Africa
To which language should you translate to localize in Mauritius?
What we know from our community
Creole is spoken throughout the inhabited islands that constitute the Republic of Mauritius: Mauritius itself, but also Rodrigues and Agalega. Although it coexists with other languages, i.e., predominantly French and English (the country was a French colony first and then a British colony), Creole is the ONLY language that everyone speaks and understands. It is widely used in the media, advertising and, of course, day-to-day interactions.
Along with Creole, French and English, other languages are spoken by individual communities on the islands: Indian languages (including Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi and Bhojpuri – bank notes are, in fact, written in English, Tamil and Hindi and contain Roman, Devanagari, Tamil and Gujarati numerals), Chinese languages (Mandarin, Hakka and Cantonese) as well as Arab. This heterophonic environment, slowly accumulated through years of forced and unforced migration, constitute the pride and true wealth of Mauritians.Most words in Mauritian Creole are based on French. However, they have yielded different pronunciations, grammar and meaning over time. The word banane, for instance, is an iconic false friend in French. Firstly, it is spelled /banane/ (and not /banan/ – every letter in Mauritian Creole is pronounced) and, secondly, it has nothing to do with the fruit! Banane means “year”.
Mauritian Creole
Tou dimounn koz Kreol lor lansanb bann zil Repiblik Moris kot ena abitan, ki li Moris, Rodrig ouswa Agalega. Si Kreol existe akote bann lezot lang, setadir prinsipalman Franse ek Angle (pei-la ti dabor enn koloni franse ek answit enn koloni britanik), limem SEL lang ki tou dimounn koze e konpran. Servi Kreol dan bann media, dan bann reklam ek, evidaman, dan lavi toulezour.
Avek Kreol, Franse ek Angle, ena bann lezot lang ki servi dan bann kominote dan Moris: ena bann lang indien (notaman Hindi, Ourdou, Tamil, Telegou, Marathi ek Bhojpouri – nou bann biye labank finn ekrir an Angle, Tamil ek Hindi, avek bann sif romin, devanagari, tamil ek goujrati), bann lang sinwa (Mandarin, Hakka e Kantone) ek ousi Arab. Sa lanvironnman eterofonik la finn konstrir avek letan, atraver bann migrasion forse ek ousi lib bann dimounn. Zordi, li fer fierte tou bann Morisien e konstitie pli gran larises pei-la.
Preski tou bann mo dan Kreol Morisien sorti depi Franse me zot finn evolie pou gagn zot prop prononsiasion, reg gramer ek sinifikasion. Par exanp, si nou aret nou lor mo “banane” e konpar li avek mo franse ki ekrir parey la. Premierman, nou pa pronons zot parey: nou dir /banane/ (nou pa dir /banan/ – bizin pronons sak let dan Kreol). Deziemman, li pa ena okenn relasion avek enn fri!
Hugues, Professional translator
Introduction
Language
Official language
French, English
Actual languages
Mauritian Creole, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu, Chinese
Demography
Capital: Port Louis
Currency: Mauritian rupee
Population: 1,27 m
Population density: 624/km2
Economy
GDP: 11.16 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 8,812.1 USD (2021)
Exports: $2.05 billion (2020)
Statistics
Unemployment rate: 8.6% (2020)
Urbanisation: 40.77% (2019)
Literacy: 93% (2016)
Internet users: 46.9% penetration, 826.9 thousands
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numbering system and dot as decimal separator
Date format: yyyy-mm-dd/ dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00230
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
Imports $4.43 billion (2020). Refined Petroleum ($521M), Non-fillet Frozen Fish ($194M), Cars ($152M), Packaged Medicaments ($139M), and Concentrated Milk ($90.4M), importing mostly from China ($781M), United Arab Emirates ($510M), India ($438M), France ($353M), and South Africa ($307M).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 89% have an account with a financial institution
• 24% have a credit card
• 5.6% have a mobile money account
• 16% make online purchases
Exports
$2.05 billion (2020). Processed Fish ($244M), Raw Sugar ($197M), Non-Knit Men’s Suits ($94.4M), Knit T-shirts ($87.3M), and Non-Knit Men’s Shirts ($83M), exporting mostly to France ($201M), United States ($187M), South Africa ($170M), United Kingdom ($154M), and Zimbabwe ($148M).
Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (rated 70.9 out of 100) Ranked 1st out of 47 African countries Ranked 30th worldwide out of 177 countries (2022, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 1rd out of 27 Sub-Saharan African countries, 41st out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2018)
Source: OEC
Service Exports (2018)
Source: OEC
Most complex products by PCI
Product Complexity Index measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters
Source: OEC
Most specialised products by RCA Index
Specialisation is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage, an index that takes the ratio between Mauritius observed and expected exports in each product
Source: OEC
Export Opportunities by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product, the barchart show only products that Mauritius is not specialized in
Source: OEC
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language English, French, Indian
The constitution guarantees freedom of expression and of the press. Television is the most popular medium. State-owned Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) radio and TV generally reflect government thinking. MBC is funded by advertising and a TV licence fee. Daily newspapers and weeklies offer balanced coverage in several languages. They are often critical of both the government and the opposition parties. Two media groups – Le Mauricien Ltd and La Sentinelle Ltd – dominate the press scene. BBC World Service is available via a mediumwave (AM) relay (1575 kHz). Radio France Internationale is relayed on FM.
The press
L’Express – daily
Le Mauricien – daily
Mauritius Times – in English
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
46.9% penetration, 826.9 thousands
Share of web traffic by device
44.80% mobile phones, 53.55% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.60% tablet devices, others 0.05%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
22.45 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
19.69 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 154%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 79.0%
Most popular web search engines
Google (95%), Bing (3.8%),Yahoo (0.52%), DuckDuckgo (0.1%), Petal Search (0.46%), Ecosia (0.06%)
Most used social media
Facebook (79.54%), Pinterest (7.45%), Instagram (4.92%), YouTube (3.72%), Twitter (3.36%), Linkedin (0.58%), Reddit (0.43%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
74 yrs (2020)
Healthcare Expenditure
6.2%of GDP (2019)
Urbanization
27.51% (2019)
Median age of the population
37.5 yrs (2020)
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Language research
Languages spoken in the Mauritius
Legend
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Bhojpouri
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Chinois
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Marathi
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Français
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Créole Mauricien on Morisyen
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English
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Shubham Beeharry, Unsplash