Indian Ocean French

Indian Ocean French (: Français de l'Océan Indien) is the variety of French used by the francophone citizens of the Republic of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands, alongside regional dialects or languages like Ammois, Polais, Crozetian and Ézais, amongst others. It is the official main language of the provinces of East Kerguelen, West Kerguelen, the Crozet Archipelago, Amsterdam Island and Saint-Paul Island, and is co-official with English in Port-aux-Français and Port-Australie in East Kerguelen and in La Grange in the province of Prince Edward Islands.

Indian Ocean French spelling and pronunciation differs from Parisian French in a variety of ways, although in general it should not be too hard for a Metropolitan French speaker to understand someone from the Southern Indian Ocean Islands, and vice versa. It belongs under the of Northern France.

Influences
Indian Ocean French is very similar to, despite having been formed separately. It differs from standard French in that it uses a different number system (see below), has a slightly different spelling, uses various English loanwords, and has an audible as well as written plural that does not always show in standard French.

Grammar
Grammar is not markedly different from standard French. The main difference lies in the past participle of "to be" (French: être), which in standard French is expressed as "avoir été", but is expressed as "être été".

Another main difference with standard French is the written and pronounced plural: where in standard French the plural "s" after words is often not pronounced, in Indian Ocean French it is pronounced consistently, also in cases where the end of the word is already an "-s", "-x" or "-z" (examples: "bus" becomes "búses", "nez" becomes "nézes"). Feminine and plural grammatical markers in past participles are also consistently used, as opposed to standard French exclusive utilisation of this grammatical structure after "être" conjunctions.

Nouns
Spelling of nouns is in accordance with standard French, with only two exceptions.

Where standard French words end with "-cain" or "-cien", Indian Ocean French word endings are written with "-quain" or "-quiain".

Examples:
 * républicain becomes républiquain
 * Américain becomes Amériquain
 * politicien becomes politiquiain
 * opticien becomes optiquiain.

Where standard French words ending on -s, -x or -z remain unchanged in plural form, Indian Ocean French adds -es in plural. If the word is monosyllabic, the vowel is given an accent aigu, as the pronunciation is slightly longer in plural.

Examples:
 * bus /by./ becomes búses /by:zəs/;
 * corps /kɔʀ/ becomes córpses /kɔ:ʀzəs/;
 * voix /vwa/ becomes vóixes /vwa:zəs/;
 * nez /ne/ becomes nézes /ne:zəs/.

Adjectives
Adjectives are conjugated according to standard French rules:


 * masc. sing. adjectives are unconjugated;
 * fem. sing. adjectives end in -e, unless the adjective already ends on -e itself;
 * masc. pl. adjectives end on -s, unless the adjective already ends on -s, in which case it becomes -es;
 * fem. pl. adjectives end on -es, unless the adjective already ends on -e, in which case it becomes -s.

Adjectives that end on -al or -el will end on -aux or -eaux after masc. pl. nouns.

Verbs
Verbs are spelled in accordance with standard French regulation, with the following exceptions:


 * past participle of "avoir", "eu", is spelled "u";
 * past participles used by or referring to a female end in -e;
 * past participles used by or referring to multiple people end in -s;
 * past participles used by or referring to multiple female people end in -es.

Examples:
 * 1st pers. masc. sing.: j'ai u
 * 2nd pers. fem. sing.: tu as ue
 * 2nd pers. pl.: vous avez us
 * 3rd pers. fem. pl.: elles avent ues.

Number system
The Indian Ocean French number system is influenced by the, and therefore counts numbers significantly differently from standard French.

Numbers from 1 to 100 are as follows: