Creole languages are noted for their high degree of linguistic variation, especially in communities where they are in contact with superstrate languages, e.g. Guyana and Jamaica. It is generally accepted that, in such communities, there is a basilect which is the most extreme and archaic creole; the acrolect approximates the standard language and represents nearly complete decreolization; the mesolect is the intermediate variety. The levels I am describing are the basilect and mesolect; and unlike DeCamp 1971 and Bickerton 1975, I assume that both varieties are generated by the same grammar. Formal differences are surface manifestations.' Thompson 1961, Taylor 1971, and Bickerton 1974, 1981 posit an ordering T[ense-]M[odal-]A[spect] for the auxiliary notions in creole languages. Muysken 1981 also accepts the TMA ordering for creoles-and, following Woisetschlaeger 1977, says that a principle of universal grammar specifies that aspect is interpreted before mood, and mood before tense. Bickerton's analysis of Guyanese discusses only one item gu-which he considers to be a modal, and which indeed occurs after the past tense category. But the situation is much more complex than he indicates, since some forms with modal meaning occur before and after tense, and some aspectuals occur before certain modal items. I will illustrate here the complexity of the situation, and will show that some of the forms are best classified as copula verbs, complementizers, and adverbs. I conclude that an MTA ordering is superior to TMA.