It is derived mainly from French and includes terms from Malagasy, Hindi, Portuguese, Gujarati and Tamil.

[2] In recent years, there has been an effort to develop a spelling dictionary and grammar rules.

Partly because of the lack of an official orthography but also because schools are taught in French, Réunion Creole is rarely written.

[3] Réunion Creole is the main vernacular of the island and is used in most colloquial and familiar settings.

It is, however, in a state of diglossia with French as the high language – Réunion Creole is used in informal settings and conversations, while French is the language of writing, education, administration and more formal conversations.