French_guiana_creole

French Guiana Creole Guyanais, Patwa
Spoken in:	French Guiana
Total speakers:
Language family:	Creole language  French Creole   Antillean Creoles    French Guiana Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3:	gcr
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

French Guiana, where French Guiana Creole originates.

French Guiana Creole is a French-lexified creole language spoken in French Guiana, and to a lesser degree, in Suriname and Guyana. It resembles Antillean Creole, but there are some lexical and grammatical differences between them. Antilleans can understand and speak French Guiana Creole. The diffences consist of more French and Brazilian Portuguese influences (due to the proximity of Brazil and Portuguese presence in the country for several years.) There are also words of Amerindian and African origin. There are Guianese communities in Suriname and Guyana who continue to speak French Guiana Creole.

It should not be confused with the Guyanese Creole language, based on English, spoken in neighbouring Guyana.

Orthography and phonology

French Guiana Creole is largely written using the French alphabet, with only a few exceptions. \'Q\' and \'X\' are replaced by \'k\' and \'z\' respectively. \'C\' is not used apart from in the diagraph, ch, where it stands for /ʃ/ (the word for horse is chouval, similar to Standard French\'s \'cheval.\') Otherwise, it is replaced by \'k\' when it stands for /k/ (Standard French\'s \'comment\' (why) is written \'kouman) and \'s\', when it stands for /s/. Silent \'h\' is never written, unlike in Standard French, where it remains for etymological purposes.

French Guiana creole does not have many of the characteristic sounds of Standard French. The letter \'j\' (/ʒ) is pronounced /z/ instead. There is no /y/ sound either. \'Y\' is pronounced as /i:/ and written as \'i.\' Thus, the word \'usé\' in standard French is written as \'isé.\' The diagraph /wɑ/ is pronounced as /ɔ/: \'moi\' (me) is pronounced as /mɔ/. One should also note that French Guiana Creole is a non-rhotic patois with no nasal vowels, and thus all R sounds and nasals are dropped from borrowings from other languages: bonjour, pronounced /bɔ̃ʒuːʁ/ in standard French, is rendered /bonzu/.

Examples

French Guiana Creole (IPA)	Metropolitan French	English
Boujou /bonzu/	Bonjour	Hello; Good day
Souplé /suː plɛ/	S\'il vous plait	Please
Mèsi /mɛsi/	Merci	Thank you
Mo /mɔ/	Moi, me, je	Me, I
To /tɔ/	Toi, te, tu	You
Li /li/	Lui, le, il	Him, he
Roun /ruːn/	Un, une	One
Eskuzé mo /es\'kuːzɛ mɔ/	Excusez-moi	Excuse me, pardon me
Lapli ka tombe /la\'pliː ka tomb/	Il pleut	Rain is falling
Jod-la a roun bel jou /zod\'la a ruːn bel zu/	Aujourd\'hui, il fait beau	Today is a beautiful day
Sa to fé? /sa tɔ fɛ/	(Comment) ça va?	How are you?
Anne a mo manman /an a mɔ \'manman/	Anne est ma mère	Anne is my mother
Andy a to frè /andi a tɔ frɛ/	Andy est mon frère	Andy is my brother
li ka alé a laplaj /li ka alɛ a la\'plaz/	Il va aller a la plage	He\'s going to the beach

French-based creole languages
In the Americas: Haitian Creole (kreyòl ayisyen) • Lanc-Patuá • Antillean Creole • Louisiana Creole (Kréyol La Lwizyàn) • French Guiana Creole In Africa: Seychellois Creole (Kreol) • Mauritian Creole • Réunion Creole In the Pacific: Tayo

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