Lortograf Kreol Repiblik Moris (Kreol Morisien ek Kreol Rodrige): nesans, evolision, inplikasion

Abstract

Abstract Although it is established that Mauritian Creole originated in the 1720s, it was not until 2011 that the Mauritian State finally recognized an official spelling for this language. Another one, no less historical, will follow this historical leap: the introduction of Mauritian Creole as an optional subject in primary schools in the Republic of Mauritius, and, subsequently, in secondary schools in 2018. These significant developments were made possible thanks to the struggles and the continuous work of several social actors, which started in the context of the Independence of Mauritius (in 1968), and which spanned over more than four decades at different levels, whether political, sociological, educational, identity or scientific. It turns out, however, that no one expected that the progress made by Mauritian Creole during the periods mentioned above would have some serious consequences in Rodrigues, an island attached to Mauritius and forming part of the Republic but having an autonomous political administration since 2002. There have been, indeed, in the wake of what happened in 2011 and 2012 (see above), a series of reactions and claims in Rodrigues in relation to the specificities of the Creole used on the Rodriguan territory. These claims and the events that followed had as a corollary the recognition by the Republic of Mauritius, of Rodriguan Creole as a language in its own right, and not as a simple regional variant of Mauritian Creole, to the point that the Rodriguan variety will even end up having its own official spelling, and even its own unilingual Creole dictionary, alongside its Mauritian counterpart (the Diksioner Morisien) which exists since 2009. Key words: Orthographic harmonisation and standardisation, Diksioner Morisien, Diksioner Kreol Rodrige