NEW! Mauritian Creole (Mauritius)

Mauritian Creole is a French-based Creole language spoken by about 1.3 million people in Mauritius, a subtropical island in the Indian Ocean about 1,200 miles off the south-east coast of Africa. A creole is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time. In addition to its French base, Mauritian Creole includes words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island. Most Mauritians are of Indian descent, and Mauritian Creole has gradually replaced the ancestral Indian languages as the mother tongue. Accordingly, Mauritians tend to speak Mauritian Creole at home and French in the workplace, while French and English are spoken in schools.

In 2020 the Society was contacted by a native Mauritian who had already embarked on a project to prepare a faithful edition of the Bible in Mauritian Creole. After our usual checks had taken place, we were pleased to appoint him to the role of lead TBS Mauritian Creole Bible translator. We also evaluated his already completed work on the Gospel according to John and found it very good. Our contact and his small team have prepared first drafts of Jude, Titus, 2 Thessalonians, 2 and 3 John, Philemon, and Mark, and have started translating Matthew.

Please remember this team as theirs is the first translation of the Mauritian Creole Bible that will be based on the Hebrew Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and the Greek Received Text of the New Testament. ‘The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace’ (Psalm 29.11).