French-based creole languages
A French creole, or French-based creole language, is a creole language (contact language with native speakers) for which French is the "lexifier". Most often this lexifier is not modern French but rather a 17th-century koiné of French from Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies. By the eighteenth century, Creole French was the first language of many people including those of European origin in the Caribbean. French-based creole languages today are spoken natively by millions of people worldwide, primarily in the Americas and on archipelagos throughout the Indian Ocean. This  article also contains information on French pidgin languages, contact languages that lack native speakers. These contact languages are not to be confused with contemporary (non-creole) French-language varieties spoken overseas in, for example, Canada (mostly in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritime Provinces), the Canadian Prairie provinces, Louisiana, and northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont). Haitian Creole is the most widely spoken French Creole language.