Chagossian Creole – Language Snapshot

1 Overview

Chagossian Creole is a French-lexified Indian Ocean creole. It was the first language of Indigenous inhabitants on the Chagos Archipelago (see Figure 1; Figure 2) until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the British government forcibly displaced the entire population (~2,000 Chagossians) to Mauritius and the Seychelles (Gifford & Dunne 2014). The territory remains in British control (Baldwin 2023; Jeffery 2011) and no right of return has yet been granted. However, this remains a live issue: as of 3rd October 2024, the British government agreed to relinquish sovereignty of the Chagos islands to Mauritius after a long-running judicial dispute, but the implications of this for Chagossians themselves are unclear.

Figure 1: Indian Ocean. Source: Jeffery (2011: xii), reproduced with permission.

Figure 2: Chagos Archipelago. Source: Jeffery (2011: xiii), reproduced with permission.

Indigenous Chagossians (who can also refer to themselves as zilois) and some of their children gained UK citizenship in 2002 following the British Overseas Territories Act (BOT) (2002) and the reclassification of the British Dependent Territories (BDTs) as “Overseas Territories”. Chagossians born on the archipelago under its former status held BDT citizenship and thus became eligible for UK citizenship. The Nationality and Borders Act (2022) extended British and BOT citizenship to all Chagossians and their descendants born in exile. Chagossian Creole is thus spoken by forcibly displaced Chagossians and their descendants now residing in exile in Mauritius or the Seychelles, and by those who have since migrated to the UK (and France, according to unofficial figures).¹ No reliable speaker numbers exist: the British government has proposed that as of 2022 some 10,000 Chagossians reside outside of the archipelago, with at least 3,000 living in the UK. This is likely an under-estimate, as (i) settlement in the UK from Mauritius and the Seychelles has been ongoing, and (ii) recent census data suggest smaller numbers in Mauritius and the Seychelles (~3,066 and ~1,014, respectively), indicating that some of them have left.² Very little research has taken place on the linguistic repertoires of Chagossians, which are now more complex than prior to their forced displacement. What is clear, however, is that the Chagossian case is exceptional from a sociolinguistic perspective in that the population speaks their creole as a heritage language, far removed from their native shores, and dislocated from a traditional speaker base.

2 Previous research

There is scant published research on Chagossian Creole, both pre- and post-forced displacement, and little published research at all on the variety’s linguistic structure. The most comprehensive phonological and grammatical description available can be found in Papen (1978) as part of a comparative linguistic study of the French-based Indian Ocean Creoles. Papen’s fieldwork took place after Chagossians were forcibly displaced, and so the two research participants who form the basis of his study (both male, over 60 years of age) were consulted while residing in Mauritius.³ On lexis specifically, the 2nd edition of Carpooran’s Diksioner morisien [Mauritian Dictionary] offers a list of some 30 lexical items (2011: 1123–1126) that are “words from the Chagos archipelago and/or words spoken by Chagossian people” (53). Florigny, Pustka & Perreau’s overview of Mauritius and the Seychelles does however suggest some overlap in their usage (2024: 773). Lastly, Benjelloun (2005) provides a descriptive sociolinguistic sketch of the Chagossian context, with a focus on the impact of displacement on community cohesion. There are in addition one or two entries in reference surveys, such as Holm (1989: 403–4), but these and other indirect references draw exclusively on Papen (1978)’s work. Smith (1994) is an annotated list of pidgins and creole languages that includes reference to Chagossian Creole, but no sources are cited. These works aside, we are aware of no other published research specifically on Chagossian Creole. There are, however, some important works in allied fields that focus on other aspects of language use among Chagossians in exile, notably Allen (2018), Gundowry (2018), and Vine (2011).

3 Linguistic structure

As a French-lexified creole with a predominantly Bantu and Malagasy substrate (Papen 1978: 9), Chagossian Creole has been described as linguistically similar to Mauritian, Seychellois, and Rodrigan Creoles, depending on the source.⁴ Smith (1994) lists Chagossian Creole as ilois Creole (cf. zilois) under Indian Ocean Area — Mauritian, stating that it is “very close” (347) to Seychellois Creole. However, Papen (1978) suggests that this depends on the level of linguistic description. In general, he remarks that “the speech of the islanders closely resembles that of the more conservative Rodrigan speakers, at least phonologically and grammatically” (Papen 1978: 82).⁵ Jeffery’s (2011) ethnography of Chagossians in Mauritius and the UK also reports that speakers assert a close similarity, particularly phonologically, to Rodrigues Creole (2011: 89). Conversely, Vine (2011: 118)—also an ethnography—remarks that there are identifiable accent features specific to Chagossian Creole (cf. Walker 1986: 16). Others have argued that Chagossian Creole structure has become increasingly aligned with Mauritian Creole (Baker & Corne 1982: 8; Benjelloun 2005: 118). This is unsurprising given that long-term, inter-ethnic contact and asymmetric power relations are known factors in language change (Giles 1979). As Papen also argued at the time, “Chagos islanders […] invariably are adopting urban Mauritian Creole forms […] particularly the young, and whatever distinctions existed between the two dialects will soon disappear” (1978: 82). However, this hypothesis remains to be tested, given the linguistic variation in Chagossian Creole described by Papen (1978: 81–82).

4 Language and cultural heritage

While very little research has taken place on Chagossian Creole, attention has been accorded to other aspects of Chagossians’ intangible cultural heritage. Séga dance and music were a particularly prominent part of life on the Chagos Archipelago, which have since been transplanted by communities to their ports of exile (cf. Allen 2018; Gundowry 2018; Jeffery 2011). Séga constitutes a type of creole performance, recordings of which are available online dating back to the 1960s prior to Chagossians’ forced displacement. These will be useful for, among other things, analysis of diachronic change:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASo8kQTPSLk

• https://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/1969sega.html

• http://filoumoris.com/group-tanbour-chagos-leritaz-kiltir-chagossien/

5 Towards a research agenda

We end this paper by emphazising the need for a wider, community-based research agenda on Chagossian Creole, that must include Chagossians themselves in the design and conduct of the research, and that is cognizant of their own articulated goals as stated in the Democratic Statement and Chagossian Bill of Rights (see Allen 2018).

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Penda Choppy, Yadhav Deerpaul, Shrita Hassamal, and Robert Papen for their helpful feedback while drafting this paper. This research was supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grants Scheme (SRG2324/240017).

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests to declare.