French Guiana Creole is a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-lexified creole language

Creole language

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

 spoken in French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

, and to a lesser degree, in Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

 and Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

. It resembles Antillean Creole

Antillean Creole

Antillean Creole is a creole language with a vocabulary based on French. It is spoken primarily in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary also include elements of Carib and African languages. Antillean Creole is related to Haitian Creole, but has a number of distinctive features; they are...

, but there are some lexical and grammatical differences between them. Antilleans

French West Indies

The term French West Indies or French Antilles refers to the seven territories currently under French sovereignty in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: the two overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the two overseas collectivities of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, plus...

 can generally understand French Guiana Creole, though the notable differences between the créole of French Guiana and the créoles of the Caribbean may cause some instances of confusion. The diffences consist of more French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and Brazilian Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

 influences (due to the proximity of Brazil and Portuguese presence in the country for several years.) There are also words of Amerindian

Indigenous languages of the Americas

Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...

 and African

African languages

There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...

 origin. There are Guianese communities in Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

 and Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

 who continue to speak French Guiana Creole.

It should not be confused with the Guyanese Creole language

Guyanese Creole language

Guyanese Creole is an English-based creole language spoken by people in Guyana....

, based on English, spoken in nearby Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

.

Orthography and phonology

French Guiana Creole is largely written using the French alphabet

French alphabet

The French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.-Letter names:- Diacritics :...

, 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

CH

-Business:* Bemidji Airlines IATA code* Carolina Herrera, a fashion designer based in New York.-Entertainment and sports:* Channel * College Humor.com, a comedy website...

, 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

Standard French

Standard French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language...

. The letter 'j' (/ʒ) is pronounced /z/ instead. There is no /y/ sound either. This sound is pronounced /iː/ and written 'i'. Thus, the word 'usé' in standard French is written 'isé.' The diagraph /wɑ/ is pronounced /ɔ/: 'moi' (me) is pronounced /mɔ/. One should also note that French Guiana Creole is a non-rhotic language with no nasal vowel

Nasal vowel

A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...

s, 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 plaît	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 /esˈkuːzɛ mɔ/	Excusez-moi	Excuse me, pardon me
Lapli ka tombe /laˈpliː ka tomb/	Il pleut	Rain is falling
Jod-la a roun bel jou /zodˈla 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 ˈmanman/	Anne est ma mère	Anne is my mother
Andy a to frè /andi a tɔ frɛ/	Andy est ton frère	Andy is your brother
Li ka alé a laplaj /li ka alɛ a laˈplaz/	Il va aller à la plage	He's going to the beach
Mo pa mélé	Je m'en moque	I don't care