Abstract

A detailed diachronic study of the lexically French Cayenne Creole of French Guiana
reveals that the preverbal tense-aspect marker system differs significantly from the
system that Bickerton (1974, 1981) claims to be typical of creole languages. The study
also concludes that the system evolved significantly over more than a century. The
roles and evolution of two distinct irrealis markers over 150 years are examined, and
found to indicate an evolution of the marker system that began with the ‘nonpunctual’
marker and then added the ‘irrealis’ marker. Analysis of the ‘anterior’ marker shows
that this was the last to be added to the system. Despite occurring several generations
after the genesis of the creole, the evolutionary trends in the predicate marker system
clearly indicate that the system as it is today bears little resemblance to the way the first
speakers of Cayenne Creole marked tense and aspect.

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