Kreol Morisyen, the language of Mauritius

The tiny island of Mauritius has been called a "melting pot" and its linguistic situation is very complex. While English is the official language of parliament, traffic regulations, and school administration, it is spoken by only 3% of the population. French is the native language of Franco-mauritians and is used by the mass media. Eighty percent of the newspapers are written in French, which also dominates the advertising field. Mauritian Creole, or MC, is the national language and is spoken by the majority of Mauritians. Nearly the entire population knows and uses MC for communication.
Advertisements
The majority of MC words are of French origin, although more than 150 are derived from English, more than 50 from Indian languages, and several from Malagasy and Chinese.
Like many  

Show more

French-lexicon creoles, MC words often incorporate the article as part of the form of the word. For example: "liver" (winter), derives from the French "l'hiver", and "dilo" (water) from "de l'eau".