Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola Henri<strong>Encod<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>path</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> (40) (…) soley va v<strong>in</strong>e noar, la l<strong>in</strong>e na pa vasoleil become black moon donne so clarté, é zétoal va tombé dipi dan lé ciel (…)give clarté <strong>and</strong> star fall heaven‘Soon after the trouble of those days, the sun will grow dark, the moon will nolonger sh<strong>in</strong>e, the stars will fall from heaven…’ (Matthew 24, 29, translation byAn<strong>de</strong>rson 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 curta<strong>in</strong> hang<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the temple was torn <strong>in</strong> two from top to bottom…’(Matthew 27, 51, translation by An<strong>de</strong>rson 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 gr<strong>and</strong> gr<strong>and</strong> laglace même. top bottom all partition just big big mirror même‘But the partition <strong>in</strong> his/her room is not ma<strong>de</strong> of wood or boards: from top tobottom the partition is a big, big mirror.’ (Baissac 1880: 56)The contribution of French <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> to<strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong> Path expressionsFrench <strong>in</strong>fluenceFrench draws upon two ma<strong>in</strong> prepositional formulas to express Path or directionality(po<strong>in</strong>t of <strong>de</strong>parture <strong>and</strong> po<strong>in</strong>t of arrival): <strong>de</strong> … à <strong>and</strong> <strong>de</strong>puis … jusqu’à. The<strong>de</strong>puis … jusqu’à construction marks duration, extent <strong>and</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>uity <strong>in</strong> a local,temporal or more abstract sense. It should, however, be stressed that the temporaluses of <strong>de</strong>puis are much more frequent <strong>in</strong> contemporary French. It was found that<strong>in</strong> the oral corpus CORPAIX, only 5 out of 234 occurrences of <strong>de</strong>puis are used <strong>in</strong>a 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 dur<strong>in</strong>g creolization <strong>and</strong> as a currentadstrate, expla<strong>in</strong>s: <strong>de</strong>pi, even though <strong>de</strong>pi seems unmarked whencompared to French <strong>de</strong>pi-ziska (semantic contiguity <strong>in</strong> general) <strong>de</strong>pi for the partitive <strong>and</strong> possessive (French as an adstrate)The <strong>in</strong>fluence of French, however, does not expla<strong>in</strong>:<strong>de</strong>pi as an ablative marker <strong>in</strong> <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>; French alsoacted as a lexifier language for other creoles <strong>in</strong> which, however, this markerdid not un<strong>de</strong>rgo extension of mean<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> where serial constructions are usedmore predom<strong>in</strong>antly (cf. the example of Gua<strong>de</strong>loupean <strong>Creole</strong>)<strong>de</strong>pi-ziska to <strong>de</strong>pi-<strong>de</strong>pi<strong>de</strong>pi dan <strong>de</strong>pi <strong>in</strong> the Indo-<strong>Mauritian</strong>variety of <strong>Creole</strong> (cf. §4.2)<strong>Bhojpuri</strong> <strong>in</strong>fluence The hypothesis – mark<strong>in</strong>g at the lectal levelWe propose that <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> played a critical role <strong>in</strong> the generalization of <strong>de</strong>pi as anablative <strong>and</strong> sometimes allative marker. Proof of the plausibility of this hypothesismay first be sought <strong>in</strong> lectal usages of <strong>de</strong>pi:i. Depi used as an ablative marker, si<strong>de</strong> by si<strong>de</strong> with the zero marker (cf. example18: Mo papa sort <strong>de</strong>pi Sesel vs. Mo papa sort Ø Sesel) is a peculiarity of theIndo-<strong>Mauritian</strong> variety of the <strong>Creole</strong>.ii. As we briefly mentioned <strong>in</strong> §3.4, the ten<strong>de</strong>ncy to replace ziska ‘until’ by <strong>de</strong>pi ischaracteristic of the Indo-<strong>Mauritian</strong> variety of <strong>Creole</strong>, many of whose speakersare also <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> speakers (see examples (28–b) <strong>and</strong> (32)).We will revisit this hypothesis of lectal mark<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> §4.2.3 after exam<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g datawhich would expla<strong>in</strong> the transmission of structural features from <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> to <strong>Creole</strong>. The particle se <strong>in</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>: contact with <strong>Creole</strong>In <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>, the postposition se (see examples (2) <strong>and</strong> (3)) is used as anablative marker; it is the range of functions <strong>and</strong> the frequency of use of this postpositionwhich were the <strong>de</strong>term<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g factors for the generalization of <strong>de</strong>pi <strong>in</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>.The postposition se is a feature of Indian <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> <strong>and</strong> also appears <strong>in</strong> other<strong>Bhojpuri</strong> varieties, for example South African <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>. 27 We will conf<strong>in</strong>e ourexamples to cases where <strong>de</strong>pi is used as an ablative marker. For Indian <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> se, Mesthrie (1991: 262) shows a range of functions which cover a relativelylarge semantic doma<strong>in</strong>. However, illustrations are lack<strong>in</strong>g: “The ma<strong>in</strong> postpositions are: (…)(b) se – cover<strong>in</strong>g the roles “source”, “comitative”, “<strong>in</strong>strument” <strong>and</strong> “force” (to be <strong>de</strong>signated “”).”2nd proofs
Sibylle Kriegel, Ralph Ludwig & Fabiola Henri<strong>Encod<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>path</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> (43) Indian <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> (Shukla 1981: 161)Lalit pul h se ku: d-i:.Lalit bridge from jump-2..‘Lalit will jump from the bridge.’(44) South African <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> (Mesthrie 1991: 257)Bāgh jangal se nikral.tiger jungle emerge.3‘The tiger emerged from the jungle.’(45) Indian <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Ham bharat se ayal hai.1 India come ‘I come from India.’(46) Indian <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Perre se ghir gal ba.tree escape.3.above go ‘He fell from the tree.’(47) Indian <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Bharat se ham Mauritius ayli.India 1 Maurice go.1‘I went from India to Mauritius Isl<strong>and</strong>.’The marker se plays a central role <strong>in</strong> the <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> system, <strong>and</strong> the<strong>Creole</strong> translations (the b sentences <strong>in</strong> the follow<strong>in</strong>g examples) clearly show thefunctional equivalence with <strong>de</strong>pi.(48) a. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Ham ghar se awa tha<strong>in</strong>.1 house come ..1b. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>Mo pe v<strong>in</strong>i <strong>de</strong>pi lakaz.1 come house‘I’m com<strong>in</strong>g from the house.’(49) 28 a. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Bazaar se pom anye.market apple br<strong>in</strong>gb. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>Amenn enn pom <strong>de</strong>pi bazar.br<strong>in</strong>g apple market‘Br<strong>in</strong>g an apple from the market.’ Example (49) repeats example (2).(50) a. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Hai sab <strong>in</strong>formasion hamni ke <strong>in</strong>ternet se milal ba. all <strong>in</strong>formation 1 <strong>in</strong>ternet get b. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>Tou sa bann l<strong>in</strong>formasion la, nou ’nn gagnall <strong>in</strong>formation 1 getli <strong>de</strong>pi <strong>in</strong>ternet.3. <strong>in</strong>ternet‘All this <strong>in</strong>formation we found on the <strong>in</strong>ternet.’The followi<strong>in</strong>g examples show po<strong>in</strong>t of <strong>de</strong>parture <strong>and</strong> po<strong>in</strong>t of arrival <strong>in</strong> a s<strong>in</strong>gle sentence.Po<strong>in</strong>t of arrival may be expressed by the postposition le, whose use is optional.(51) a. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Ham ego taksi leni Vacoas se sahar (le).1 taxi take.1 Vacoas Port-Louis b. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>Mo ’nn pran enn taksi <strong>de</strong>pi Vakwa ziska Porlwi.1 take taxi Vacoas Port-Louis‘I took a taxi (to go from) Vacoas to Port-Louis.’(52) a. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>Ronpwen se lagar (le) trafik ba.roundabout station () traffic b. <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>Depi ronpw<strong>in</strong> 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 <strong>de</strong>pi <strong>and</strong>ziska among <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> speakers concur with ours. Baker conclu<strong>de</strong>s: “<strong>Bhojpuri</strong>, <strong>in</strong>common with H<strong>in</strong>di <strong>and</strong> other languages of northern India, has a s<strong>in</strong>gle morphemecorrespond<strong>in</strong>g to both <strong>de</strong>puis <strong>and</strong> jusqu’à. I thus th<strong>in</strong>k that the mo<strong>de</strong>rn confusionbetween these two words results primarily from <strong>in</strong>terference with <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>.” Ourdata, however, (see examples (51) <strong>and</strong> (52)) do not correspond exactly with thisstatement, given that our <strong>in</strong>formants use the marker le for allative. We proposethat the confusion between <strong>de</strong>pi <strong>and</strong> ziska is attributable to a much more <strong>in</strong>direct<strong>in</strong>fluence from <strong>Bhojpuri</strong>: le is phonetically similar to se <strong>and</strong> moreover, its use isoptional. These two factors could expla<strong>in</strong> the frequent replacement of ziska by<strong>de</strong>pi, the equivalent of se, <strong>in</strong> the Indo-<strong>Mauritian</strong> varieties of <strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Creole</strong>.<strong>Mauritian</strong> <strong>Bhojpuri</strong> also allows the comb<strong>in</strong>ation of the ablative postposition sewith the locative postposition me, provid<strong>in</strong>g a parallel to the comb<strong>in</strong>ation of <strong>de</strong>pi2nd proofs