Mauritian Creole Philip Baker, Sibylle Kriegel To cite this version: Philip Baker, Sibylle Kriegel. Mauritian Creole. Susanne Maria Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber. The Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 2, Oxford University Press, pp.250-260, 2013. hal-01481685 HAL Id: hal-01481685 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01481685 Submitted on 19 Mar 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Mauritian Creole PHILIP BAKER AND SIBYLLE KRIEGEL 1. Introduction IVORY NIGERIAThe Republic of Mauritius,CHAD located about 900SUDAN km east of Mada- Mauritian Creole SIERRA GHANA gascar in the Indian Ocean, has a total area of 2,040 square kilo- BENIN meters and had an estimatedCENTRAL population of 1,288,000 in 2008. It Number of speakers: More than 1,300,000 LEONECOAST TOGO ETHIOPIA SRI comprisesCAMEROON the islandAFRICAN of Mauritius REPUBLIC itself (1,865 km2), where the Major lexifer: French MALDIVES LIBERIA overwhelming majority of the population lives, and the depend- Other contributing (ISOMALIAn chronological order:) Malagasy, LANKA encies of Rodrigues (109 km2, c.40,000 inhabitants), Agalega languages: Tamil, Wolof, Mandinka, various EQUAT.(24 km2, c.300 inhabitants), and the St Brandon group of islets Bantu languages of East Africa, SAO TOME UGANDA KENYA Bhojpuri, English GUINEAwhich, though constantlyCONGO visited by fshing vessels, lacks any AND PRINCIPEpermanent residents. DEMOCRATIC Location: Mauritius in the western Indian GABON Mauritian Creole, the REPUBLICdominant spoken OF languageRWANDA of Maur- Ocean Ofcial language of itius and its dependencies, is spokenCONGO by everyone bornBURUNDI in these islands as their frst or additional language. It is also spoken by Mauritius: English many thousands of Mauritians who have emigrated to other countries, mainly in western Europe and Australia. It is closely Tanzania related to Reunion Creole (see Bollée, in this volume) and Sey- Indian Ocean chelles Creole (see Michaelis and Rosalie, in this volume). ANGOLA ZAMBIA Mozambique 2. Socio-historical background and the current linguistic situation Madagascar After the island was abandoned by the Dutch inZIMBABWE 1709, it was oc- Mauritius cupied by the FrenchNAMIBIA in December 1721 by a few people from Reunion (then called Isle BourbonBOTSWANA) while awaiting two much delayed ships from France which eventually arrived in March Réunion 1722 after half the passengers, mainly Swiss troops, had died en (France) route. None of these people came as settlers. They were joined by 30 slaves from Reunion, almost all of whom left within a year, and 65 Malagasy slaves, a third of whom quicklySWAZILAND escaped and Map 1. were never recaptured. The Compagnie des Indes wanted some Réunionnais families to move there but this did not happen be- cause they feared that Mauritius,SOUTH with AFRICA two naturalLESOTHO harbours for construction work. These plans were rapidly implemented. whereas their island had none, might rapidly overtake Reunion By 1730, non-Europeans already outnumbered Europeans by a in importance. By the end of 1725, hardly any of the Europeans considerable margin. When appointed governor of the two is- who came in 1722 remained in the island, the Swiss troops hav- lands in 1735, Labourdonnais chose Mauritius as his headquar- ing been replaced by French soldiers. ters, reducing Reunion to provincial status, thereby confrming In 1726, Lenoir, head of the Compagnie’s Indian Ocean the fears of the Réunionnais. Languages spoken by non-Euro- operations, proposed a new plan for the settlement of the is- peans in Mauritius at that time include at least Bengali, Indo- land: military colonization. Unattached young women were Portuguese, Malagasy, Mandinka, Tamil, Wolof, and perhaps to be brought from France. Soldiers who married one of them Yoruba.1 would be given land and slaves in order to become settlers. 1 While most slaves from West Africa were transported from the Compag- Slaves were to be shipped from West Africa, Madagascar, and nie’s depot in Senegal, there was one shipment from Whydah which brought India while skilled artisans were to be recruited in Pondicherry 178 slaves to Mauritius in 1729. Baker (1982a, 1982b) assumed that these would 250 2-25_mauritian.indd 250 5/23/2012 9:14:53 AM MADAGASCAR Grande Comore Moroni Iles Glorieuses France COMORES Cap d'Ambre Anjouan Antsiranana A R Cap St-Sébastien C Moheli H Dzaoudzi I P I. Mitsio E Baie d'AmpasindavaBaie d'Ambaro L M Mayotte France a I. Bé h D a Vohimarina E v S a v y C O M O R E S Iles Radama i o Bemar v Baie de Narinda S o f i Helodranon'i a Antalaha Mahajamba So fi Cap Est a d'Atongil Baie de Mahajanga Bombetoka Baie Lac M Cap Masoala Cap a Kinkony h a St-André ja Cap Bellone m b a E B U e t s ib Q o k Ste-Marie I y a Lac v a B v Alaotra a b a M M A Z Toamasina O I k o M p o a l o b U m a n D a M Antananarivo L A Mahajilo N A ia M Man angor C Tsiribihina o Antsirabe Morondava Matsiatra anananta M na na Fianarantsoa ky Mango Lac I Ihotry h o s Cap y Saint- Vincent aloto Im Ma na oky nar ang a Toliara M Mauritian Creole o v i a Indian immigrants brought several languages from western n lahy a Oni I (Gujarati, Maharati) and southern India (Telugu, as well as Mauritius the already represented Tamil) but the majority came from the Bhojpuri-speaking region of northeast India. Chinese immigrants also began arriving in the nineteenth Port Louis e century but formed only 0.5 per cent of the population when r a r frst identifed as a separate category in 1861, and did not achieve d n a their current proportion of around 3 per cent until 1952. M a Although some primary schools, mainly run by religious or- r d n St-Denis ganizations, had existed since the nineteenth century, it was not a ar Pointe en until the 1950s that free primary education became available M FaradofayItaperina Réunion for all children. This had the efect of enabling every Bhojpuri- speaking child to acquire Mauritian Creole in the playground Indian while exposing all pupils to French and English in the class- Ocean room. French remained, as before, the dominant language of the media (a radio station and several newspapers). Television, Cap Map 2. Ste-Marie introduced in 1965, brought some increase in the use of Eng- lish, but this remained little used outside the domains of edu- cation, government, and big business. Mauritian Creole was In the 30 years from 1735, Madagascar was the main source the dominant spoken language of the towns but shared this role of slaves, but slaves speaking Bantu languages had begun to be with Bhojpuri in rural areas. introduced from 1736 and their proportion slowly increased British policy in the 1960s was to divest itself of its colo- until they overtook Malagasy arrivals decisively in about 1765. nies, including Mauritius. Hindus, about half the population, Thereafter, Bantu slaves from East Africa accounted for the vast generally favoured independence, while most of the “general majority of newcomers. Small numbers of Indian slaves contin- population”2 (30%) was frmly opposed, and other minorities ued to be introduced throughout the eighteenth century. were uncertain of where their best interests lay. Tensions came The terms of transfer of ownership to Britain in 1812 safe- to a head in 1965 with rioting and interethnic murders leading guarded the French language and culture, and discouraged any to a state of emergency and the arrival of British troops. In the exodus of the Francophone population. A Protector of Slaves following 1967 election, parties favouring independence won a was appointed in the 1820s, bringing the realization that the ab- clear majority and Mauritius became independent in 1968. olition of slavery was inevitable, and leading many owners of Sociolinguistic changes since independence include a gen- domestic slaves to make the latter free citizens without waiting erally more relaxed attitude to Mauritian Creole and its use in for abolition in 1835. Former slaves were then to be paid but re- some domains where it was formerly all but taboo (e.g. banks). quired to remain on the plantations for several years. This plan However, there has so far been only a marginal increase in the failed because the wages ofered were considered inadequate. use of Mauritian Creole in the broadcasting and print media. Many slaves abandoned the plantations but then needed to fnd Other, more signifcant, changes are signalled by census fg- land where they could eke out a living. This proved difcult and ures relating to language use. These have been collected since some emigrated to Rodrigues, the Seychelles, and elsewhere. 1944 but published fgures were often misleading because they The plantations meanwhile found an inexhaustible, alterna- recorded ethnic rather than linguistic information. Consider- tive source of cheap labour in India, thus sowing the seeds of able improvements to data collection and analysis have been long-term interethnic tension. This coincided with a boom in made since then. The most striking change over the period sugar prices, leading to a vast increase in the land under cul- 1944–2000 as a whole is the steady increase in Mauritian Creole tivation and Indian immigration on a truly massive scale.