Dominican Creole French

Dominican Creole
kwéyòl, patwa
Native to	Dominica
Native speakers	unknown (43,000 cited 1998)
Language family	French Creole Antillean Creole French Dominican Creole
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	51-AAC-ccg

Dominican Creole French is a French-based creole, which is the generally spoken language in Dominica.

History

It is a sub-variety of Antillean Creole, which is spoken in other islands of the Lesser Antilles and is very closely related to the varieties spoken in Martinique, Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago. The intelligibility rate with speakers of other varieties of Antillean Creole is almost 100%. Its syntactic, grammatical and lexical features are virtually identical to that of Martinican Creole, though, like its Saint Lucian counterpart, it includes more English loanwords than the Martinican variety. People who speak Haitian Creole can also understand Dominican Creole French, even though there are a number of distinctive features; they are mutually intelligible.

Like the other Caribbean Creoles, Dominican French Creole combines syntax of African and Carib origin with a primarily French-derived vocabulary. In addition, many expressions reflect the presence of an English Creole and Spanish influences are also present in the language..

See also

• Antillean Creole
• Grenadian Creole French
• Saint Lucian Creole French
• Haitian Creole
• World Creole Music Festival