Mauritian Creole is a creole language or dialect from Mauritius. Almost all of its vocabulary stems from French while the rest of the words come from diverse backgrounds, primarily Portuguese, English, and Hindi.

It is the lingua franca of the country although standard French is widely understood and learnt. It is normally spoken by the layman in Mauritius and by people living in small remote towns or villages. In high-ranked societies or circles and for administrative purposes, the French language predominates whereas in places like Parliament, Court or academic institutions, a combination of the English and French Languages is utilized.

The Creole dialect is only used for rapid dissemination of information among laypersons and is not used for official purposes or formal situations. It is not formalized and as such does not have a dictionary, and is based and written on French sounds and writing. The popularity of Creole has never stopped growing due to its simplicity as compared to the French Language.

Mauritian Creole has close ties with the French language pronunciation, but with a few marked differences - the Creole does not have some of the more deeper and rounded consonants that the French does. The spelling here may vary if written, Creole is primarily a spoken language.

For example, manger (eat) in Creole is written manzer and is spoken the same as the French, with the exception that the more rounded g sound in the French is flattened to sound like the s in the English word "vision". The deep "u" sounds in the French numerals un and deux are also flattened, leaving the Creole "en" and "de".

Many of these pronunciation changes aid rapid speech. As further example, the final "s" in the French nous (us) is dropped to have the Creole nou, the French regarder (look) drops from three syllables to two in the Creole roder.

The grammar is often simplifed too. The slogan for the Chantecler chicken company in Mauritius is the Creole "Sa ki bon sa!", while in French, "Ça c'est qui bon, ça!" is the translation. In English, loosely, "This is what's good!".

External links

• http://www.kreol.mu/