Even today, it does happen that people use the word “Emtel” instead of “mobile”. Just like Emtel, there are a few other brands which are wrongly used in the everyday life of loads of people :
Despite that the guy uses another mobile operator, he might still say : “Prend mo numero emtel” lol.
Another example :
“Hey, tire sa depi FRIGIDAIRE“
“Frigidaire” is definitely not the creole equivalent of Fridge or ‘Refrigerateur’. Many might ignore this, but Frigidaire is in fact, a make, one just like hundred others.
But as usual, we Mauritians, we tend to invent our own words, and this raises something in my mind : The ‘official creole vocabulary’. Word Creation/Interpretation/Translation? That gives food for though.
Anyways, coming back to the topic, this is nothing new. Correct me if I am wrong, but this is somewhat related to “Cannibalization” in the marketing jargon. Briefly, cannibalization here is a situation whereby a product benefits from the market share of another product (by getting better sales for example) while the initial product gets no added value. In our example, the words “Frigidaire” or “Emtel” are used to refer to other different products at the expense of the real brands, i.e. “Frigidaire” and “Emtel” get nothing in return.
1. Do you come across people using these words?
2. Have you any other examples which you can quote?
Yashvinblogs 
This is not cannibalization.
This is mainly due because a brand is so strong that it has become synonymous with the whole industry.
Google mem ti p rode protege li a ene certain epok. Pa ti ler zte servi Google comment ene verbe.
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Moulinex :p
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🙂 Basically whoever makes the biggest name [usually the one who comes first gets tagged 🙂
1 ta dimoune dir emtel :D.. et kan mo pense emtel normallemdent mo pense sa bann gro telephone portable longtemp la avec gro lantenne la
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@selven: The hige motorola phones 😛
haha. Yes.
http://etherealisation.com/2010/05/cell-phones-of-the-future-past-the-boston-globe/
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If am not mistaken, that’s the the first time, I tried to insert an image tag in a comment LOL! 😛
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dan UK banla dir Hoover Olieu vacuum
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@Yashvin: Crap. There is no like button.
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hahahaha
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The word ‘Frigidaire’ is not creole/Mauritian invented for fridge.
Its a common word used in France for réfrigérateur. Comme quoi ils peuvent etre aussi cons que les Mauriciens 🙂
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9frig%C3%A9rateur
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Same applies to Jeep 🙂
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Sann la la wai.
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The famous one in our family is the use of the word “Kodak” when referring to any camera – p.ex. a tu pris ton Kodak.
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Wai. Pret moi to kodak enn ku :p
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huh.. zamais mo ti koner frigidaire 1 brand sa O_O
I still use it to refer to the fridge.
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Its the most famous one. ziska ler tou dimoun dir li p al aster enn frigidaire.
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si mo dire ‘paa, tone garde poule la dan refrigerateur?’ banla pu gagne mwa francoise.
zot conne ene alternative name nu kav dire refrigerateur en creole?
Frizider FTW!!!!
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In marketing, it’s one of the first-mover advantages. Just like the iPad and iPod nowadays, although not the the same extent.
Product cannibalization is when your own product eats another of your own. E.g. Kodak’s digital cameras making Kodak’s own older cameras obsolete. For Kodak’s case, they have no choice!
Another example is people assuming that Internet Explorer is how you go on the internet… which is so irritating sometimes.
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Kotex is another example
For all those who dont know it its a saniary pad brand name just like always.
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Blanco aussi i think
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YOPLAIT
And in France its Danone. its not a mauritian ‘creole’ thing. Its international and we are not stupid or weird because of that. As long as people understand its ok for me! and there’s no other word for frizider. fridge in english and refrig…. is french so whatever, im still using frizider lol and so ARE YOU YASHVIN lolll 😉
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Kleenex
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Ray Ban
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‘la gazette’ which was an old mauritian newspaper i think :p
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omo
walkman
shoprite (Trianon Shopping Park)
jumbo (Centre commerciale Phoenix)
Plume parker ( poo too ban plume avk l’ancre)
pentel (too dimoon conner ki eter pentel)
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Kleenex
Termos
Jacuzzi
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Zonw blier dire:
Baygonn 🙂 hehe
zot encore rapel??
Insect killer
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karcher = water pressure washer
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@Mel:
Lol…yep..this one is a classic..”Check Ray-Ban..” lol!!!
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@Rafel:
Yep..this one too is a classic…
There’s also :
Mammouth
Pentel
What about Sorbet? Is it a trade name or a definition?
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@Anonymous: Interesting links. Thanks!
Here’s another one shared by a friend :
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fr/wiki/Antonomase
“Une antonomase est une figure de style ou un trope, dans lequel un nom propre ou bien une périphrase énonçant sa qualité essentielle, est utilisé comme nom commun, ou inversement, quand un nom commun est employé pour signifier un nom propre. Certaines antonomases courantes finissent par se lexicaliser et figurent dans les dictionnaires usuels (« une poubelle », « une silhouette », « un don Juan », « un harpagon », « un bordeaux », « le roquefort », « le macadam » etc.).“
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Tupperware !!! 😉
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wai. tou bol plastic ki fer mem son. lol
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Tempo
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Maintenant que vous vous intéressez à notre lexique, je vous invite à les partager avec des gens qui aiment plus que tout notre parler local: http://mauricianismes.wordpress.com/
Remerciez vous-mêmes de votre contribution à ce mini-Wikipédia sur notre langue / dialecte local!
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Soulier Moccassin
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Delo vital for mineral water
For my personal experience to al laboutik to deman ene bouteil delo vital, they’ll give you what ever mineral water comes.
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Pa kone. Tu kut monn dimann Crystal moi :p
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Kentucky for all frien chicken 🙂
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Theres also:
BASALT (kot shoprite)
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@Josh google is often used as a verb in the UK. @Yiu gazette is a word. @ReenaDKL sorbet is a word.
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Vape!!! 😀
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@Anonymous:
Wai, bien dire!
Just like “catapilar” is generally used for tracked excavators, which originates from Caterpillar, the famous brand for heavy civil engineering construction / earthwork equipment.
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Loto Knight Rider
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kleenex instead of mouchoire en papier – this is a reference world wide pas ke morice ki ena sa ban kaliter zafer la . like googler le mot. ou customiser un truc. Continent instead of Jumbo.
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ipad pou tou ban tablets pc
playstation pou tout ban gaming console. (XBOX, WII,etc)
lcd pou tou ban zaffaire ecran plat (LED, LCD, PLASMA)
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mo ena enn wii ek mo pa apel li enn playstation. Both are very famous and very dissimilar
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JCB la nuvo, avant tou ti p apel catapilar referring to the brand Caterpillar
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Ayo sa enn ta ena sa.
Emtel, Frigidaire, Kodak, Yoplait, Dahi, Vape, Caterpillar, Jeep, Tupperware, Tempo..
As for me mo ankor dir ki mo p al fer enn tour Continent. kan linn sanz nom sipa komye ku. Par kont mo tifi li dir li p al Jumbo.
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Dont agree with you. The word Frigidaire is widely used in France to specify a Refrigerateur, same applies to kodak. Mauritians are no different.
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