- Also spoken in
- Mauritius
- Script
- Latin
Where it's spoken
Mauritian Creole is spoken in Mauritius. The country's constitution says that the official language of the National Assembly is English, but that any member may address the chair in French; Creole is not mentioned in the text. The grammar of Mauritian Creole, published by the Academy under the Ministry of Education, says in its account of research on the language that sociolinguistic studies were to show that Mauritian Creole is spoken by the large majority of Mauritians and so is a national language.
Sources
Script & pronunciation
Mauritian Creole is written in the Latin alphabet. Its standard spelling builds on an earlier proposal called Grafi-larmoni; the Technical Committee's final recommendations on the spelling were approved by the Mauritian Creole Academy, with a few proposed amendments, at a meeting held on the twenty-first of December, twenty ten, after the Academy had been launched by the Minister of Education that October. In this spelling the sound [u] is written ou, as in the app's card Ou kapav redwir pri-la? ("Can you lower the price?"), and a vowel followed by nn is listed as a separate group of letters, as in larenn and dimounn. The letter y is used at the start or end of a syllable; between a consonant and a vowel the spelling uses i, as in kamion and nasion.
The definite article -la always comes after the noun and is joined to it with a hyphen, as in this app's card Kot bazar-la ete? ("Where is the market?"). The Technical Committee recommends writing full forms instead of contractions, for example Anou ale rather than a contracted spelling, and mo oule vini rather than a shortened one; it gives pena and pankor as shortened forms written without an apostrophe. For the time being, the standardisation does not re-spell proper names in Creole, except where that has already happened, as with country names such as Moris and Lafrans.
Sources
- Carpooran, Arnaud et al. (2011). Lortograf Kreol Morisien. Akademi Kreol Morisien, Ministry of Education and Human Resources — Preface; section 1; Tablo 1-3; section 4.2.8; section 6.3; section 6.4
Grammar essentials
The grammar's table of personal pronouns gives, as the subject placed before the verb, mo (first person singular), to or ou (second person singular), li (third person singular), nou (first person plural) and zot (second person plural; the table also gives zot for the third person plural). The same table gives different forms after the verb for the first and second person singular (get mwa, get twa or get ou), while li, nou and zot stay the same (get li, get nou, get zot). The app's card Mo finn amiz mwa boukou. ("I had a great time.") shows mwa after the verb. Possessives are placed before the noun: mo lakaz ("my house"), to lakaz or ou lakaz ("your house"), so lakaz ("his or her house"), nou lakaz ("our house"), zot lakaz ("your or their house"). This app's card Eski ou kapav gard mo bagaz ziska lapremidi? ("Can you keep my luggage until the afternoon?") shows mo before bagaz.
Plural is shown by the word bann before the noun, as in bann lakaz-la, and the article -la stays after the noun. The grammar says that short one-syllable words placed before the main verb express time. With no marker the verb states a habit or a decision; pe marks an action in progress; fek and finn mark something already done; ti marks the past; and pou marks an intention. This app's cards show several: Mo pe aste sa kouma souvenir. ("I'm buying this as a souvenir."), Mo finn amiz mwa boukou. ("I had a great time.") and Mo pou vini ankor. ("I'll come again").
For negation, the grammar's example Mo ti pou manz diri me mo pa ti fin sa zour-la ("I was about to eat rice, but I wasn't hungry on that day") has pa after the subject mo and before the marker ti. The app's card Mo pa koz Kreol Morisien. ("I do not speak Mauritian Creole.") has pa between the subject mo and the verb koz.
Sources
- Police-Michel, Daniella; Carpooran, Arnaud; Florigny, Guilhem (2011). Gramer Kreol Morisien, Volim I: Dokiman referans. Akademi Kreol Morisien, Ministry of Education and Human Resources — Sections 2.2, 2.3.1, 2.5.1, 4.1.1-4.1.3, 4.1.6
Politeness & etiquette
For addressing one person the grammar describes two words: to, used when the speaker is close enough to the listener to use a familiar form, and ou, used when the speaker needs or prefers to keep some relational distance out of respect or politeness. To and ou can both be the subject of a sentence or the possessive before a noun; in other positions the grammar uses twa for the familiar form, and ou does not change form. This app's cards use ou, as in Koman ou apele? ("What is your name?").
For several listeners the grammar gives zot as the plural form of twa, which it says can be used in any syntactic context.