Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri - Laboratoire de ...

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri official year of the abolition of slavery. 5 Toussaint (1974) writes that the effect ofthis movement was a definitive Indianization of Mauritius. He underlines that upuntil the end of Indian immigration in 1909, the island received almost 450,000indentured labourers, the majority of whom did not return to India. These indenturedlabourers were mostly Bhojpuri speakers (Neerputh 1986: 9ff; see alsoMesthrie 1991: 26), which explains the importance of this language in Mauritius.However, it should be emphasized that there was a considerable populationof speakers of other languages from South Asia, including Dravidian languageslike Tamil and Telugu, languages which a minority of today’s speakers still declareas being their “language usually spoken at home”, 6 sometimes alongside Bhojpuri(see the Population Census of the Republic of Mauritius 2000). 7As far as the relationship between Indian Bhojpuri and the variety spoken inMauritius is concerned, Baker & Ramnah (1988) carry out a detailed comparisonbetween modern Mauritian Bhojpuri and texts of twelve different geographicalvarieties of Indian Bhojpuri published by Grierson (1903), concluding that the“standard Magahi” variety comes closest to Mauritian Bhojpuri overall but thatit is apparent that Mauritian Bhojpuri does not derive from this alone but is a“blend” of several varieties of Indian Bhojpuri.Domingue (1981) lists grammatical features where simplification is evident,namely the system of honorifics (see below) and the notion of gender. The femininemarker on the verb only continues to exist in the second person singularpast tense of certain archaic registers of Mauritian Bhojpuri. Moreover, accordingto Domingue (1981: 7) Mauritian Bhojpuri has lost the optional adjective agreementwhich exists in Indian Bhojpuri. Domingue claims, moreover, that these processesof simplification are not a result of contact with Creole, but “they appearto be due to the “move” itself, to the geographical and historical distances whichhave severed the links between the transplanted variety and its origins” (1981: 52).Baker & Ramnah (1985: 230) conclude that “Mauritian Bhojpuri is not a radicallyrestructured form of Indian Bhojpuri and has certainly not undergone anythingcomparable to the process of creolization.” 8 It seems that Mauritian Bhojpuri, tospeak in terms of markedness theory, is affected by certain processes of markednessreduction.Let us consider an example on the morphological level: the system of personalpronouns in Indian and Mauritian Bhojpuri (as part of the system of honorifics).The simplification processes become evident if one compares both varieties ofBhojpuri:(1) System of personal pronounsIndian Bhojpuri 9 Mauritian Bhojpuri 10 Mauritian Creole1 ham ham mo2 formal: a:p tou ouinformal: tu:tofamiliar: tæ3 formal: wan ou liinformal: u:1 hamman (ke) hamni nu2 formal: a:p lo:g tou zotinformal: tuhan (ke)3 formal: u: lo:g holog zotinformal: onn h an (ke)When compared to Indian Bhojpuri, Mauritian Bhojpuri is characterized by asystem in which forms of the 2nd person and the 3rd person singular and pluralare reduced. We will return to this point in §2.3.2. Mauritian Bhojpuri is also distinguishedfrom Indian Bhojpuri by various phonetic and morphophonologicalprocesses/modifications. For details concerning the immigration of populations from the Indian sub-continent toMauritius in the 18th century (thus before the arrival of indentured labourers), see Vaughan(2005). Although Tamil, Telugu and various other languages of India are returned as “languageusually spoken in the home” in the Mauritian censuses, this does not necessarily mean that thereare any homes in which these are “usually spoken” (Philip Baker, personal communication). According to Atchia-Emmerich (2005), nowadays Bhojpuri is spoken by the majority ofIndians in Mauritius, even those who in the census indicate that they have kept their ancestrallanguages, like the Tamils, the Marathis and the Telugus. See also Mesthrie (1991: 93ff) who speaks of simplification in the transplanted varieties.Like Baker & Ramnah (1985) for Mauritian Bhojpuri, he underlines that the structural simplificationprocesses in the South African variety are not evidence of pidginization and creolization(1991: 104). See Shukla (1981: 76). Where several forms are noted, the first one indicates the formalform, the second the informal and the third, familiar. The information in this column was compiled using data from our own studies, wherewe transcribed Mauritian Bhojpuri using the writing conventions proposed by Hookoomsing(2004). It corresponds largely to Neerputh’s (1986: 27) table, apart from some divergences in thespelling.2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri Concerning the question of mutual intelligibility between Hindi and MauritianBhojpuri, 11 it is important to specify that many Mauritian Bhojpuri speakers arealso speakers of or have a (passive) competence in Hindi, 12 especially since youngergenerations learn Hindi as heritage language at school and a majority of MauritianBhojpuri speakers have access to televised programs in Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu).Thus, there is mutual comprehension, at least among certain speakers, and equallya permanent contact between Hindi and Bhojpuri in Mauritius.Contact between Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri Creole influences on BhojpuriGenerally speaking, the tendency to replace marked features by unmarked ones(mentioned above) can be attributed either to the influence of Creole or tothe laws of orality which show a tendency towards generalizing the unmarkedform and which also govern (historical) creolization and the use of Bhojpuri inMauritius. 13However, the influence of Creole on Bhojpuri is clearly evident in the area oflexis. As will be shown in the following examples, Mauritian Bhojpuri makes useof several Creole borrowings. 14(2) a. Mauritian BhojpuriBazaar se pom anye.market apple bringb. Mauritian CreoleAmenn enn pom depi bazar.bring apple market‘Bring an apple from the market.’These processes of borrowing include the use of entire phrases which seem tobecome complex lexical items in Bhojpuri:(3) 15 a. Mauritian BhojpuriHam danbwa se nikla thain.1 forest come.from ..1b. Mauritian CreoleMo sorti dan bwa.1 come.from forest.‘I come from the forest.’However, in the area of lexis, the extent to which Bhojpuri words are replaced byCreole equivalents varies according to geographical (urban versus rural areas)and age differences. Evidently, urban and younger speakers use Creole wordsmore frequently than rural or older speakers. Thus, two sociolinguistic factorsare shown to be important when considering the evolution of the linguistic ecosystemof Mauritius: urbanization and diagenerational variation. 16 Here, we willmerely make reference to these few examples concerning lexis and will return tothe possible reciprocal influences on morphosyntax in the following paragraph, aswell as in §3. Cf. Domingue’s (1981: 52) comment concerning linguistic awareness: “Mauritian Bhojpuriis so different from Continental Bhojpuri that its speakers are not really sure that they are, indeed,speaking that language. In fact, most of them believe that they speak some patois of Hindi, verymuch like Mauritian Creole speakers believe that they speak a patois of French”. If this analysisremains true for many older speakers, the attitudes of younger generations of speakers havenevertheless changed insofar as they draw a distinction between Bhojpuri “language of the oldergeneration” for many, and Hindi, prestige language learnt at school. Our informants clarify that those who studied Hindi at school up to CPE (end of primaryeducation) have passive competence, i.e., they understand but do not speak Hindi. Those whostudy Hindi in high school have an active competence. Thus Baker & Ramnah (1985: 219 ff) mention that the function of the unmarked form ofthe noun in Mauritian Bhojpuri corresponds exactly to that of the Creole Prototype. Howeverthey are unable to determine whether this parallel is truly due to a Creole influence. Baker & Ramnah (1985: 226) estimate some 1000 Creole words in Mauritian Bhojpuri,cf. also Neerputh (1986: 11). Mesthrie (1991: 153) reports examples of the transfer of Creolelexemes to South African Bhojpuri via Mauritian Bhojpuri.2nd proofs Bhojpuri influence on CreoleIt has been shown that Bhojpuri has, for its part, left several lexical traces on Creole.Baker & Ramnah (1985: 226) cite a figure of more than 300 words of Indo-Aryanorigin in Mauritian Creole, of which the majority are probably from Bhojpuri(Kriegel & Ludwig & Henri forthcoming).During our surveys, informants brought to light the fact that certain Bhojpuriwords have been integrated into Creole, some examples being: 17 karay (‘frying We are grateful to Kumari Issur, who provided us with this example and who also drew ourattention to the fact that dan-bwa as a single word translates as “forest” and can even be replacedby lafore where Bhojpuri is used in contexts calling for a higher register. It would seem, then,that Bhojpuri borrows lexical items (lexemes) from various Creole registers. For more detailed analysis of these factors, see Díaz & Ludwig & Pfänder (2002). See Baker (1982: 314 ff.) for a methodical summary in which some of these words arefound.

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri We have already mentioned the fact that several French-lexified Creoles, notablySeychelles Creole, which is similar to Mauritian Creole in many respects, 21 generalizedthe form derived from French vous to formal and informal registers. We couldalso consider a noteworthy observation concerning another variety of “exported”Bhojpuri from the context of indentured labour: according to Mesthrie (1991: 100),South African Bhojpuri lost the distinction between formal and informal both onthe verb and on the pronoun. Thus, two varieties (other French-lexified creoles andSouth African Bhojpuri) which are similar to the two Mauritian languages lost theformal/informal distinction. If the distinction is maintained in Mauritian Creoleas well as in Mauritian Bhojpuri, although this is manifested at different levels, wepropose that this could be due to the reciprocal influence and interaction betweenMauritian Creole and Mauritian Bhojpuri. We therefore hypothesize that this is acase of convergence between Mauritian Creole and Mauritian Bhojpuri.The expression of PathThe semantic categories: Ablative, allative and essiveLet us first examine the semantic categories involved in a local situation. For thispurpose, we will adopt the conceptual and terminological suggestions of Lehmann(1992) and Talmy (1985). A local situation presents, according to Lehmann (1992),the following structure (see also Michaelis (this volume) for its application tocreole languages): A moving or located object or Figure 22 is involved in a situationand locally related or oriented with respect to a local region of a reference object,which can also be called Ground. It is important to distinguish between the localregion or place of the reference object and the orientation or Path (Talmy 1985).In this paper, we are particularly interested in the coding of Path. 23 We distinguishthe following types of Path: essive (at rest, “to be at”), allative (motion-to, “to goto”) and ablative (motion-from, “to come from”) and will pay special attention tothe coding of the ablative relation in intransitive movement. The separation of Seychelles Creole from Mauritian Creole predates large-scale Indianimmigration in Mauritius. Concerning this point, we follow Talmy (1985: 61) who gives the following definitions:“The terms “Figure” and “Ground” are taken from Gestalt psychology but we give them a distinctsemantic interpretation here: the Figure is a moving or conceptually movable object whosepath or site is at issue; the Ground is a reference frame, or a reference point stationary within areference-frame with respect to which the Figure’s path or site is characterized.” The “Path” (with a capital P) is the course followed or site occupied by the Figure objectwith respect to the Ground object.2nd proofsThe unmarked expressionIn French, the preposition de normally encodes the ablative relation and the prepositionà encodes the allative (and essive) relation. These two prepositions havebeen lost during creolization and have not been replaced by other prepositionsin most varieties of Mauritian Creole. In ablative and allative contexts, the verbcombines with the Ground without any Path-denoting preposition:Examples for the ablative relation:(7) Mauritian Creolea. Mo sorti Vakwa.1 come.from Vacoas‘I’m coming from Vacoas.’b. Dadi sort lakanpagn.Grandma come.from countryside‘Grandma comes from the countryside’.c. Zak sorti kot Pol.Jacques come.from Paul‘Jacques is coming from Paul’s (place).’Examples for the allative relation:(8) Mauritian Creolea. Mo pe al Vakwa.1 go Vacoas‘I am going to Vacoas.’b. Zak pe al kot Pol.Jacques go Paul‘Jacques is going to Paul’s (place).’The zero-expression of ablative and allative in Mauritian Creole corresponds tothe strategy employed by other French-lexified creoles. Here we will limit ourcomparison to Lesser Antillean Creole, especially Guadeloupean Creole andDominican Creole. Examples for the ablative relation:(9) a. Dominican Creole (Ludwig & Telchid & Bruneau-Ludwig 2001: 39)Sété bagay ki té sòti lòt pèyi kòmisyon thing come.from other country goodski sòti lòt pèyi. come.from other country‘These were things which came from other countries, goods which camefrom other countries.’b. Guadeloupean Creole (Ludwig & Montbrand & Poullet & Telchid 2002: 296)Ou sòti lwen.2 come.from far‘You’ve come from far.’

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri Examples for the allative relation:(10) Guadeloupean Creole (G. Hazaël-Massieux 1989: 207)Mwen kalé Paris.1 .go Paris‘I am going to Paris.’We also refer the reader to Michaelis (this volume), who works with examplesfrom Seychelles Creole corresponding to our examples of unmarked expressions in(7)–(10) from Mauritian Creole and Lesser Antillean Creole. In Seychelles Creole,as in our examples (7)–(10), the ablative relation and the distinction between ablativeand allative relation is not grammatically encoded.Seychelles Creole(11) Mon al dan bwa.1 go in forest‘I’m going into the forest.’(12) Mon sorti dan 24 bwa.1 come.from in forest‘I’m coming from the forest.’According to Michaelis (this volume), many creoles behave like Seychelles Creolein that they do not express Path overtly; the appropriate interpretation has tobe inferred from the semantics of the verb. Even if we suggest, for instance, thatin Lesser Antillean Creole serial verb constructions must be considered in theexpression of Path (see §3.3), Michaelis’s main hypothesis is of great significanceto our paper: She claims that those constructions not conforming to the encodingstrategies in the European base languages are attributable to substrate influence.In this paper, we will not be looking at the possible substrate languages of MauritianCreole but we will focus on a construction type current in some varieties ofMauritian Creole which are influenced by Bhojpuri, which can be qualified as beingan adstrate language for Mauritian Creole. Our results will point to the same trendas that suggested by Michaelis (this volume) and Essegby (2005). In the domain ofexpressing Path, language contact seems to play a crucial role.The marked expression: Comparison with Lesser Antillean CreoleWhen it comes to the more explicit expression of directionality (Path), we observethat Mauritian Creole favours different strategies from Lesser Antillean Creolewhich, once more, is used here as a point of comparison. Note that dan refers to the local region of the reference object or Ground and does notexpress Path.Lesser Antillean Creole can make use of prepositions, as shown by the followingexamples from Guadeloupean Creole and Dominican Creole.(13) Guadeloupean Creole (Ludwig & Telchid & Bruneau-Ludwig 2001: 78)Manman-y té ka voyé-y fè konmisyonmother-3. send-3. do errandsa pyé jous Twarivyè.on foot to Trois-Rivières‘His mother used to send him to run errands on foot all the way to Trois-Rivières.’(14) Dominican Creole (Ludwig & Telchid & Bruneau-Ludwig 2001: 40)Épi yo ay monté jik anho koté mouché James.and.then 3 go ascend to at.the.top Mister James‘And they went right (all the way) up to Mr James’s house…’In addition, a widespread method of expressing directionality in traditionalbasilectal Lesser Antillean Creole is the predicative serial construction, as in (15)(allative touché) and (16) (ablative + allative) (this construction does not reallyform part of younger generations’ competence nowadays):(15) Guadeloupean Creole (Ludwig 1996: 248)I pwan vwati, touché Lapwent.3 take car touch La Pointe‘He went (all the way to) La Pointe by car.’(16) I pati Bastè rivé Lapwent.3 leave Basse-Terre arrive La Pointe‘He left Basse-Terre and got to/got as far as La Pointe.’Serial constructions in Guadeloupean Creole and Dominican Creole may alsoexpress directionality in relation to the speaker’s perspective, without including a(different or explicit) point of departure or arrival. 25 An example is (17):(17) Guadeloupean Creole (Ludwig & Montbrand & Poullet & Telchid 2002: 257)I ka pléré, menné-y alé!3 ipfv weep lead-3. go‘He/She is crying, take him/her away!’In Mauritian Creole, serial constructions only play a minimal role (see Kriegel &Ludwig & Henri, forthcoming), whereas they play an important role in severalbasi lectal varieties of French-lexified Creoles. As for prepositional markers, the relationshipis reversed: they play an important role in Mauritian Creole. Particularly noteworthy One could argue that Ablative includes this explicit expression of the point of departure;nevertheless, it is clear that constructions like (17) semantically include the idea of a – nonspecified –reference point which constitutes the point of departure for an intentional directional movement(in this case, the situation of communication).2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri is the frequency of occurrence of depi ‘from’, which especially characterizes theBhojpuri-influenced variety, as has already been mentioned by Baker (1972: 112, 117).Different functions and uses of depi (< depuis) in Mauritian CreoleWe will now focus on the Mauritian Creole preposition depi, derived from Frenchdepuis. It is undoubtedly the most frequently used explicit path marker in MauritianCreole, serving a variety of functions which sometimes seem incomprehensibleif one is unaware of the contact situation between Mauritian Creole andMauritian Bhojpuri. We will first list the principal functions: Local point of departure (ablative)The examples in (18)–(21) illustrate the most basic local use of depi, the simpleablative (‘from’) use.(18) Mo papa sort depi Sesel, li ’nn vini pu travay dan Moris. father come.from Seychelles 3 come for work Mauritius‘My father comes from the Seychelles, he came to work in Mauritius (…)’.(Bord la Mer 82)(19) Kot to pou ale depi isi?where 2 go here‘Where will you go from here?’(Dev Virahsawmy Hamlet 2, http://pages.intnet.mu/develog/)(20) Pyer finn zet so bann vye soulye depi enn pon.Pyer throw .3 old shoe bridge‘Pyer threw his old shoes off a bridge.’(21) Mo kapav tir sa depi la?1 can remove here‘Can I (re)move this from there?’Depi ‘from’ and dan ‘in’ may also occur together, as illustrated in (22)–(24).(22) Mo ’nn tir mo lakle depi dan mo sak.1 take.out .1 key .1 bag‘I took the key out of my bag.’(23) Mo sorti depi dan lafore.1 come.from forest‘I am coming out of the forest.’(24) Li tir so linet depi dan so pos.3 take.out glasses pocket.‘He took his glasses out of his pocket.’ (Virahsawmy, Dev: Linconnsing Finalay,http://pages.intnet.mu/develog/teatmlfl.htm)These combinations of depi and dan match the conceptual structure of a local situationperfectly: The preposition dan refers to the local region of the reference objector Ground, and the preposition depi refers to the Path. But language contact may alsohave played a determining role in creating these patterns, as we will see in §4.2.2. Local point of departure and arrival (ablative + allative)As expected, the preposition depi may occur together with an allative expressionmarked by ziska ‘to’, to express the beginning and end of a path, as seen in(25)–(27). Again, both depi and ziska can combine with dan ‘in’ (see 25).(25) Depi dan kan lao li vini ziska dan kan anba. camp 3 come camp bottom‘He’s going from the higher camp right down to the one at the bottom.’(Bord La Mer 82)(26) Depi Vakwa ziska Maybour Pol inn dormi dan loto. Vacoas Mahébourg Paul sleep car‘Paul has been sleeping in the car from Vacoas to port Louis.’(27) Li nn get mwa depi lao ziska anba.3 look.at 1 top bottom‘He looked at me from head to toe.’ (He looked at me from top to bottom.)But it is less expected that depi should also be used to code the allative relation insuch patterns:(28) a. Depi lao depi anba, ena bokou pou marse. top bottom much to walk‘(To go) from top to bottom, there’s a lot of walking to do.’b. Depi sannmars depi lagar ena trafik. champs.de.mars gare traffic‘From Champs de Mars up to the station, the traffic is jammed.’This rather interesting use of depi instead of ziska to mark the allative, which isespecially characteristic of the Indo-Mauritian variety of the Creole, was alreadynoted by Baissac (1880):Depuis, dipis. Depuis ici jusque-là, Dipis ici zousqu’à-là; mais le créole disait avant qu’ilconnût zousqu’à ou zisquà, jusque, au lieu de: J’ai sauté depuis ici jusque là, Mo té sautédipis là, dipis là, ce qui était plus original. (Baissac 1880: 78) 26In Baissac’s old texts we find an attestation of this use, see example (42). “From, dipis. From here to there, Dipis ici zousquà-là; but the Creole would say before heknew zousqu’à or zisquà, ‘to’, instead of: I jumped from here to there, Mo té sauté dipis là, dipislà, which was in fact more original.”2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri Temporal beginningLike its French source word depuis, depi may express a temporal beginning.(29) Depi katrer granmatin gardyen vinn tap laport ek four.o’clock morning watchman come knock door withso gro dibwa. big wood‘Since four o’clock this morning, the watchman came knocking at the doorwith his big stick.’ (Bord La Mer, 82)(30) Depi yer li ’nn al Porlwi. yesterday 3 go Port-Louis‘Since yesterday he left for Port-Louis.’ Temporal beginning and endpointThe combinations depi-ziska and depi-depi, which we saw in §3.4.2, can alsoexpress temporal beginning and endpoint:(31) depi sizer ziska witer six.o’clock eight.o’clock‘from six o’clock to eight o’clock’(32) depi sizer depi witer six.o’clock eight.o’clock‘from six o’clock to eight o’clock’ Temporal endpointDepi may also express a temporal endpoint in the absence of an expression for astarting point:(33) Sa trin la pou gouvernman sa, li ed depi ler. train to government 3 help hour‘This train belongs to the government, it has been useful up to today.’ Extended usesLike ablative markers of other languages, depi may be used in a range of more abstract(nonspatial, nontemporal) functions. One is a human source:(34) Me anmemtan nou pe truv osi bann priz de pozisyonbut same.time 1 find too statement of opinioneklere dan lapres ki kapav amenn inpe progre pu langazenlightened press can lead some progress for languageKreol – ki li depi Gilbert Ahnee, J.Claude de Lestrac, (…) e lezot.Creole 3 Gilbert Ahnee J. Claude de Lestrac and other‘But similarly/at the same time we are witnessing enlightened statements ofopinion in the press which could mean progress for the Creole language – be itfrom Gilbert Ahnee, J.Claude de Lestrac, Mme. Alfred, (…) and others.’ (Lalit17/02/2004 http://www.lalitmauritius.com/)(35) Nou ’nn gagn enn papye depi gouvernman.1 get papier from government‘We (have) received a document from the government.’Another use is the delimitation of an extension of patients (this is similar to“local function”):(36) Depi twa, depi to mama zot tou pou kone ar mwa.from 2 from .2 mother 2 all know with 1‘You and your mother, you’re going to get a good beating.’(lit. “From you to your mother…’)In (37), we see a more abstract point of departure, and in (38) depi denotes a partitiverelation or origin.(37) Mo byen satisfe pou truv li disparet depi mo lavi (…)1 very satisfied find 3 disappear from life‘I’m content to see him disappear from my life…’(38) Dimoun sorti depi diferan klas sosial, diferan group etnikpeople come.from from different class social different group ethnicek kars, diferan okipasion pe monte-desan.with caste different occupation go.up-go.down‘People from different social classes, different ethnic groups and castes, differentoccupations, go and come.’ (Virahsawmy Dev: Prezidan Otelo, http://pages.intnet.mu/develog/index2.htm) Depi in old textsExcept perhaps the extended uses, all the functions of depi, depi-ziska, and even depidepiare attested in older texts. We will only cite a few examples of the local function:(39) Lher la foul conne ça, zot sivré li a piéwhen crowd know this 3 follow 3. by footdipi tou zot la vil. all 3. town‘The people heard about it, and so they left their towns and followed him byland.’ (Matthew 14, 13, translation by Anderson 1885)2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri (40) (…) soley va vine noar, la line na pa vasoleil become black moon donne so clarté, é zétoal va tombé dipi dan lé ciel (…)give clarté and star fall heaven‘Soon after the trouble of those days, the sun will grow dark, the moon will nolonger shine, the stars will fall from heaven…’ (Matthew 24, 29, translation byAnderson 1885)(41) Avla ki lherla mem, voal dan le tampl ti décir an dé,voilà moment veil temple tear twodipi laho ziska anba, (…) top bottom‘Then the curtain hanging in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…’(Matthew 27, 51, translation by Anderson 1885)(42) Mais so cloisons laçambe là napas dibois napas plances: dipis enbut partition room wood planks haut, dipis en bas toute loison nèque éne grand grand laglace même. top bottom all partition just big big mirror même‘But the partition in his/her room is not made of wood or boards: from top tobottom the partition is a big, big mirror.’ (Baissac 1880: 56)The contribution of French and Bhojpuri toMauritian Creole Path expressionsFrench influenceFrench draws upon two main prepositional formulas to express Path or directionality(point of departure and point of arrival): de … à and depuis … jusqu’à. Thedepuis … jusqu’à construction marks duration, extent and continuity in a local,temporal or more abstract sense. It should, however, be stressed that the temporaluses of depuis are much more frequent in contemporary French. It was found thatin the oral corpus CORPAIX, only 5 out of 234 occurrences of depuis are used ina local sense (Berthille Pallaud, personal communication). However, from a diachronicperspective, the primary use is the local one (see Haspelmath 1997: 139).Thus, French, as the lexifier language during creolization and as a currentadstrate, explains: depi, even though depi seems unmarked whencompared to French depi-ziska (semantic contiguity in general) depi for the partitive and possessive (French as an adstrate)The influence of French, however, does not explain:depi as an ablative marker in Mauritian Creole; French alsoacted as a lexifier language for other creoles in which, however, this markerdid not undergo extension of meaning and where serial constructions are usedmore predominantly (cf. the example of Guadeloupean Creole)depi-ziska to depi-depidepi dan depi in the Indo-Mauritianvariety of Creole (cf. §4.2)Bhojpuri influence The hypothesis – marking at the lectal levelWe propose that Bhojpuri played a critical role in the generalization of depi as anablative and sometimes allative marker. Proof of the plausibility of this hypothesismay first be sought in lectal usages of depi:i. Depi used as an ablative marker, side by side with the zero marker (cf. example18: Mo papa sort depi Sesel vs. Mo papa sort Ø Sesel) is a peculiarity of theIndo-Mauritian variety of the Creole.ii. As we briefly mentioned in §3.4, the tendency to replace ziska ‘until’ by depi ischaracteristic of the Indo-Mauritian variety of Creole, many of whose speakersare also Bhojpuri speakers (see examples (28–b) and (32)).We will revisit this hypothesis of lectal marking in §4.2.3 after examining datawhich would explain the transmission of structural features from Bhojpuri to Creole. The particle se in Bhojpuri: contact with CreoleIn Mauritian Bhojpuri, the postposition se (see examples (2) and (3)) is used as anablative marker; it is the range of functions and the frequency of use of this postpositionwhich were the determining factors for the generalization of depi in Creole.The postposition se is a feature of Indian Bhojpuri and also appears in otherBhojpuri varieties, for example South African Bhojpuri. 27 We will confine ourexamples to cases where depi is used as an ablative marker. For Indian Bhojpuri se, Mesthrie (1991: 262) shows a range of functions which cover a relativelylarge semantic domain. However, illustrations are lacking: “The main postpositions are: (…)(b) se – covering the roles “source”, “comitative”, “instrument” and “force” (to be designated “”).”2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri (43) Indian Bhojpuri (Shukla 1981: 161)Lalit pul h se ku: d-i:.Lalit bridge from jump-2..‘Lalit will jump from the bridge.’(44) South African Bhojpuri (Mesthrie 1991: 257)Bāgh jangal se nikral.tiger jungle emerge.3‘The tiger emerged from the jungle.’(45) Indian BhojpuriHam bharat se ayal hai.1 India come ‘I come from India.’(46) Indian BhojpuriPerre se ghir gal ba.tree escape.3.above go ‘He fell from the tree.’(47) Indian BhojpuriBharat se ham Mauritius ayli.India 1 Maurice go.1‘I went from India to Mauritius Island.’The marker se plays a central role in the Mauritian Bhojpuri system, and theCreole translations (the b sentences in the following examples) clearly show thefunctional equivalence with depi.(48) a. Mauritian BhojpuriHam ghar se awa thain.1 house come ..1b. Mauritian CreoleMo pe vini depi lakaz.1 come house‘I’m coming from the house.’(49) 28 a. Mauritian BhojpuriBazaar se pom anye.market apple bringb. Mauritian CreoleAmenn enn pom depi bazar.bring apple market‘Bring an apple from the market.’ Example (49) repeats example (2).(50) a. Mauritian BhojpuriHai sab informasion hamni ke internet se milal ba. all information 1 internet get b. Mauritian CreoleTou sa bann linformasion la, nou ’nn gagnall information 1 getli depi internet.3. internet‘All this information we found on the internet.’The followiing examples show point of departure and point of arrival in a single sentence.Point of arrival may be expressed by the postposition le, whose use is optional.(51) a. Mauritian BhojpuriHam ego taksi leni Vacoas se sahar (le).1 taxi take.1 Vacoas Port-Louis b. Mauritian CreoleMo ’nn pran enn taksi depi Vakwa ziska Porlwi.1 take taxi Vacoas Port-Louis‘I took a taxi (to go from) Vacoas to Port-Louis.’(52) a. Mauritian BhojpuriRonpwen se lagar (le) trafik ba.roundabout station () traffic b. Mauritian CreoleDepi ronpwin ziska lagar ena trafik. roundabout station traffic‘From the roundabout up to the station, the traffic is jammed.’Baker’s (1996) observations about the frequent confusion between depi andziska among Bhojpuri speakers concur with ours. Baker concludes: “Bhojpuri, incommon with Hindi and other languages of northern India, has a single morphemecorresponding to both depuis and jusqu’à. I thus think that the modern confusionbetween these two words results primarily from interference with Bhojpuri.” Ourdata, however, (see examples (51) and (52)) do not correspond exactly with thisstatement, given that our informants use the marker le for allative. We proposethat the confusion between depi and ziska is attributable to a much more indirectinfluence from Bhojpuri: le is phonetically similar to se and moreover, its use isoptional. These two factors could explain the frequent replacement of ziska bydepi, the equivalent of se, in the Indo-Mauritian varieties of Mauritian Creole.Mauritian Bhojpuri also allows the combination of the ablative postposition sewith the locative postposition me, providing a parallel to the combination of depi2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri and dan that we saw in §3.4.1 (53b is very similar to 24). Here the local region isexpressed by me, and the ablative Path by se.(53) a. Mauritian BhojpuriHam apan sak me se lakle nikalni.1 .1 bag key take.out.b. Mauritian CreoleMo ’nn tir mo lakle depi dan mo sak.1 take.out .1 key .1 bag‘I took the key out of my bag.’In §3.4.1, we explained the combined uses of depi dan in Mauritian Creole by theconceptual structure, noting that dan refers to the local region of the referenceobject and depi to path.However, this type of use does not exist in French or, as far as we know, in anyother French-lexified creole. Again, the combination depi dan seems to be due toMauritian Bhojpuri influence.Moreover, it can be shown, that se is also used for time reference, and that le isoptional, as when used in local contexts. Again, Bhojpuri se is completely parallelto Creole depi.(54) a. Mauritian Bhojpuriage selong.time b. Mauritian Creoledepi lontan long.time‘for a long time’(55) a. Mauritian Bhojpurichau baje se aat baje (le)six hours eight hours ()b. Mauritian Creoledepi sizer ziska witer six.o’clock eight.o’clock‘from six o’ clock to eight o’ clock’ Testing our hypothesis: the use of depi in Creole not influenced by BhojpuriIn order to test our hypothesis, we carried out a small survey in La Gaulette, a villageknown for its “creoleness” in all senses of the word. 29 We recorded discussions In Mauritius, “Creole” in the social sense, refers to people of racially mixed or exclusivelyAfrican descent, as distinguished from the Indo-Mauritians.2nd proofsof about an hour’s length, and got data containing the examples in (56–63) of thisvariety of Creole, in which influence from Bhojpuri is minimal.When referring to ablative contexts, the speakers from La Gaulette employalmost exclusively the unmarked form: 30(56) Mo sipoze sa bann zanfan la sorti Kaznwayal1 suppose child come.from Case-Noyalesorti Lagolet, sorti Tirivier Nwar eksetera.come.from La.Gaulette come.from Petite.Rivière.Noire etc.‘I imagine that these children come from Case Noyale, from La Gaulette,from Petite Riviere Noire etc.’The equivalent in an Indo-Mauritian Creole variety would be sorti depi Kaznwayal,sorti depi Lagolet, sorti depi Tirivier Nwar.We do not find occurrences of depi used instead of ziska, as illustrated in(57–59).(57) Mem ziska aster nou trouv tou tou tou les parties politiques …even now 1 find all party political‘Even up to now, uh, we see uh all, all all the political parties (…).’(58) Zanfan bizin al lekol ziska sezan.child must go school sixteen.years‘Children must attend school up to the age of sixteen.’(59) Si ou gete langazman pe ankor kontinie ziska ler.if 2. look campaigning still continue now‘If you look more closely at it, the campaigning is still going on to this day.’In Indo-Mauritian Creole, we would often find depi aster ‘up to now’, depi sezan‘up to the age of sixteen’, depi ler ‘up to now’.Otherwise, speakers from La Gaulette employ depi when it is functionallysimilar to French. In (60), depi expresses local point of departure:(60) Mo papa li kouma li ’nn gagn sa ti kas father 3 like 3 get small cashbisron la ou tour li inn fini depans touwoodcutter 2 find 3sg.obj finish spend allkot laboutik, li pe sante depi kot laboutik shop 3sg sing shop In our recordings, we did not find a contradicting example. However, we certainly cannotexclude the occurrence of a depi as an ablative marker; on the other hand, an occurrence of thiswould not be representative of this variety.

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri laba mem li pe vini.here 3 come‘My father, once he gets his wages as a woodcutter, you’d see him spend itall in the shop, he sings from the shop over there, he arrives.’Depi may also express a temporal point of departure/beginning:(61) ki li gagn sa depi so nesans li 3 get .3 naissance 3gagn li, li ne avek sa.get 3 3 born with ‘(…) that he has it from birth, he has it, he was born with it’(62) ou ’nn konn enn sanzman ki ’nn, ki ’nn2 know change koul pei la net depi lindepandansdrown country completely independence‘(It’s as if) you had realized a change which, which completely ruined thecountry since Independence.’Depi may also have extended uses, such as point of departure and point of arrivalin a semantic continuum:(63) Li fel depi fers segonn trwaziem ziska siziem li fel mem.3 fail first second third sixth 3 fail ‘He failed from first, second, third, up to the sixth he failed.’It is clear that in these examples, paralleling French, we do not find any trace ofinfluence from Bhojpuri, either diachronically or structurally. As (63) shows, thisgroup of speakers seems to be more influenced by the French adstrate. Moreover,it seems that they use lectal marking of their particular variety in a very consciousway; in the same discussion, they complain (in a spontaneous manner) about theinsufficient social and political recognition of the group of Creoles in Mauritius.Conclusions and hypothesesIn light of the foregoing, the following conclusions can be formulated whileaffording us an attempt at certain theoretical perspectives.The structural levelIt has often been claimed that it is atypical for creole languages to maintain prepositionsfrom their lexifier, and that instead, – in a “compensatory” or functionallycomplementary manner, creoles employ other techniques, for example serial constructions,to express certain semantic notions.Thus, in Antillean Creole the ablative denotation is either morphologicallyunmarked or expressed by serial constructions. The use of prepositions in AntilleanCreole would seem to be either a more recent phenomenon, due to Frenchinfluence, or a further step in the grammaticalization of serial constructions (as forexample is the case of ba in Guadeloupean Creole, derived from the verb bailler,but now interpreted as a preposition).In Mauritian Creole, however, the preposition depi has been an integral partof the creole system since the 19th century at least, while serial constructions arerather rare. If, therefore, a complementary relationship exists between serial andprepositional expression of the ablative, Mauritian Creole would be closer to theFrench model, a fact which means that it is thus distinguished from the “creoleprototype” (leaving aside the potentially problematic nature of this notion).In Mauritian Creole, and above all in Indo-Mauritian varieties, there is a tendencyto replace the prepositional sequence depi-ziska, which marks points of departureand arrival, by depi-depi.The sociolinguistic levelCertain uses of depi (notably depi as an ablative marker when used with verbs ofmovement, as well as the tendency towards the neutralization of depi-depi) areessentially characteristic of Indo-Mauritian speakers. It is clear that MauritianCreole shows distinctions at the sociolectal level, and that the Indo-Mauritianvariety serves as an identity marker of a particular social group. In the case ofthe neutralization which interests us, it would seem that this is viewed as a lectalidentifier of Indo-Mauritian; this explanation only allows one to really explainthe non-occurrence of the sequence depi-depi in the variety spoken by this socialgroup.The interpretive level: explaining language contact in oral contextualityWe hope to have demonstrated that the two structural characteristics consideredhere are to a large extent or entirely due to the influence of Bhojpuri:i. the generalization of the preposition depi to express ablative relations (correspondingto se in Bhojpuri)ii. semantic neutralization which is evidenced by the sequence depi-depi (correspondingto the sequence se-le in Bhojpuri, where the second element isoptional and phonetically close to the first)2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriEncoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri However, this explanation based on language contact cannot be attributed toa single cause:i. The generalization of depi as an ablative marker (as compared to the unmarkedstrategy, employed, for instance, in Seychelles Creole) would seem to be due to thefollowing processes: a disruption of unmarking and (subsequent) creolization by/through a structural analogy between spoken French and Bhojpuri, an analogywhich affects not only this Creole, but also Mauritian Bhojpuri.ii. Although, the explanation for the pattern depi-depi, based on Bhojpuricontact, is plausible, it nevertheless does not suffice as a satisfactory explanation.The neutralization of a binary opposition which results in the generalization ofone of the two expressions is – following Trubetzkoy’s observations – a frequentlyoccurringprocess of unmarking in the context of oral speech; it is not necessarilyexplained by language contact phenomena. We therefore suggest that it is a matterof convergence, governed in this case of Mauritian Creole by the social functionsof the language: it is sociolectal needs of identity and alterity marking which seemsto prevent the generalization of this sequence to all speakers. This also applies tonon-Bhojpuri speakers.Special abbreviationsReferencesaspectintensifiermodalityAnderson, S.H. 1885. L’évangile sélon S. Matthié (dan langaz créol maurice) (The Gospel accordingto St. Matthew (in Mauritian Creole)). London: British and Foreign Bible Society.Atchia-Emmerich, Bilkiss. 2005. La situation linguistique à l’Ile Maurice: Les développementsrécents à la lumière d’une enquête empirique. Ph.D. Dissertation Universität Erlangen.Baissac, Charles. 1880. Étude sur le patois créole mauricien. Reprinted 1976. Genève: SlatkineReprints.Baker, Philip. 1972. Kreol: A description of Mauritian Creole. London: C. Hurst.Baker, Philip. 1982. The contribution of non-Francophone immigrants to the lexicon ofMauritian Creole. Ph.D. Dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, Universityof London.Baker, Philip. 1996. On the development of certain prepositional forms in Mauritian and otherFrench Creoles. In Véronique, Daniel (Ed.), Matériaux pour l’étude des classes grammaticalesdans les langues creoles. Aix-en-Provence: PUP. 41–59.Baker, Philip & Corne, Chris. 1987. Histoire sociale et créolisation à La Réunion et à Maurice.Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 6(2): 71–87.Baker, Philip & Ramnah, P. 1988. Recognizing Mauritian Bhojpuri. In Barz, Richard K. & Siegel,Jeff (Eds). Language transplanted: The development of overseas Hindi. Wiesbaden: OttoHarrassowitz.Baker, Philip & Ramnah, Amarnath. 1985. Mauritian Bhojpuri: An Indo-Aryan language spokenin a predominantly creolophone society. Papers in pidgin and creole linguistics: PacificLinguistics A-72(4): 215–38.Corne, Chris. 1983. Substratal reflections: The completive aspect and the distributive numeralsin Isle de France Creole. Te Reo 26: 65–80.Díaz, Norma, Ludwig, Ralph & Pfänder, Stefan. 2002. Procesos lingüísticos en situaciones decontacto: Parámetros y perspectivas. In Díaz, Norma, Ludwig, Ralph & Pfänder, Stefan(Eds), La Romania americana: Procesos lingüísticos en situaciones de contacto. Frankfurt:Vervuert. 389–441.Domingue, Nicole. 1971. Bhojpuri and Creole in Mauritius: A study of linguistic interferenceand its consequences in regard to synchronic variation and language change. Ph.D. Dissertation,University of Texas.Domingue, Nicole. 1981. Internal change in a transplanted language. Studies in the LinguisticSciences 11(2): 151–60.Essegbey, James. 2005. The basic locative construction in Gbe languages and Surinamese creoles.Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 20(2): 229–67.Gordon, Raymond G.J., Jr. (Ed.). 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 15 th Edn. Dallas TX:SIL International.Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. From space to time: Temporal adverbials in the world’s languages[Lincom Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 3]. Munich: Lincom.Hazaël-Massieux, Guy. 1989. La grammaticalisation des connexions. In Ludwig, Ralph (Ed.),Les créoles français entre l’oral et l’écrit. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. 201–12.Hookoomsing, Vinesh Y. 1986. Langue et identité ethnique: Les langues ancestrales à Maurice.Journal of Mauritian Studies 1: 117–37.Hookoomsing, Vinesh Y. 2004. A harmonized writing system for the Mauritian Creole Language:Grafi-larmoni. (16 December 2007). Hookoomsing, Vinesh, Ludwig, Ralph & Schnepel, Burkhard (Eds). Forthcoming. Multiple Identitiesin Action: Mauritius and some Antillean Parallelisms. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.Kriegel, Sibylle, Michaelis, Susanne. 2007. Conjunction and ditransitives : some functional domainscovered by avec, et, and ensemble. In Baker, Philip, Fon Sing, Guillaume (eds), The making ofMauritian Creole. Analyses diachroniques à partir des textes anciens. United Kingdom andSri Lanka : Westminster Creolistics Series – 9. 113–132.Kriegel, Sibylle, Ludwig, Ralph & Henri, Fabiola. Forthcoming. Les rapports entre créole etbhojpouri à Maurice: Contact de langues et actes identitaires. In Hookoomsing, Vinesh y.,Ludwig, Ralph & Schnepel, Burkhard (Eds).Leclerc, Jacques. 2007. Île Maurice. In Leclerc, Jacques. L’ aménagement linguistique dans lemonde. Published online: http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/.Lehmann, Christian. 1992. Yukatekische lokale Relatoren in typologischer Perspektive. Zeitschriftfür Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 45: 626–41.Lehmann, Christian. 1995. Thoughts on grammaticalization. München: Lincom. (First publication:1982. akup 48. University of Cologne).2nd proofs

Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola HenriLudwig, Ralph, Telchid, Sylviane & Bruneau-Ludwig, Florence (Eds). 2001Corpus créole: Textesoraux dominicais, guadeloupéens, guyanais, haitiens, mauriciens et seychellois. Hamburg:Helmut Buske.Ludwig, Ralph, Montbrand, Danièle, Poullet, Hector & Telchid, Sylviane. 1990/2002. Dictionnairecréole. 2nd, revised edn. Paris: Servedit-Maisonneuve and Éditions Jasor.Ludwig, Ralph, Henri, Fabiola & Bruneau-Ludwig, Florence. Forthcoming. Hybridation linguistiqueet fonctions sociales – aspects des contacts entre créole, français et anglais à Maurice.In Hookoomsing, Vinesh, Ludwig, Ralph & Schnepel, Burkhard (Eds). Forthcoming.Mesthrie, Rajend. 1991. Language in indenture: A sociolinguistic history of Bhojpuri-Hindi inSouth Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Neerputh, Naving C. 1986. Le système verbal du Bhojpuri de L’Ile Maurice. Paris: L’Harmattan.Population Census of the Republic of Mauritius 2000. URL: http://www.gov.mu/portal/ sites/ncb/cso/methodo.htmSewtohul, Goswami K. 1990. Diksyoner Kreol Bhojpuri. port Louis: Ledikasyon pu Travayer.Shukla, Shaligram. 1981. Bhojpuri Grammar: Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In Shopen,Timothy (Ed.). Grammatical categories and the lexicon, Vol. 3. Cambridge: CUP. 57–149.Thomason, Sarah G. & Kaufman, Terrence. 1988. Language contact, creolization, and geneticlinguistics. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Toussaint, Auguste. 1974. Histoire de Maurice. Paris: PUF. [Collection “Que sais-je?”].Vaughan, Megan. 2005. Creating the Creole island. slavery in eighteenth-century Mauritius.Durham NC: Duke University Press.On the principled nature of the respectivecontributions of substrate and superstratelanguages to a creole’s lexicon Claire LefebvreUniversité du Québec à Montréaland Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre AnthropologieThis paper argues that the respective contributions made to creolesby their substrate and superstrate languages are principled, and thatthey can be derived from a sound theory of creole genesis. More specifically,it is shown that the division can be derived from the nature and extentof the main cognitive process at work in creole formation, relexification/relabelling, and from how this process applies in the contexts where creolelanguages emerge.Corpus and websites:http://www.lalitmauritius.com/http://pages.intnet.mu/develog/ Bord la Mer PLHDWU, île MauriceCorpAix, research group DELIC, Aix-en-Provence.Old texts of Mauritian Creole by Philip Baker, electronic version.IntroductionBecause they have limited access to the superstrate language, the creators ofradical creoles – those that are closest to their substrate languages – tend to usetheir knowledge of their own language in interpreting what they hear from the This paper is part of my long-term research program on the genesis of creole languages. Theresearch on which this paper is based was funded by SSHRCC. The content of the paper waspresented at the Creole Language Structure Between Substrates and Superstrates Conferenceheld in Leipzig (Germany), June 3–5, 2005. I am grateful to Susanne Michaelis for inviting meto present my views on the topic, and to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropologyfor its financial contribution to this enterprise. I would like to thank the participants inthe conference for their comments and questions about my presentation, and three reviewersfor their comments and questions on an earlier version of this paper. Finally, many thanks toIsabelle Therrien for helping put the material together, and to Andrée Bélanger for formattingthe manuscript.2nd proofs