The Mauritian Creole reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Mauritian Creole

Mauritian Creole is a creole language from Mauritius that is based mainly on French, but also English, Hindi, and others. It is the lingua franca of the country; if one cannot speak in Creole a Mauritian will understand French proper, or English.

Mauritian Creole has close ties with 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.

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 good, this!".

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