Wiktionary:About Mauritian Creole

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Mauritian Creole (ISO code mfe) is a French-based creole spoken chiefly in Mauritius and nearby islands in the Indian Ocean. This page documents common practices and standards used across Wiktionary in entries for this language.

Entry structure and templates

Entries should follow WT:ELE in general structure, using {{head|mfe|partofspeech}} for every part of speech except verbs, discussed below. Etymologies will generally be from French and should be formatted thus (from diksioner):

===Etymology===
From {{der|mfe|fr|dictionnaire}}.

Entries which begin in a z- but are derived from a French word that does not start in /z/ are advised to use {{mfeetylz}}.

Verbs

Verbs are easily the most complex type of word in Mauritian Creole, and require their own headword line template, {{mfe-verb}}. It requires one unnamed parameter.

• For normal verbs with medial forms, supply it with the medial form (if it is not the same as the lemma minus the final -e, it will be automatically be categorised in Category:Mauritian Creole irregular verbs)
• For auxiliary verbs, supply it with aux (Category:Mauritian Creole auxiliary verbs)
• For verbs that do not have a different medial form, supply it with the page name (Category:Mauritian Creole invariable verbs)

The medial forms are classified as verb forms and use {{mfe-medial of}}. Their format follows thus (from koz):

==Mauritian Creole==

===Verb===
{{head|mfe|verb form}}

# {{mfe-medial of|koze}}

Note that although there is a hyphenated reduplicative form (e.g. koz-koze), this is considering to be the "sum of its parts", namely the medial form followed by the lemma form, and thus not inclusible unless it has an idiomatic meaning independent of an intensifying or frequentative meaning.

Orthography

A standard orthography similar to that used in the latest Diksioner Morisien is used. This orthography includes the following attributes for lemma entries:

• <ou> instead of <u>
• <i> instead of <y> (diksioner morisien not diksyoner morisyen)
• No diacritical marks whatsoever
• No Frenchified spellings (mwa not moi)
• The definite article expressed as a hyphenated suffix, not part of the word (kisann-la not kisanla)

Spellings that do not follow this standard may be included if they are citeable. The format of an alternative spelling should look like this (from diksyoner):

==Mauritian Creole==

===Noun===
{{head|mfe|noun}}

# {{alternative spelling of|mfe|diksioner}}

Attestation

As a language with limited documentation, only one use or mention is necessary to cite a term. If the validity of a term is doubted, WT:RFV can be used.