People and Language
The islanders were known as the Ilois (one French Creole word for "islanders") and they numbered about 1,000. They were of mixed African, South Indian and Malay descent and lived very simple, spartan lives in their isolated archipelago. Few remains of their culture have been left, although their language is still spoken by some of their descendants in Mauritius and the UK.
The inhabitants of Chagos were speaking Chagossian Creole, also known as Ilois creole, a French Creole which has not been properly researched from the linguistic point of view.
The island names are a striking combination of Portuguese, Dutch, French, English and Creole names.
Read more about this topic: Chagos Archipelago
Famous quotes containing the words people and/or language:
“The secret of the demagogue is to appear as dumb as his audience so that these people can believe themselves as smart as he is.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“All official institutions of language are repeating machines: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact, the major figure of ideology.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)