Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, but except in the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island. This article traces its local history and its failure to establish itself as a replacement for French (and perhaps also the French-based creole) during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. English is still the official language of Mauritius, but a large proportion of the population does not speak it at all or has at best a very limited knowledge of it. Nonetheless, no other language spoken on the island presents itself as a viable alternative. The historical overview and the discussion of the present situation are complemented by an analysis of the language tables taken from the population censuses of 1931 to 1990 and some data from an inquiry made by the author in the mid-seventies. To complete the study, the English influence on French and Creole is shown, and three specimens of Mauritian English as spoken by young people are given and commented on.
2018. Language in a Glocalized World. In Language and Literature in a Glocal World, ► pp. 15 ff.
Belford, Nish & Jessica Chakowa
2024. Transnational women of Indo-Mauritian origins and their experiences with colonial and heritage languages. South Asian Diaspora 16:1 ► pp. 67 ff.
Poonoosamy, Mico
2010. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in post-colonial Mauritius: reaffirming local identities and knowledges. Asia Pacific Journal of Education 30:1 ► pp. 15 ff.
Poonoosamy, Mico
2016. Aspirations and tensions in developing international mindedness: case study of two students in an IB school in an Indian Ocean Island Nation. Asia Pacific Journal of Education 36:4 ► pp. 583 ff.
Poonoosamy, Mico
2018. Third culture kids’ sense of international mindedness: Case studies of students in two International Baccalaureate schools. Journal of Research in International Education 17:3 ► pp. 207 ff.
Rajah-Carrim, Aaliya
2005. Language Use and Attitudes in Mauritius on the Basis of the 2000 Population Census. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 26:4 ► pp. 317 ff.
Rajah-Carrim, Aaliya
2007. Mauritian Creole and Language Attitudes in the Education System of Multiethnic and Multilingual Mauritius. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 28:1 ► pp. 51 ff.
Rajah-Carrim, Aaliya
2010. Mauritian Muslims: Negotiating Changing Identities through Language. In The Sociology of Language and Religion, ► pp. 29 ff.
Shivani Rajkomar, Sraddha & Anthea Fraser Gupta
2008. Playing School in Mauritius. International Journal of Multilingualism 5:4 ► pp. 294 ff.
Sonck, Gerda
2005. Language of Instruction and Instructed Languages in Mauritius. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 26:1 ► pp. 37 ff.
Stein, Peter
2018. Le multilinguisme mauricien et son évolution sur quatre décennies. Cahiers internationaux de sociolinguistique N° 12:2 ► pp. 71 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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