Datapoint Mauritian Creole/Order of possessor and possessum

Mauritian Creole has both possessor-possessum and possessum-possessor order. The former is not attested until about 1880 and normally requires so 'his, her, its' or zot 'their' between the possessor and the possessum.

These two structures can be and frequently are combined, e.g. lakaz Pol so frer [house Paul POSS brother] 'the house of Paul's brother'. Lakaz frer Pol is also possible here but where three or more nouns are involved, the mixed structure seems to be preferred (is probably felt to be easier to process).
Possessor first structures can also be used to avoid ambiguity, e.g. madam Pol can mean either 'Mrs Paul' (where Paul is the family surname) or 'Paul's wife' but Pol so madam can only have the latter meaning.

Values

Possessum-possessor Frequency: 70.0%

Example 55-3:
ti-frer Pol
ti-frer
dim-brother
Pol
Paul
Paul's little brother
Example 55-5:
ti baba Baka usi ena kat mwa
ti
dim
baba
baby
Baka
Baka
usi
too
ena
have
kat
four
mwa
month
Baka's little baby is also four months old.

Source: Kriegel 1996: 210

Confidence:
Very certain

Possessor-possessum Frequency: 30.0%

Example 55-2:
Pol so ti-frer
Pol
Paul
so
3sg.poss
ti-frer
dim-brother
Paul's little brother
Example 55-4:
Sesil so lisyeṅ in mor.
Sesil
Cecil
so
poss
lisyeṅ
dog
in
compl
mor.
dead
Cécile's dog has died.

Source: Baker 1972: 83

Example 55-219:
zaṅfaṅ so zuzu
zaṅfaṅ
child
so
3sg.poss
zuzu
toy
(the) child's toy
Confidence:
Very certain