Help with Creole sentences

For example:

-    Anretour li finn donn mwa pou preske kado enn saldeben dernie model. (preske kado - an almost present?)
-    Nou finn kit larivier sakre pou donn lavi later marekaz (give life to earth?)
-    donn mwa ki mole (not sure about ki mole)
-    donn sa enn nou bann
-    donn so tou (give his all ? an expression?)
-    donn zot boukou lasir (give them lots of wax? cire?)
-    Me bann pie ki ti donn mous-dimiel nektar
-    donn mwa toule-tanto (is toule-tanto an expression?)
-    donn sef pousari siprem
-    donn li gagne (is gagne a noun rather than a verb?)
-       donn zoli kado … Timama zot fonn dan lili.
-    Sef aksioner finn donn direktiv sef administrasion
-    donn bel nisa (nisa – intoxicated?)
-    donn enn nisa apar
-    donn lagam ar so triyang (give rhythem with his triangle?)

And "donn bal" is causing me trouble as it seems to mean something different in each situation...

Any help would be much appreciated!

many of them are "wisdom quotes" / "proverbes" in french. and some you have listed are quite old, which means that the newer generation might not know their real meaning.

preske kado translates to "almost as a gift", it actually means "at a very low price"

ki mole in this case I think it means "what I want"

donn so tou is an expression meaning "did his best"

toule-tanto means "each evening"

nisa can have many meanings, but most of the time it means "enjoyment"

don bal as well can have many meanings, it may mean "making a mess", "causing harm", "having a party", etc

Anneuh wrote:

Bonzour!

I am a Linguistics student from England, starting a project on Mauritian Creole.

Would any Creole speakers be willing to translate some sentences into English/French so I can understand them well before I start looking into the linguistic structure?

Mersi!

Hannah

If you go on this site:
https://mauricianismes.wordpress.com

"Martian spoken here"

you will get quite a few stakeholders who may help. That's their aim after all - les Mauricianismes

Anneuh wrote:

For example:

-    Anretour li finn donn mwa pou preske kado enn saldeben dernie model. (preske kado - an almost present?) as if for free
-    Nou finn kit larivier sakre pou donn lavi later marekaz (give life to earth?) revive a swamp
-    donn mwa ki mole (not sure about ki mole) what I want
-    donn sa enn nou bann
-    donn so tou (give his all ? an expression?) give it all
-    donn zot boukou lasir (give them lots of wax? cire?) may  be the Chinese cake :"gateau la cire" ???
-    Me bann pie ki ti donn mous-dimiel nektar my trees provide  the bees with the nectar
-    donn mwa toule-tanto (is toule-tanto an expression?)
-    donn sef pousari siprem- give the head of the gurus or swamis ???
-    donn li gagne (is gagne a noun rather than a verb?) let him/her win
-       donn zoli kado … Timama zot fonn dan lili.
-    Sef aksioner finn donn direktiv sef administrasion-- the shareholders' rep has given instructions to the BoD
-    donn bel nisa (nisa – intoxicated?)
-    donn enn nisa apar
-    donn lagam ar so triyang (give rhythem with his triangle?)

And "donn bal" is causing me trouble as it seems to mean something different in each situation...

Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi,

Many terms and expressions can be attributed to a single Creole world or sentence, therefore it's not possible to provide you with a definite meaning.

Anretour li finn donn mwa pou preske kado enn saldeben dernie model. (preske kado - an almost present?)

'Presk kado' means something is so cheap that it feels as if you are getting it for free.

Nou finn kit larivier sakre pou donn lavi later marekaz (give life to earth?)


Not sure what this means but it could be something like from a favorable situation to a dire one.

donn mwa ki mole (not sure about ki mole)


'Ki mole' means 'What I want'

donn sa enn nou bann

Give this to someone from our own group/network/community of people

donn so tou (give his all ? an expression?)

Give all you can/try your best

donn zot boukou lasir (give them lots of wax? cire?)

'Lasir' means wax but I don't know what this expression means...it literally translate to 'Give them lots of wax'

Me bann pie ki ti donn mous-dimiel nektar

Trees/plants harbouring bees

donn mwa toule-tanto (is toule-tanto an expression?)

'Toule-tanto' means every evening

donn sef pousari siprem

'Sef' means chief
'Pousari' means a priest, most commonly a Hindu-Tamil Priest

donn li gagne (is gagne a noun rather than a verb?)

When someone is wrongly claiming that he/she is right, so you let it be as you don't want any further dispute/argument...

donn zoli kado … Timama zot fonn dan lili

Something valuable but which doesn't last long

Sef aksioner finn donn direktiv sef administrasion

The biggest shareholder gave some instructions/orders to the chief administrator

donn bel nisa (nisa – intoxicated?)

'Nisa' has as much as 25 different meanings like intoxicated. under the influence, fun, enjoyment, having a good time, making a joke, pulling a prank on someone, etc

In this case, it can have several meanings: 1) someone took/drink something hence giving him a high
                                                                           2) Calling for everyone to enjoy themselves to the max.


donn enn nisa apar

A different/unusual kind of fun/enjoyment

donn lagam ar so triyang (give rhythem with his triangle?)

'Lagam' means someone developing a useless/stupid habit, mostly annoying to other people...

donn bal

Means something big/exciting is taking place...e.g a party has reached it's climax/pinnacle