A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koinéFrench extent in Paris, the French atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. Descendants of the non-creole colonial koiné are still spoken in Canada (mostly in Québec), the Prairies, Louisiana, Saint-Barthélemy (leeward portion of the island) and as isolates in other parts of the Americas.[1]
Haitian Creole or Kreyol ayisyen, is a language spoken primarily in Haiti. It is the largest French-derived language in the world, with a total of 12 million fluent speakers. French is its superstrate language, with numerous African languages and some indigenous Amerindian languages providing substrate input. Some words are also derived from English, and Spanish.
Louisiana Creole (Kréyol Lwizyàn), the Louisiana creole, spoken mainly by members of lower socio-economic ranks of society Creoles in Louisiana, whether Black or White.
Antillean Creole is a language spoken primarily in the French (and some of the English) Lesser Antilles, such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and many other smaller islands. Although all of the creoles spoken on these islands are considered to be the same language, there are noticeable differences between the dialects of each island. Notably, the Creole spoken in the Eastern (windward) part of the island Saint-Barthélemy is a Creole spoken exclusively by a white population of European descent, imported into the island from Saint-Christophe in 1648.
Karipúna, spoken in Brazil, mostly in Uaçá, the state of Amapá. It was developed by Amerindians in the Uaçá, with possible influences from immigrants from neighboring French Guiana and French territories of the Caribbean and with a recent lexical adstratum from Portuguese. Lanc-Patuá, spoken more widely in the state of Amapá, is a variety of the former, possibly the same language.
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