Mauritian Creole Alphabet (Kreol Morisien)

Mauritian Creole, called Kreol Morisien by its speakers and Morisyen in language catalogues, is written with the Latin letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v w x y z. These are 25 letters, a to z without q: wherever French writes qu, Kreol writes k, so quatre is kat (four) and qui is ki (what, who). The standard spelling uses no accented letters, which is why any phone or keyboard in the world can type it as it is.

The rule behind the spelling is simple: words are written as they sound, not as their French ancestors are spelled. French merci is mersi, bonjour is bonzour, maison gave way to lakaz, and Mauritius itself is Moris, its people Morisien. The standard was worked out by the Akademi Kreol Morisien and published in 2011 as Lortograf Kreol Morisien, building on the earlier Grafi Larmoni proposal; since 2012 Kreol Morisien has been taught as a school subject in Mauritian primary schools.

Not everyone writes the standard. Many Mauritians grew up reading French and still text in a French-looking spelling (bonjour, mo content toi), and in that habit é, è and ç can turn up. Books, schoolwork and official Kreol publications use the plain letters of Lortograf Kreol Morisien.

How Kreol Morisien spelling works

Several French sounds changed in Creole, and the spelling shows the Creole sound. The French sounds written ch and j became s and z: chat is sat (cat), chemin is sime (road), manger is manze (to eat), jour is zour (day). The rounded French u became i, so du riz is diri (rice) and la lune is lalinn (the moon). The vowel of English food is written ou, as in bonzour and dimounn (person, people).

Kreol often swallowed the French article into the noun: de l'eau became dilo (water), la pluie became lapli (rain), les enfants became zanfan (child). The vowels written an and on are nasal, as in zanfan and bon; when an n is really pronounced after a vowel, it is doubled, as at the end of dimounn, lalinn and bonn.

The grammar makes life easy for the speller too. Verbs never change for the person: mo manze (I eat), to manze (you eat), li manze (he or she eats). Time is shown by small words in front of the verb, pe for something going on and finn for something done: mo pe manze, I am eating; mo finn manze, I have eaten. There is no grammatical gender, so there are no feminine endings to spell.

How to type Mauritian Creole and the rupee sign ₨

Because Kreol Morisien needs no accents, the ordinary English (US or UK) layout on a computer and the standard keyboard on any phone write every word. The only marks you may want from outside the alphabet are punctuation and money signs. Mauritian books and newspapers follow the French custom of guillemets, « Bonzour », and online writing uses English quotes “ ” just as often. On Windows type Alt+0171 and Alt+0187 on the number pad for « and »; on a Mac press Option+\ and Option+Shift+\.

Money in Mauritius is the Mauritian rupee, written Rs in shops and banks (Rs 100). The single character ₨, U+20A8 RUPEE SIGN, is Unicode's general rupee sign and can stand in for Rs. It has no Alt code; in Microsoft Word type 20A8 and press Alt+X, in HTML use ₨, or copy it from this page. The Indian rupee sign ₹ belongs to India's currency, not to Mauritius.

Where Mauritian Creole is spoken

Kreol Morisien is the shared language of Mauritius 🇲🇺: CLDR estimates about 1.2 million speakers there, which in practice means nearly everyone on the island, whatever the family's origin. English is the language of government and law, French dominates newspapers and much of television, and many families also keep Bhojpuri, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu or Hakka, but Kreol is what people speak at home, in the market and on the bus. It took shape in the 18th century under French rule, among enslaved people brought from Madagascar and Africa and the French settlers, and later took in words from the languages of Indian and Chinese immigrants and from English.

Close relatives are spoken across the western Indian Ocean. The Creole of Rodrigues, part of the Republic of Mauritius, is a variety of the same language. Seychellois Creole is so close that Mauritians and Seychellois understand each other, though Seychellois says mon where Mauritians say mo (I). Réunion Creole French, next door on Réunion, is a more distant cousin, and Haitian Creole is a separate French-based creole from the other side of the world; both have their own collections, as do French, English, Bhojpuri and Hindi, and the country page for Mauritius gathers the flag, the dodo and the island's emoji.

Mauritian Creole words and phrases to copy

The greeting is Bonzour! and the usual question after it is Ki manyer?, how are you, answered with Mo bien, mersi or simply Korek. Mersi bokou is thank you very much, and Mo kontan twa is the way to say I love you; kontan means both to love and to be glad. To speak is koze, so a Mauritian who says Mo koz Kreol is telling you they speak Creole.

For celebrations people write Bonn fet! (happy birthday, happy holiday) and Bonn Lane! (happy new year). The music of the island is sega, sung in Kreol and danced to the ravanne, a big goatskin frame drum 🥁; the traditional form, sega tipik, is on UNESCO's list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The dodo 🦤, the bird that lived only on Mauritius, is spelled the same in Kreol and is the island's favourite emblem.