Réunion Creole

History and culture

Use and distribution

Réunion Creole is the main vernacular of the island and is used in most colloquial and familiar settings. It is, however, in a state of diglossia with French as the high language – Réunion Creole is used in informal settings and conversations, while French is the language of writing, education, administration and more formal conversations. Reunionese Creole first formed within the first 50 years of Reunion being inhabited. Most of the people living in Reunion were French, Malagasy or Indo-Portuguese. Most families at this time had at least one native French speaker. Réunion Creole is not a fully creole language like Mauritian Creole. Instead of moving away from French, Réunion Creole is moving closer to it due to the influence of French media in everyday life.

Varieties

There is not a significant class difference in the varieties of Réunion Creole due to migration and mixing within the population. It is more similar to regional dialects: for example, Parisians do not speak like Marseillaises. Réunion residents from the northern and coastal regions prefer the "i" sound for the subject pronoun "li" ("lui"), rather than the "u" sound = "lu" used in High Creole and in the south. Today, "zordi" is used in Low Creole (Kreol Kaf) and "jordi" in High Creole (Kreol Blan).

Writing

Although there have been some instances of written Réunion Creole in the 1820s, it was mainly a spoken language. One example of this is the Creole Fables of Louis Héry published in 1828, although it did not receive much popularity due to Réunion Creole being a young language. Therefore, grammar documentation and dictionaries have been written and the use of Réunion Creole has been encouraged in media. However, there is no consensus on a standardized spelling.