01 mai 2009

Introduction

It all started with this: Contribution à un inventaire des particularités lexicales du français de l’île Maurice.

This is a book about words and expressions that are used by French-speaking people in Mauritius without fully being standard French, or that are used with meanings that differ from the ones found in standard French. Its author, Didier de Robillard, is a Mauritian academic. His work is available online, on a website that also hosts books about particularities found in French from Reunion, French from New Caledonia, French from the Congo or French from Central Africa.

Like probably most Mauritians knowing a bit of French and going through this list, I wanted to add my bit. There were also words and expressions I hadn't really heard or with which I didn't agree completely. Little by little, by asking my memory to get things out and by interrogating relatives, friends or acquaintances, the list grew up, until there was a feeling that this would work better if I put it on the internet with a possibility for visitors to contribute their own bit and give their own feelings about this or that.

[To be completed...]