Chagossian Creole – Language Snapshot

Chagossian Creole is a French-lexified Indian Ocean creole spoken previously by the indigenous population of the Chagos Archipelago. Between 1965-1973, the British government forcibly displaced the entire population of the archipelago to Mauritius and the Seychelles. While no right of return has been granted, many Chagossians have since migrated to, or have grown up in parts of the UK when they became entitled to citizenship in 2002. The Chagossian case is exceptional in that most of the population speaks Creole as a heritage language, far removed from their native shores, and dislocated from a traditional sociocultural base. There is scant published research available on Chagossian Creole structure or practice, including on basic questions such as the extent to which their creole is now structurally aligned with its contact varieties (Mauritian Creole, Seychellois Creole, French, English); the extent to which their creole is intergenerationally transmitted; or how speakers now perceive or use Chagossian Creole. This dearth of research complicates the task of responding to the Chagossian community’s own articulated goals relating to language. This paper serves as the basis to build a community-based research agenda for Chagossian Creole.