This volume is based on a collection of 60 texts, covering the period 1734 - 1929 and containing more than 100,000 words. This book includes a complete concordance of these with statistical information of the frequency of each word as well as of variant spellings of each word. It also prints in full all of these texts not readily available elsewhere, including several previously unpublished manuscripts, together with a representative selection of other texts.

Most importantly, it also includes a dozen articles by leading specialists which deal with the evolution of the most salient features of this language. This unprecedented publication demonstrates just how much can be learned about the construction of a new language by a diverse range of people brought together by slavery.

Click here to see one of the articles include in this volume, ‘The development of the noun phrase in Mauritian Creole and the mechanisms of language development’ by Anand Syea.

A very detailed analysis of two recently discovered 18th century texts from the island of Reunion (formerly called Bourbon), together with a thorough examination of the relevant socio-historical situation, transforms our knowledge of this variety of Creole French.

It also provides the basis for understanding why this Creole is so very different from – and much closer to French than – other varieties spoken in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius, Seychelles) and the Caribbean (Martinique, Guadeloupe, etc.). This is essential reading for everyone interested in Creole French and the process of creolization in general.