Mauritius

"The book meets the general needs of tourists and business travellers with key paragraphs for every possible situation."

"All you need to know about Mauritian Creole in a nutshell."

What is Mauritian Creole? A pidgin French which has evolved in Mauritius since the beginning of French rule nearly 300 years ago. Today it is the lingua franca of the country. It has no grammatical or other rules, no verbs to conjugate and no orthography. Non?Mauritians will probably find it the easiest foreign language to learn. The book has been written with these very people in mind and incorporates an English?Creole dictionary. The result is the most comprehensive book available for anyone wishing to learn Mauritian Creole.

In this book the first attempt has been made to further simplify the language and make it even easier to learn and speak. Apostrophes and cedillas have been banished, so have unnecessary silent letters; accents have been reduced to just two, and used sparingly. Thus famille is spelt fami, Paques / Pac, cadeau /cado, Fran§ois/ Fransoi and so on. The book gives the origins of many words, explains typical Creole expressions and idioms. It even provides a system of grading to denote the strength of swear words! Unusually for a language book, it also includes a comprehensive guide to Mauritian gastronomy with descriptions of most Creole dishes, as these have contributed the largest number of new words in use today, as can be seen in the chapter on the latest additions to Creole.

The book is in two sections. Part One is for tourists who just want a phrase book. Part Two is for those who are interested in Mauritian Creole as a language and includes its history, tracing its origin, and evolution .