French Guianese Creole

Not to be confused with the English-lexifed Guyanese Creole.
French Guianese Creole
Kriyòl gwiyannen,[1] kréyòl (gwiyanè) [2] [3] [4]
Native toFrench Guiana
Native speakers
134,000 (2019)[5]
French Creole
  • French Guianese Creole
Official status
Official language in
French Guiana
Language codes
ISO 639-3gcr
Glottologguia1246
Linguasphere51-AAC-cd (varieties: 51-AAC-cda to -cdd)
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French Guiana, where French Guianese Creole originates.
Interview
Interview of Marie-Annick Atticot at the États généraux du multilinguisme dans les outre-mer (december 2011).
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French Guianese Creole (Kriyòl; also called variously Guianan Creole, Guianese Creole in English and Créole guyanais in French) is a French-based creole language spoken in French Guiana, and to a lesser degree, in Suriname and Brazil. It resembles Antillean 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 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 French Guianese communities in Suriname and Brazil who continue to speak the language.

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

  1. ^ (in French) How to write French Guianese Creole in the language, with a lexicon of French Guianese words.
  2. ^ Honorien, Louis. 2009. "La Langue kréyol" in Langues de Guyane. Odile Renault-Lescure & Laurence Goury (eds). IRD Éditions: Marseille.
  3. ^ Armande-Lapierre, Odile & Annie Robinson. 2004. Zété kréyòl. Matoury: Ibis Rouge Éditions: Marseille.
  4. ^ Pfänder, Stefan. 2013. "Guyanais". in The Survey of Pidgin & Creole Languages, Volume II: Portuguese-based, Spanish-based, and French-based Languages . London: Oxford UP.
  5. ^ French Guianese Creole at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon