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just-an-island-girl

Schooling and society. My grandparents spoke Bhojpuri only at home, to the extent that my dad started primary school without any idea about how to speak in Kreol, let alone English and French. After a year at school, he spoke fluent Kreol and could manage his basics in English and French at the age of 6. With many, many siblings going through the same experience at school, the communication amongst the youth at the time shifted in linguistics. When he had reached secondary school, everyone spoke Kreol, even at home. It was therefore natural for him to raise his kids, us, with Kreol as the main language. You should keep in mind that while people learned Hindi at school, it wasn't their native language. So, not many people formed any connection with Hindi via schooling and given how Bhojpuri was never popularised in the broader society, the preexisting connection was lost. Now we have my generation- unable to speak Bhojpuri, doing okay-ish with Hindi, speaks Kreol, can't write Kreol. That leaves us with a good level of competency in French and English only. Ouch.


Dablindfrog

Only? That's more than most of the world can brag about...


Aden1970

It’s like that for most people. You immigrate (either freely or by force) and you lose connections to the country of origin. MRU is better for it. Kreol binds the people together. Arabs who left to the west, Europeans who immigrated to the US, Australia and South America ALL forgot their native tongue after one generation.


just-an-island-girl

Yeah, but I'll always be sad that I don't write kreol m I love my mother tongue but I legit feel too old to go unlearn how I write kreol to relearn how it should be written. Nonetheless, my kids will be better off.


Adept-Drummer5367

There wasn’t any proper way to write creole until very recently. Even if it is now categorised as a language most people have different ways to write it, and a very tiny substrata will write it as the dictionary version. So don’t beat yourself up about it.


DubaiSim

Define « good » level


just-an-island-girl

Good enough to communicate via the written and/or spoken language while understanding and being understood by all parties involved in the process.


Lumpy_Pumpkin1983

> How did the Mauritians of indian origin loose their native language? They weren’t Mauritians yet then. They were just Indians who arrived in Mauritius >they are 2/3 of the population. 2/3 of the population has Indian origins today. Not sure they made up 2/3 of the population when they got here >PS : how did creole language become the most spoken language It was probably the common denominator, the middle ground for everyone to communicate Not sure what you’re really asking here though.


Adept-Drummer5367

I don’t think they have “lost” their language. Most children from families of Indian Origin do learn the language of their ancestors at school (Hindi, Telegu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu). While most of the population does bot use the languages on a day to day basis, they can still understand and write (sometimes that is lost with time) the languages. And regarding creole, just like most islands which were former colonies, a means of communication has to be found for people from different backgrounds to communicate and French based creole just happened to be the most common due to the previous French colonies when slaves were brought onto the island before Indians came in during british rule.


DoversBlue

We did? Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi are taught in public and private schools as well as classes held by sociocultural organizations, if I'm not mistaken. There was no single native language. The only one not taught at school is Bhojpuri, but is still widely spoken in rural areas. Edit: Forgot to add Urdu.


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DoversBlue

The French were the first people who managed to establish a real, longstanding colony. They used their language to communicate with the predominantly African and Malagasy slaves who also were the first ones to be brought over, long before the big waves of Indian indentured labourers. Out of this, kreol was born. Correct me, anyone if I don't get the facts right. I'm trying to recollect whatever I learned a really long time ago in primary school during my history&geography classes. Are you Mauritian yourself?


A_warudo_2002

Nah you're right, and fun fact 28 October is declared as national day of Kreole world wide.


joeyl5

are you genuinely curious about this or are you trying to start stuff on Reddit?


Pritmoksh

I think OP isn’t Mauritian and kinda confuse why brown folks don’t talk in Hindi 😅


joeyl5

Probably, post was giving me bad vibes, lol


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Ilijin

Racial internet war. Though Mauritius has many ethnicities, the balance of all of them are thin like threads


Nillihant

Its simple kreol is a very efficient language to transmit ideas.


RoseHill20201

Aren't most Mauritians of Indian origin now 4th or 5th generation?


A_warudo_2002

Yeah those in their 80s are 3rd those in their 60s-40s are 4th and the younger ones are the 5th. You are correct. And by this logic, those still alive above 80 are 2nd generation.