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| French Guianese Creole | |
|---|---|
| Kriyòl gwiyannen,[1] kréyòl (gwiyanè)[2][3][4] | |
| Native to | French Guiana |
Native speakers | 134,000 (2019)[5] |
French Creole
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | French Guiana |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gcr |
| Glottolog | guia1246 |
| ELP | NE |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAC-cd (varieties:51-AAC-cda to -cdd) |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
French Guianese Creole (Kriyòl; also called variouslyGuianan Creole, Guianese Creole in English andCréole guyanais in French) is aFrench-basedcreole language spoken inFrench Guiana, and to a lesser degree, inSuriname andBrazil. It resemblesAntillean Creole, but there are some lexical and grammatical differences between them.Antilleans can generally understand French Guianese Creole, though there may be some instances of confusion. The differences consist of moreFrench and BrazilianPortuguese influences (due to the proximity of Brazil and Portuguese presence in the country for several years). There are also words ofAmerindian andAfrican origin. There are French Guianese communities inSuriname andBrazil who continue to speak the language.
It should not be confused with theGuyanese Creole language, based on English, spoken in nearbyGuyana.
French Guianese Creole was a language spoken betweenslaves andsettlers. 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 | /ʁi/ | douri | rice |
| dormir | /dɔʁ.miʁ/ | 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 |
French Guianese Creole is largely written using theFrench alphabet, 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".
| 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 |
