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

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