Languages of Mauritius

Languages of Mauritius
Sign in Mauritian Creole
NationalMauritian Creole
RecognisedFrench and English
MinorityBhojpuri, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi
SignedMauritian Sign Language
Keyboard layout
QWERTY
Home languages in Mauritius as of 2024 Census [1]
Languages percent
Creole
94.9%
Bhojpuri & Hindi
69.9%
Urdu & Arabic
30.5%
Marathi
39.9%
Tamil
44.9%
Telugu
35.5%
French
90.5%
English
88.5%

The Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius does not mention any official language. The Constitution contains one statement in Article 49 that states that "the official language of the Assembly shall be English but any member may address the chair in French" which indicates that French and English are official languages of the National Assembly (parliament) only.

While the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole, French is widely spoken by a majority of Mauritians and is also used in the media while English is only used in Government and Educational purposes.

Both French and English are common languages on signages in Mauritius.

English is used as the prime medium of instruction in public schools while French is also a common language in education and the dominant language of media.[2] According to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 72.7% of the Mauritians were French speakers in 2005.[3] Mauritius shares this distinction of being both French and English speaking with Canada, Cameroon, Dominica, Rwanda, Seychelles and Vanuatu. Being both a French-speaking and English-speaking nation, Mauritius is also a member of both the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie.

No-Parking traffic cone in English and Chinese, Flic-en-Flac

Other languages spoken in Mauritius mainly include Bhojpuri, Hindi-Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Chinese. The Mauritian Sign Language is the language of the deaf community. Most Mauritians are at least bilingual, if not trilingual or quadrilingual.

See also

References

  1. ^ https://statsmauritius.govmu.org/Documents/Statistics/ESI/2024/EI1687/2024%20Population%20Census_Main%20Results_18112024.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  2. ^ "Coexistence International at Brandeis University" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-07-04.
  3. ^ (in French) La Francophonie dans le monde 2006–2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan Archived 2018-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, Paris, 2007.
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