Code Copying in Indian Ocean Creoles: The post abolition period
Résumé
In this article, I argue that two function words of Mauritian and Seychelles Creole illustrate instances of code copying (Johanson 2002) as a result of the different language contact situations to which these languages were exposed after the abolition of slavery in 1835. The use of depi as an ablative marker in Indomauritian Creole varieties is interpreted as a covert copy from Bhojpuri, an Indic language which has been in contact with Mauritian Creole since the migration of indentured labourers. The use of pourdir as a complementizer in some varieties of Seychelles Creole is interpreted as a covert copy from Eastern Bantu languages in contact with Seychelles Creole in the late 19th century. The code copying from languages other than the base language into Creole sheds new light on the notion of creolization.