The contribution of creative writing to the standardization of Mauritian Creole

Abstract

In the histories of western European vernacular languages, it is widely acknowledged that literary figures have played an important role in the process of language standardization. Indeed, the codifying of language and the canonizing of literature are often seen as symbiotic processes. This article explores the links between creative writing and standardization by looking at the case of Mauritian Creole (MC). For these purposes, I carry out a linguistic analysis of selected works of Dev Virahsawmy, the pioneering and most prolific author using the medium of MC. The analysis focuses on the development of a systematic orthography, lexical, register and syntactic elaboration. In the case of MC, which did not have a written form prior to literature, it is suggested that the symbiosis mentioned by Adamson in relation to language standardization runs deeper. The article finally highlights the establishment of a standard as being subject to intentional individual pressures.