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A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extent in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. French-based creole languages are spoken by millions of people worldwide, primarily in the Americas and in the Indian Ocean.

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]

Classification

In the Americas

• Varieties with progressive aspect marker ape^[2]
  • 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. Also the largest créole language in the world. 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, derived primarily from Haitian Creole.
• Varieties with progressive aspect marker ka^[3]
  • 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.
  • French Guiana Creole or French Guianese Creole is a language spoken in French Guiana, and to a lesser degree in Suriname and Guyana. It is closely related to Antillean Creole, but there are some noteworthy differences between the two.
  • 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.

In the Indian Ocean

• Varieties with progressive aspect marker ape^[4] - subsumed under a common classification as Bourbonnais Creoles
  • Mauritian Creole, spoken as the lingua franca (locally Mauricien)
  • Agalega Creole, spoken in Agalega
  • Chagossian Creole, spoken by the former population of the islands
  • Réunion Creole, spoken in Réunion
  • Rodriguan Creole, spoken on the island of Rodrigues
  • Seychellois Creole, also known as Seselwa, it is an official language as well as the lingua franca

In the Pacific

• Tayo, spoken in New Caledonia

In Africa

• Petit Mauresque or Little Moorish was spoken in North Africa
• Petit-Nègre was spoken in West Africa, especially in Côte d'Ivoire

Notes