7. Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri: Problems of language contact
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Sibylle Kriegel
Abstract
This article explores the question of language contact between Mauritian Creole and the Indo-Aryan language Bhojpuri. Historically, contact between these two languages came about as a result of the massive immigration of Indians to Mauritius, dating from the second half of the 19th century, after the abolition of slavery. This contact situation has lasted up until present times, since Bhojpuri remains, after Mauritian Creole, the most widely used spoken language in Mauritius. Diachronically, there are at least two stages of influence: (i) Bhojpuri had some influence on Creole from the 1830s onwards, and (ii) the two languages continue to interact until today, the result of which is the possibility of even more evident diversification in the diastratic and diatopic architecture of the creole. The more general issue is narrowed down to an analysis of a particular semantic-grammatical category: ablative Path expression. In this article, we defend the hypothesis that the use of depi as an ablative marker is essentially due to Bhojpuri influence. Additionally, certain kinds of uses of depi as an ablative marker function as distinctive markers of the variety of Mauritian Creole spoken by Indians. This study draws on data from recent research carried out in Mauritius, as well as the analysis of a corpus of written texts and spoken discourse, recorded and transcribed by the authors.
Abstract
This article explores the question of language contact between Mauritian Creole and the Indo-Aryan language Bhojpuri. Historically, contact between these two languages came about as a result of the massive immigration of Indians to Mauritius, dating from the second half of the 19th century, after the abolition of slavery. This contact situation has lasted up until present times, since Bhojpuri remains, after Mauritian Creole, the most widely used spoken language in Mauritius. Diachronically, there are at least two stages of influence: (i) Bhojpuri had some influence on Creole from the 1830s onwards, and (ii) the two languages continue to interact until today, the result of which is the possibility of even more evident diversification in the diastratic and diatopic architecture of the creole. The more general issue is narrowed down to an analysis of a particular semantic-grammatical category: ablative Path expression. In this article, we defend the hypothesis that the use of depi as an ablative marker is essentially due to Bhojpuri influence. Additionally, certain kinds of uses of depi as an ablative marker function as distinctive markers of the variety of Mauritian Creole spoken by Indians. This study draws on data from recent research carried out in Mauritius, as well as the analysis of a corpus of written texts and spoken discourse, recorded and transcribed by the authors.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of standard abbreviations ix
- Preface xi
- 1. The problem of multiple substrates: The case of Jamaican Creole 1
- 2. The superstrate is not always the lexifier: Lingua Franca in the Barbary Coast 1530-1830 29
- 3. In praise of the cafeteria principle: Language mixing in Hawai'i Creole 59
- 4. Tense marking and inflectional morphology in Indo-Portuguese creoles 83
- 5. Vowel epenthesis and creole syllable structure 123
- 6. The origin of the Portuguese words in Saramaccan: Implications for sociohistory 153
- 7. Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri: Problems of language contact 169
- 8. On the principled nature of the respective contributions of substrate and superstrate languages to a creole's lexicon 197
- 9. Valency patterns in Seychelles Creole: Where do they come from? 225
- 10. A first step towards the analysis of tone in Santomense 253
- 11. Balanta, Guiné-Bissau Creole Portuguese and Portuguese: A comparison of the noun phrase 263
- 12. Zamboangueño Chavacano and the potentive mode 279
- 13. Between contact and internal development: Towards a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname 301
- 14. The formation of deverbal nouns in Vincentian Creole: Morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic processes 333
- 15. A la recherche du "superstrat" : What North American French can and cannot tell us about the input to creolization 357
- Personal name index 385
- Language index 391
- Places and Peoples index 405
- Subject index 411
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- List of standard abbreviations ix
- Preface xi
- 1. The problem of multiple substrates: The case of Jamaican Creole 1
- 2. The superstrate is not always the lexifier: Lingua Franca in the Barbary Coast 1530-1830 29
- 3. In praise of the cafeteria principle: Language mixing in Hawai'i Creole 59
- 4. Tense marking and inflectional morphology in Indo-Portuguese creoles 83
- 5. Vowel epenthesis and creole syllable structure 123
- 6. The origin of the Portuguese words in Saramaccan: Implications for sociohistory 153
- 7. Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri: Problems of language contact 169
- 8. On the principled nature of the respective contributions of substrate and superstrate languages to a creole's lexicon 197
- 9. Valency patterns in Seychelles Creole: Where do they come from? 225
- 10. A first step towards the analysis of tone in Santomense 253
- 11. Balanta, Guiné-Bissau Creole Portuguese and Portuguese: A comparison of the noun phrase 263
- 12. Zamboangueño Chavacano and the potentive mode 279
- 13. Between contact and internal development: Towards a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname 301
- 14. The formation of deverbal nouns in Vincentian Creole: Morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic processes 333
- 15. A la recherche du "superstrat" : What North American French can and cannot tell us about the input to creolization 357
- Personal name index 385
- Language index 391
- Places and Peoples index 405
- Subject index 411
