Languages of Mauritius
| Languages of Mauritius | |
|---|---|
 Sign in Mauritian Creole | |
| National | Mauritian Creole |
| Recognised | French and English |
| Minority | Bhojpuri, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi |
| Signed | Mauritian Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
The Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius does not mention any official language. The Constitution contains one statement in Article 49 that states that "the official language of the Assembly shall be English but any member may address the chair in French" which indicates that French and English are official languages of the National Assembly (parliament) only.
While the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole, French is widely spoken by a majority of Mauritians and is also used in the media while English is only used in Government and Educational purposes.
English is used as the prime medium of instruction in public schools while French is also a common language in education and the dominant language of media.[2] According to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, 72.7% of the Mauritians were French speakers in 2005.[3] Mauritius shares this distinction of being both French and English speaking with Canada, Cameroon, Dominica, Rwanda, Seychelles and Vanuatu. Being both a French-speaking and English-speaking nation, Mauritius is also a member of both the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie.
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Other languages spoken in Mauritius mainly include Bhojpuri, Hindi-Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Chinese. The Mauritian Sign Language is the language of the deaf community. Most Mauritians are at least bilingual, if not trilingual or quadrilingual.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ https://statsmauritius.govmu.org/Documents/Statistics/ESI/2024/EI1687/2024%20Population%20Census_Main%20Results_18112024.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Coexistence International at Brandeis University" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-07-04.
- ^ (in French) La Francophonie dans le monde 2006–2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan Archived 2018-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, Paris, 2007.