Multilingualism in Mauritius

Abstract

While the internet facilitates communication and interaction between businesses and customers, social media platforms afford both of them opportunities to co-construct information online. These meeting points between businesses and customers, which are then displayed online, constitute a virtual linguistic servicescape showcasing their language practices. This study focuses on the Facebook pages of three fast-food outlets in multilingual Mauritius – where Kreol and French are commonly spoken, and English and French are widely written – with the aim to investigate the language choices made and displayed in the virtual linguistic servicescape. Using non-participant online observation, data were collected over three months and analysed as ‘text’ (Androutsopoulos, 2014). The data reveal the co-occurrence of local languages in the actors’ language practices, with minimal use of Kreol. These practices reinforce existing local language and literacy ideologies, while also disturbing, if only but slightly, long-entrenched ideologies about written Kreol.