1In December 2019, we hosted an international conference entitled “Language Contact in Mauritius: Political, Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives” at the University of Vienna. Our ambition was to bring together researchers across generations from different linguistic subdisciplines, using a diversity of epistemological, theoretical and methodological approaches, with the aim of stimulating reflection and help fostering new research pathways on the still relatively poorly explored topic of language contact in Mauritius. Fourteen researchers, including PhD students, met each tackling a specific and often innovative, aspect of language contact in Mauritius. The contributions addressed a broad array of topics that included the complex coexistence of different languages on public signs, an examination of the contemporary oral and written productions by young Mauritians, the reciprocal influence of the linguistic systems of Creole, French or Bhojpuri on each other, the issue of labelling language productions, and providing representations in the evaluation process of productions perceived as mixed, possible comparisons between the Mauritian and Antillean linguistic contexts, as well as the multilingualism that was prevalent in Mauritius in the 1970s.

2The papers published in this edited volume emerge from this conference and reproduce a sample of the issues it addressed. This thematic issue brings together authors whose research focuses on contemporary topics that reflect an array of very active current discussions in the Mauritian society such as for instance, the place of Mauritian Creole in school education (G. Florigny), the creolisation of toponyms in the public sphere (Y. Bosquet) and the livelihood of Creole in the diaspora (M. Fischer).

3While language contact is its main theme, the papers all highlight the core driving role of Mauritian Creole in a myriad of situations and cases of linguistic contact within the multilingual social fabric of Mauritius. The paper by G. Florigny examines written productions in French and in Kreol Morisien of primary school students. It is set in a broad perspective: that of providing an evaluative overview of the teaching of Kreol Morisien at the primary school level, after six years of implementation in the school system. Worthy of notice in the context of this paper is the fact that while Kreol Morisien was offered only as an elective at the primary school level up to now, it has now been announced earlier this year that its teaching as an elective would be extended to the upper secondary level. The paper also raises the broader issue of language policy with regards to the status of Kreol Morisien in the education system. The paper contributed by Y. Bosquet offers a synchronic analysis of Mauritian place-names, showing that they are largely dominated by French toponyms, as well as English, though to a lesser extent. It also sheds light on the role of Mauritian creole in the local toponymic dynamics, an innovative topic that has seen little research up to now. The paper raises the questions of effective toponymic usage in Creole and that of toponymic information display in the public sphere signage. In her paper discussing the use of discursive markers in verbal exchanges between multilingual Mauritian teenagers who are members of what can be termed the “local Creole bourgeoisie”, S. Chady underlines the high degree of French/Creole contact, that is the hallmark of these ordinary conversations. She also approaches the complex issue of delineating the intertwined use of each language (French and Creole) in such exchanges which unfolds with surprising and yet noticeable fluidity. The issues of evolution, intergenerational transmission and linguistic representations in the context of the Mauritian diaspora form the heart of M. Fischer’s paper. He delivers an analysis of representations on linguistic practices of Mauritian Creole by speakers born within the Mauritian diaspora in Canada which are heavily influenced by English and French. The final paper, which is co-written by J.-D. Bellonie, G. Fon Sing and E. Pustka tackles the influence of Creole languages on the regional varieties of French. This paper is set in a broader comparative approach: that of comparing the local varieties of French in the Lesser Antilles (Martinique and Guadeloupe) to those of Mauritius, both through the lenses of sociolinguistics (local history of the language, varieties used locally by different social groups) and that of internal linguistics (phonology, morphosyntax and lexicon).

4This special issue is also marked by diversity. First, in terms of the approaches proposed by the authors. They range from the macro-sociolinguistic approach, with the description of institutional frameworks (education in Florigny’s paper and official signage in Bosquet’s paper), which often appear monolingual but within which multilingual speakers evolve, to the micro-sociolinguistics approach, in the papers presented by S. Chady and M. Fischer for instance. In these two papers, the micro-sociolinguistic perspective is present through the analysis of interactions between peers and within the family cell, respectively. Multiplicity can also be found at a geographical level: Mauritius is obviously covered (G. Florigny, Y. Bosquet, S. Chady), but there is also an opening towards the “Americas”, with the American continent represented by Canada (M. Fischer) and the Lesser Antilles, represented by Martinique and Guadeloupe (E. Pustka, J.-D. Bellonie and G. Fon Sing).

5Altogether, the authors offer novel and diversified insights on the question of language contact dynamics in Mauritius by addressing contemporary issues. With the broadening of perspectives on the question of contact between French and Creole (and English) in Mauritius, but also outside Mauritius, both at the level of the Mauritian diaspora and in other creole speaking spaces, this publication offers a new and stimulating research focus.