Multilingual Mauritius: Insights from Discourse, Interviews, and the Linguistic Landscape

Tue 3 March

Wolfson College

Multilingualism in Mauritius can be observed at different scales, from the most intimate moments of talk to the most visible public displays. This lecture applies a sociolinguistics of scale perspective to examine how language practices shift in meaning as we move from micro-level interactions, to individual reflections and collective public spaces. At the interactional scale, discourse markers and multilingual turn-taking show how speakers navigate diverse repertoires in real time. At the personal scale, interviews capture how Mauritians explain and evaluate their own linguistic practices. At the societal scale, the linguistic landscape, comprising signage, advertising and institutional texts, indexes broader ideologies of language status and hierarchy. By moving across these layers, the lecture highlights how local practices are linked to larger historical and political trends and how scaling up and down offers new insights into the complexities of juggling Creole, French, English and ancestral languages in the Mauritian context.

Speaker:
Dr Hannah Davidson is a linguist specializing in Mauritian Creole and multilingualism. Hannah studied French, German and Linguistics at the University of Southampton before completing an M.A in European Linguistics at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Before coming to Oxford for her M.Phil, Hannah spent 6 months as an administrative trainee at the Interpretation Department of the European Commission in Brussels. In Oxford, Hannah specialized in Mauritian Creole for her AHRC-funded M.Phil and D.Phil degrees, investigating the development of Mauritian pre-verbal tense, mood and aspect markers. Before coming to Newnham, Hannah worked as a Postdoc and Outreach Officer in Linguistics at the University of Oxford and as a Postdoc in language education at the University of Reading.

Details:
This event is open to all and free to attend with no need to book.

This is a hybrid event, which will take place in-person in the Gatsby Room and also on Zoom.

If you would like to attend online, please register for the Zoom link: https://wolfson-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/pYiTRVd6RUOmcrgoC2w_BQ#/registration

Access:
This event will take place in the Gatsby Room on the first floor of the Chancellor's Centre. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located each floor of the building.

Contact:
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - events@wolfson.cam.ac.uk

Cost: Free