French Guianese Creole

Not to be confused with the English-lexifedGuyanese Creole.

French Guianese Creole
Kriyòl gwiyannen,kréyòl (gwiyanè)
Native to	French Guiana
Native speakers	134,000 (2019)
Language family	French Creole French Guianese Creole
Official status
Official language in	French Guiana
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gcr
Glottolog	guia1246
Linguasphere	51-AAC-cd (varieties: 51-AAC-cda to -cdd)

French Guiana, where French Guianese Creole originates.

French Guianese Creole(Kriyòl; also called variouslyGuianan Creole,Guianese Creole in English andCréole guyanaisin French) is aFrench-basedcreole languagespoken inFrench Guiana,and to a lesser degree, inSurinameandBrazil.It resemblesAntillean Creole,but there are some lexical and grammatical differences between them.Antilleanscan generally understand French Guianese Creole, though there may be some instances of confusion. The differences consist of moreFrenchand BrazilianPortugueseinfluences (due to the proximity of Brazil and Portuguese presence in the country for several years). There are also words ofAmerindianandAfricanorigin. There are French Guianese communities inSurinameandBrazilwho continue to speak the language.

It should not be confused with theGuyanese Creole language,based on English, spoken in nearbyGuyana.

History

French Guianese Creole was a language spoken betweenslavesandsettlers.But the conditions of French Guianese Creole's constitution were quite different from the Creole of the West Indies, on the one hand because of the conflicts between French, English, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish, and French dialects such as the Caen have greatly influenced French Guianese Creole, which has made it significantly different from the Creoles of Martinique, Haiti, St. Lucia and Guadeloupe.

There are, therefore, in French Guianese Creole many words in common with the Creoles of the West Indies. However, a number of words differentiate them significantly.

In addition, in French Guiana, the letter'r'is mostly preserved in onset position, whereas in the West Indies the pronunciation of'r'tends rather to approximate the semi-vowel /w/.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation in French	In French Guianese Creole	Meaning in English
Riz	Ri	Douri	Rice
Dormir	Dormir	Dronmi	Sleep

Possessive determiners are placed before the noun:

In French	In French Guianese Creole	In English
Ma maison	Mo kaz	My house
Leurs enfants	Yé timoun	Their children
Sa femme	So fanm/So madanm	His wife

Orthography and phonology

French Guianese Creole is largely written using theFrench Alpha bet,with only a few exceptions. 'Q' and 'X' are replaced by 'k' and 'z' respectively. 'C' is not used apart from in the digraph,ch,where it stands for[ʃ](the word for horse ischouval,similar to French'scheval). Otherwise, it is replaced by 'k' when it stands for[k](Standard French'scomment(how) is writtenkouman) and 's', when it stands for[s].Silent 'h' is never written, unlike in Standard French, where it remains for etymological reasons. The diphthong 'OU' is replaced by 'w' when it stands for[w].The diphthong 'OI' is replaced by 'we', but by 'o' in the words "mo" and "to".

Examples

French Guianese Creole phrases making the shape of French Guiana

French Guianese Creole (IPA)	Metropolitan French	English
Bonswè/bõswɛ/	Bonsoir	Good evening
Souplé/suːple/	S'il vous plaît	Please
Mèsi/mɛsi/	Merci	Thank you
Mo/mo/	Moi, me, je	Me, I
To/to/	Toi, te, tu	You
I, L, Li/i,l,li/	Lui, le, la	He, She, Him, Her, It
Roun/ʁuːn/	Un, une	One
Eskizé mo/ɛskizemo/	Excusez-moi	Excuse me, pardon me
Lapli ka tonbé/laˈpliːkatõbe/	Il pleut	It's raining
Jod-la a roun bèl jou/ʒodˈlaaruːnbelʒu/	Aujourd'hui, il fait beau	Today is a beautiful day
A kouman to fika?/akumãtofika/	(Comment) ça va?	How are you?
Mari a mo manman/maʁiamomãˈmã/	Marie est ma mère	Marie is my mother
Rodolf a to frè/ʁodolfatofrɛ/	Rodolphe est ton frère	Rudolph is your brother
I ka alé laplaj/ikaːlelaˈplaʒ/	Il va à la plage	He's going to the beach
Mo pa mélé/mopamele/	Je m'en moque	I don't care