Languages

Arabic

English, French, and Creole are the official languages in Mauritius. Of course, there are also the native languages of the immigrants (possibly generations ago), such as from India or China.

English

Mauritius imports many products, comparable to any other country. However, the origins of these imports can be pretty different from what you might be used to in Europe, and thus you find many more languages on their packaging. Here’s an example of a toothpaste, produced in Egypt, labelled both in Arabic and English.

Arabic is a right-to-left script, and you see how even the artwork on the packaging is reversed accordingly. The ® symbol on the left of the brand name is in Latin script, though, and keeps its left-to-right orientation (click to enlarge, as usual).

Right-to-left list

The packaging also displays a three-item depiction and description of how the toothpaste works its magic.

True to its Arabic origin, the list goes from right to left!