Bourbonnais Creole is the group of

French-based creole languages A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole for which French is the lexifier. Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th- or 18th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the ...

spoken in the western

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. The close relation of the languages is from the similar historical and cultural backgrounds of the islands. The name is derived from the former name of

Réunion Island Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island o ...

: Bourbon Island before 1793. Another name is Mascarene Creole, as the predominant

island group An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

is called the

Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their ...

s. There are six languages in this group: * Agalega Creole * Chagossian Creole *

Mauritian Creole Mauritian Creole or Morisien (formerly Morisyen) ( mfe, kreol morisien, links=no ) is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. English words are included in the standardized version of the language. In addition, the slaves and in ...

Réunion Creole Réunion Creole, or Reunionese Creole ( rcf, kréol rénioné; french: créole réunionnais), is a French-based creole language spoken on Réunion. It is derived mainly from French and includes terms from Malagasy, Hindi, Portuguese, Gujara ...

* Rodriguan Creole *

Seychellois Creole Seychellois Creole (), also known as kreol, is the French-based creole language spoken by the Seychelles Creole people of the Seychelles. It shares national language status with English and French (in contrast to Mauritian and Réunion Creole, ...

Bibliography

*Chaudenson, Robert (1974). ''Le Lexique du parler créole de la Réunion''. Paris: Champion, tomes I-II. *Baker, Philip & Chris Corne (1982). ''Isle de France Creole: Affinities and origins''. Ann Arbor:Karoma. *Faine, Jules (1939). ''Le créole dans l'univers: études comparatives des parlers français-créoles. Tome I: le mauricien''. Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie de l'État. *Parkvall, Mikael (2000). ''Out of Africa: African influences in Atlantic Creoles''. London: Battlebridg

*Wittmann, Henri (1972). ''Les parlers créoles des Mascareignes: une orientation''. Trois-Rivières: Travaux linguistiques de l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

*Wittmann, Henri (1995). "Grammaire comparée des variétés coloniales du français populaire de Paris du 17e siècle et origines du français québécois." ''Le français des Amériques'', ed. Robert Fournier & Henri Wittmann, 281-334. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivière

*Wittmann, Henri (2001). "Lexical diffusion and the glottogenetics of creole French." CreoList debate, parts I-VI, appendixes 1-9. The Linguist List, Eastern Michigan University & Wayne State Universit

*Wittmann, Henri & Robert Fournier (1987). "Interprétation diachronique de la morphologie verbale du créole réunionnais." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 6:2.137-5

{{#related:Saint-Denis, Réunion French-based pidgins and creoles French language in Africa