Language contact and codification: Mauritian Creole

© Anne-Marie Thomson

Mauritius

Mauritius is a multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual country, in the south-west Indian Ocean, about 800 kilometres east of Madagascar, and 4,000 kilometres from the south coast of India [view Map]. Language is perhaps the most complex aspect of Mauritian society. At least thirteen languages are used on this small island (population 1.2 million): amongst these are English, French, Bhojpuri and Creole. English is the official language, used (predominantly as a written language) by the government, and in schools and social systems. In spite of over 150 years of British rule, and 30 years of independence, however, French, the earlier colonial language, remains the language of the educated élite, while Bhojpuri, the dialect of the majority Bihari group, is spoken by about 20% of the population. Mauritian Creole, the outcome of incidental contact among several languages during the colonial period of slavery, is spoken by an estimated 90% of the population, and can be said to be the lingua franca of Mauritius.

In spite of all this diversity, Mauritius is known to be a unified and peaceful country. The complexity of language use in Mauritius (together with the fact that, before Creole emerged through colonisation, Mauritius was an exogenous island, with no indigenous inhabitants or language) makes the linguistic situation of Mauritius of great interest both in the matter of multiculturalism and of language genesis. What is perhaps most significant is the social attitude towards Creole. Typically, Creole languages are disparaged, as corrupted versions of the colonial languages. This is linguistically unfounded, however, as Creoles have their own syntactic rules and word order, and are structurally comparable with any other language.

Mauritian Creole: a language of hybridity

Limem done jalsa

('he himself sets the rhythm')
Mauritian Creole saying

How is Creole formed?

Creole, by its very essence, is the epitome of hybridity: it is formed by the convergence of two or more languages in contact. In the case of Mauritian Creole, it is the product of the contact and convergence of French (as the superstrate language, the language of the colonial 'masters') in contact with the different African languages spoken by the labourers on the sugar-cane plantations, together with elements drawn from English, Hindi (Bhojpuri), and Chinese (Hakka and Mandarin).

Example 1

Mo morisien, depi enn sosiete bien miltikiltirel dan losean indien. Tou dimounn konn koz omwen trwa langaz: angle, franse, ek kreol. Anmentan, ena bokou diskision lor kreol - par exanp lor so gramer, kouman ekrir li, e si bizin rod enn sistem ekrir li.

1.	Mo	morisien	depi	enn	sosiete	bien	miltikiltirel
	1SG	Mauritian	from	DET	society	very	multicultural
	dan	l-osean	indien
	in	ART-Ocean	Indian

2.	Tou	dimounn	konn	koz	o-mwen	trwa
	All	person	know.3SG	speak.3SG	at-least	three
	langaz	angle	Franse	ek	kreol
	language	English	French	and	Creole

3.	An-men-tan	ena	bokou	diskision	lor	kreol
3.	In-same-time	COP.3SG	lots.of	discussion	on	Creole

4.	par	exanp	lor	so	gramer	kouman	ekrir	li
4.	by	example	on	POSS.3SG	grammar	how	write.INF	3SG

5.	e	si	bizin	rod	enn	sistem	ekrir	li
5.	and	if	need.3SG	find.3SG	DET	system	write.INF	3SG

Example 1 Translation

1.	I am Mauritian, from a very multicultural society in the Indian Ocean.
2.	Everyone can speak at least three languages: English, French, and Creole.
3.	At the same time, there is much discussion about Creole -
4.	for example, about its grammar, how to write it,
5.	and if it is necessary to find a writing system for it.

Can Creole be written?

Creole, like any other language, can be written. However, Mauritian Creole (as is the case with other Creoles) does not yet have an officially recognised, standardised orthography. For the majority of Mauritians, Creole is their mother tongue, it is a spoken language, and has no written form. It is therefore understood that any way of writing Creole is acceptable.

As can be seen from the Samples of a dictation below, the variation in choice of orthography (in this example, of eight adult native Mauritian Creole speakers) is very broad. This variation is further highlighted in Table 1.

Variation of Mauritian Creole orthography

The following table shows the variation of spelling used in the eight samples. Shading indicates the number of informants who used each orthographic variant.

mo						8
bien						7
dan						6
indien						5
tou						4
si						3
li						2
langaz	langage					1
éna	ena
lor	lors
so	sor
bizin	bisin
rod	rode
mauricien	morisien	moricien
ène	enn	éne
l'océan	losean	l'ocean
koz	coz	cauz
français	franse	france
en mem tan	an mem tan	en méme temps
grammaire	gramer	gramèr
système	sistem	system
depi	dépi	depuis	dpi
société	sosiete	societé	societe
miltikiltirel	multiculturel	multikulturel	miltikilturel
dimoune	dimounn	dimoun	dimunn
trwa	trois	troi	troa
anglais	angle	anglai	anglé
écrire	ekrir	ékrir	écrir
créole	kreol	kréol	kreole	creole
kouman	kouma	couma	kuma	coma
konn	konne	kone	kon	kaun	conne
boku	boucou	bokou	boucoup	boukou	bocou
discussion	diskision	diskission	diskicion	diskusyon	discution
exemple	exempe	exampe	exanp	egzanp	egzemple
au moin	au moins	o moins	o moin	omwen	o mwin	Ø

Example 2

1.	Mo mauricien, depi ène societé bien miltikiltirel dan l'ocean indien. Tou dimoune kaun coz au moins trois langaz: anglais, français, ek creole. En méme temps, éna boucou diskission lors creole - par exampe lors so gramèr, coma écrire li, e si bisin rod ène system écrire li.
2.	Mo morisien, depi enn sosiete bien miltikiltirel dan losean indien. Tou dimounn konn koz omwen trwa langaz: angle, franse, ek kreol. An mem tan, ena bokou diskision lor kreol - par exanp lor so gramer, kouman ekrir li, e si bizin rod enn sistem ekrir li.
3.	Mo mauricien, dpi ène société bien multikulturel dan l'océan indien. Tou dimoune konne coz o moins trwa langaz: anglé, français, ek créole. En mem tan, éna boku diskusyon lor créole - par exemple lor so grammaire, kuma ékrir li, ek si bizin rod ène système ékrir li.
4.	Mo moricien, depi enn societe bien miltikilturel dan losean indien. Tou dimunn konn koz o mwin trwa langaz: angle, france, ek kreole. An mem tan, ena boku diskicion lor kreole - par exempe lor so gramer, kouma ekrir li, e si bizin rod enn system ekrir li.
5.	Mo mauricien, depuis ène société bien multiculturel dan l'océan indien. Tou dimoune conne cauz au moin troi langage: anglais, français, ek kréol. En mem temps, ena boucoup discussion lor kréol - par exemple lor so grammaire, couma écrir li, et si bizin rode ene système écrir li.
6.	Mo Morisien, dépi ène société bien miltikulturel dan l'océan indien. Tou dimoun kon koz [ ] trwa langaz: anglai, français, ek créole. En mem tan, éna bocou discution lor créole - par egzemple lor so grammaire, kouman écrire li, é si bizin rod ène sistem écrire li.
7.	Mo Morisien, depi enn sosiete bien miltikiltirel dan losean indien. Tou dimounn konn koz o moin troa langaz: angle, franse, ek kreol. An mem tan, ena boukou diskision lor kreol - par egzanp lor so gramer, kouma ekrir li, ek si bizin rod enn sistem ekrir li.
8.	Mo moricien, dépi éne société bien multiculturel dan l'océan indien. Tou dimoune kone koz au moin trois langaz: anglais, français, ek créole. En mem tan, éna boucou discussion lor créole - par exemple lor sor grammaire, kouman écrire li, et si bizin rode éne système écrire-li.

Mauritian Creole: codification

From the Samples above, the general trend would appear to be for a mixture of French-looking words and personalised phonetic variations. The same word may, indeed, be spelt differently by the same writer in the same sentence. It is not surprising, perhaps, that words tend to follow a French spelling, as this is the language that Mauritians will be used to seeing in written form, and which will therefore come more naturally to them. One or two more common Creole words (found in traditional Mauritian Sega songs, for example) may be written in a non-French way - for example, morisien 'Mauritian,' or trwa 'three' - even though the words may clearly be of French origin.

Much research has been conducted in various Creole-speaking countries, with the aim of establishing a standardised orthography. The main debate revolves around whether to adopt an etymological orthography that resembles French (or other superstrate language), or to create a more autonomous orthography, using an essentially phonetic system. Similarly, in Mauritius; various groups have been, and continue to be, actively involved in creating and developing an orthography for Mauritian Creole, and there is a rich and rapidly growing literature written in Mauritian Creole.

It is evident, however, that, without a standardised orthography, Mauritian Creole cannot gain full official status as a language. This is the area of the author's present research.

Anne-Marie Thomson, April 2006, Unity in Diversity: the prospect of a standardised Creole, as a symbol of unity and identity in Mauritius: A case study. Not yet published. Do not quote without written permission: amthomson99@hotmail.com