Zoreille is a
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, Gujarat ...
term to describe
French people
The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France.
The French people, especially the na ...
who were born in
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...
, but reside on the island of
Réunion. It contrasts with the terms ''
Petits Blancs''
(fr) ("Little Whites") and ''
Gros Blancs''
(fr) ("Big Whites"), which refer to the early settlers of
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an people, generally French, origin. It is one of the ethnic groups of Réunion, but the term is also used in
New Caledonia,
French Polynesia, the
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...
, and
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
.
Etymology
''Zoreilles'' (''z'oreilles'', ''zorey'') means
ear
An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...
s in Réunion Creole, owing to a reanalysis, in a manner common to many French nouns beginning with vowels absorbed into Réunion Creole, of the
liaison
Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together.
Liaison or liaisons may refer to:
General usage
* Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship
* Collaboration
* Co-operation
Arts and entertainment
* Li ...
between the French plural article ''les'' and the noun ''oreilles'' in ''les oreilles'' (), 'the ears'. It has been suggested that a warning spread by the French government in 1915, during World War I, "" ("Be quiet! Be careful! Enemy ears are listening to you"), played a role in the adoption of the term to refer to Metropolitan French, but does not necessarily lie at its origin.
Some scholars suggest that the red ears of the white soldiers drew the attention of the locals, while others propose an origin based on European colonists, having trouble understanding Creole, cupping an ear and asking speakers to repeat themselves.
See also
*
Béké
*
Caldoche
Caldoche is the name given to European inhabitants of the French overseas collectivity of New Caledonia, mostly native-born European origin French. The formal name to refer to this particular population is ', short for the very formal ', but th ...
References
{{authority control
French diaspora
Zoreille
Zoreille
Zoreille
European diaspora in Oceania