, Africa, and Oceania. One prominent overseas department of France is Réunion, a small African island east of Madagascar. The land was uninhabited until populated by French immigrants in the 17th century, who imported people from East Africa, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and India as slaves or indentured servants. Today, the country is ethnically diverse, with most of the population speaking Reúnion Creole as their first language.
Reúnion Creole (or Reúnionese Creole) has about 560,000 native speakers and is used as the primary language of communication on the island. However, French remains the prestige language of the region, used in education, administration, and most writing. This means that Reúnion Creole is underrepresented, with few translation services to speak of. We at TranslationServices.com want to support Reúnion’s de facto main language—which is why we’ve set up our own Reúnion Creole translation team.
Want to see our prices for Reúnion Creole translation services? Then send us a message and ask!
Reúnion Creole: the true language of Reúnion
Reúnion Creole is spoken widely all over the island of Reúnion, but for most of its existence, it’s been overshadowed by French. In recent years, more efforts have been made to support the language, including by developing an official orthography. Reúnion Creole is a French-based creole, with most of its vocabulary and grammar derived from French, but the language also includes many lexical items taken from Malagasy, Hindi, Portuguese, Gujarati, and Tamil.
In general, a French speaker won’t understand Reúnion Creole. Even the pronouns can differ significantly—compare French ils/elles (“they”) with Reúnion Creole banna. The plural is also formed differently from in French: in French, one simply adds an -s to the noun, only pronouncing it in certain contexts, whereas in Reúnion Creole, one adds the particle bann before the noun. Plural demonstratives (“these” or “those”) are not placed before the noun, as in French, but after—“these books,” which would be ces livres in French, is bann liv-là in Reúnionese. This makes the stark differences between French and Reúnion Creole clear, which is why you need a native-speaking Reúnionese translator if you want a high-quality Reúnion Creole translation.
Want Reúnion Creole translation services? We’re here—for any client.
We’re proud to be one of the few translation companies offering specialized Reúnion Creole translation services. Our translators hail from all over the island, be that Saint-Denis, Saint-Paul, Saint-Pierre, Le Tampon, Saint-Andre, Saint-Louis, or another Reúnionese city. They’re passionate their unique native language, and they work hard to translate clients’ texts to and from Reúnion Creole, no matter the nature or subject matter of the work.
We have a lot of general translators on our team, but we’ve also hired a number of specialist translators who can cater to more specific translation needs. For example, we have academic translators who can help researchers looking to connect with locals in their native language or educators aiming to translate lesson materials into Reúnion Creole. We also have a business translation team eager to translate promotional materials like ads and billboards into Reúnion Creole to better target a local customer base. And then there are our creative teams—our literary translators and localization specialists—who can translate everything from books, stories, and poems to websites, apps, and games. The famed French comic Asterix has already been translated into Reúnion Creole—why not have your works join the ranks?
Would you like to explore Reúnion Creole translation services? Our team is eager to get started—just message us to place an order today!