Thelanguages of theCaribbean reflect the region's diverse history and culture. There are sixofficial languages spoken in the Caribbean:
There are also a number ofcreoles and localpatois. Dozens of the creole languages of the Caribbean are widely used informally among the general population. There are also a few additional smaller indigenous languages. Many of the indigenous languages have become extinct or are dying out.
At odds with the ever-growing desire for a single Caribbean community,[3] the linguistic diversity of a few Caribbean islands has made language policy an issue in the post-colonial era. In recent years, Caribbean islands have become aware of a linguistic inheritance of sorts. However, language policies being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism.
Most languages spoken in the Caribbean are either European languages (namely Spanish, English, French, and Dutch) or European language-based creoles.
Spanish speakers are the most numerous in the Caribbean by far, with over 25 million native speakers in theGreater Antilles . English is the first or second language in most of the smaller Caribbean islands and is also the unofficial lingua franca of tourism, the dominant industry in the Caribbean region. In the Caribbean, the official language is usually determined by whichever colonial power (England, Spain, France, or the Netherlands) held sway over the island first or longest.
The first permanent English colonies were founded atSaint Kitts (1624) andBarbados (1627). The English language is the third most established throughout the Caribbean; however, due to the relatively small populations of the English-speaking territories, only 14%[4] of West Indians are English speakers. English is the official language of about 18 Caribbean territories inhabited by about 6 million people, though most inhabitants of these islands may more properly be described as speaking English creoles rather than local varieties of standard English.
Spanish was introduced to the Caribbean with the voyages of discovery byChristopher Columbus in 1492. The Caribbean English-speakers are vastly outnumbered by Spanish speakers by a ratio of about four to one due to the high densities of populations on the larger, Spanish-speaking, islands; some 64% of West Indians speak Spanish. The countries that are included in this group areCuba, theDominican Republic,Puerto Rico and some islands off Central America (Cozumel,Isla Mujeres,San Andrés and Providencia,Corn Islands,The Bay Islands) and South America (Federal Dependencies of Venezuela andNueva Esparta).
About one-quarter of West Indians speak French or aFrench-based creole. They live primarily inGuadeloupe andMartinique, both of which areoverseas departments of France;Saint Barthélemy and the French portion ofSaint Martin, both of which areoverseas collectivities of France; the independent nation ofHaiti (where both French andHaitian Creole are official languages);[5][6] and the independent nations ofDominica andSaint Lucia, which are both officially English-speaking but where the French-basedAntillean Creole is widely used, especiallySaint Lucian Creole which is related toHaitian Creole and French to a lesser degree.French was the official language of Martinique whileMartinican Creole became a regional language as the island has European, French, Spanish, British, Indian (Tamil), Portuguese, Blacks (Africans), Martinicans, Caribs and many other ethnic groups.
Dutch is an official language of the Caribbean islands that remain under Dutch sovereignty. However, Dutch is not the dominant language on these islands. On the islands ofAruba,Curaçao andBonaire, a creole based on Portuguese, Spanish and West African languages known asPapiamento is predominant, while inSint Maarten,Saba andSint Eustatius, English, as well as a localEnglish creole, are spoken. A Dutch creole known asNegerhollands was spoken in the former Danish West Indian islands of Saint Thomas and Saint John, but is now extinct. Its last native speaker died in 1987.[7]
Caribbean Hindustani is a form of theBhojpuri andAwadhi dialect ofHindustani (Hindi-Urdu) spoken by descendants of theindentured laborers fromIndia inTrinidad and Tobago,Guyana,Suriname, and other parts of theCaribbean.[8]
Several languages spoken in the Caribbean belong to language groups concentrated or originating in the mainland countries bordering on the Caribbean: Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru.
Many indigenous languages (actually spoken with the mainland Caribbean rather than the islands) have been added to the list of endangered or extinct languages—for example,Arawak languages (Shebayo,Igñeri,Lokono,Garifuna of St. Vincent, and the one now labeledTaíno by scholars, once spoken in theGreater Antilles),Caribbean (Nepuyo and Yao),Taruma,Atorada,Warrau,Arecuna,Akawaio and Patamona. Some of these languages are still spoken there by a few people.[9][10]
Creoles are contact languages usually spoken in rather isolated colonies, the vocabulary of which is mainly taken from a European language (thelexifier).[11] Creoles generally have no initial or final consonant clusters but have a simple syllable structure which consists of alternating consonants and vowels (e.g. "CVCV").[12]
A substantial proportion of the world's creole languages are to be found in the Caribbean and Africa, due partly to theirmultilingualism and their colonial past. The lexifiers of most of the Caribbean creoles andpatois are languages of Indo-European colonizers of the era. Creole languages continue to evolve in the direction of European colonial languages to which they are related, so thatdecreolization occurs and a post-creole continuum arises. For example, the Jamaican sociolinguistic situation has often been described in terms of this continuum.[13] Papiamento, spoken on the so-called 'ABC' islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), shows traces of both indigenous languages and Spanish,[14] Portuguese, and Dutch lexicons.).
InJamaica, though generally an English-speaking island,a patois drawing on a multitude of influences including Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arawak, Irish and African languages is widely spoken. InBarbados, a dialect often known as "bajan" have influences from West African languages that can be heard on a regular daily basis.
InHaiti, a French-speaking island that also mixed between the French and West African languages to be based onHaitian Creole after the slaves won independence from France on 1 January 1804 that was once mixed between the white French settlers and African slaves that was imported fromAfrica to theNew World. Haiti became the firstLatin American country to gain independence and became the first black republic, the firstCaribbean nation and the second independent nation in theAmericas after theUnited States under the leadership ofJean-Jacques Dessalines.
Contact between the French and English-lexified creoles is fairly common in theLesser Antilles (apart from Dominica and Saint Lucia), and can also be observed on Trinidad, Saint Vincent, Carriacou, Petite Martinique and Grenada.[15]
InMartinique, which is now part of theFrench Republic, became part of theFrench Caribbean, the French are bound for the African coast where many captives were taken to the French colony of Martinique which began in 1635 after the discovery ofChristopher Columbus in 1502.Code Noir was published byJean-Baptiste Colbert, the French statesman and minister of theCompagnie des Îles de l'Amérique where Martinique was colonized by theFrance during the reign ofKing Louis XIV, theSun King. During theFrench colonization, many slaves are imported fromAfrica and sold in theAmericas, the French founded the port city ofFort-Royal (now Fort-de-France) in 1638 as it was titledThe Paris of the Caribbean or theFrench Pearl in the Caribbean. Martinique was changed six times between the masters ofBritain and France during theSeven Years' War, theFrench Revolution and theNapoleonic Wars untilNapoleon was defeated at theBattle of Waterloo during theWar of the Seventh Coalition where he was exiled and died inSaint Helena at the age of 51 on 5 May 1821.Slavery was finally abolished on 27 April 1848 in the French Caribbean which marks the end of a long painful harsh chapter of the Slave eras. Martinique commemorates emancipation with a national holiday on 22 May that declared as theAbolition Day. In 1851, Martinique was seeking to replace former African slave laborers who had abandoned plantation work on being given their liberty, recruited several thousand laborers from the Indian French colonial settlement of Pondichéry. They are primarily most concentrated in the northernTamil communes of Martinique, where the main plantations are located. A majority of the Indian community hails from Pondichéry and these immigrants brought them with theirHindu religion. Many Hindu temples are still in use in Martinique.French was the official language that was once used by the settlers andMartinican Creole that was also used by the African slaves are developed.
InSaint Lucia, it was colonised byFrance as part of theFrench Caribbean, followed by theBritish that became part of theBritish Caribbean, the official language of Saint Lucia wasEnglish whileSaint Lucian Creole French was also spoken, but was and still is related toHaitian Creole once the French had captured the slaves fromAfrica and sold in theAmericas. Saint Lucian Creole emerged as a form of communication between the African slaves and the French colonizers. It was each ruled seven times and at war which was 14 times between England and France after theSeven Years' War as well as theBattle of St. Lucia during theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1778. While theFrench Revolution broke out inParis in 1789, a revolutionary tribunal was sent to Saint Lucia, headed by Captain La Crosse. Following the declaration of theFrench Republic on 22 September 1792 and theExecution of Louis XVI on 21 January 1793, Britain declared war on France in the Caribbean until the French National Conventionabolished slavery on 4 February 1794. TheHaitian Revolution led by the former slaves includingJean-Jacques Dessalines andHenri Christophe while the other Haitian leaderToussaint Louverture was captured by the French in 1802 and died in France on 7 April 1803. TheBattle of Vertières led by the former slaves including Dessalines defeated the French and declared the colony ofSaint-Domingue independence on 1 January 1804 and renamed the countryAyiti meaning (Land of Mountains).Haiti became the world's first and oldest free black nation in the modern world, and the second oldest independent country in theAmericas after theUnited States. Saint Lucia gained independence from the United Kingdom on 22 February 1979, as the United States recognized Saint Lucia as a federated state of theBritish Commonwealth.
Asian languages such asChinese and otherIndian languages such asTamil are spoken by Asian expatriates and their descendants exclusively. In earlier historical times, other Indo-European languages, such as Danish or German,[16] could be found in northeastern parts of the Caribbean.
Throughout the long multilingual history of the Caribbean continent, Caribbean languages have been subject to phenomena like language contact, language expansion, language shift, and language death.[17] Two examples are theSpanish expansion, in which Spanish-speaking peoples expanded over most of central Caribbean, thereby displacing Arawak speaking peoples in much of the Caribbean, and the Creole expansion, in which Creole-speaking peoples expanded over several of islands. Another example is the English expansion in the 17th century, which led to the extension ofEnglish to much of the north and the east Caribbean.
Trade languages are another age-old phenomenon in the Caribbean linguistic landscape. Cultural and linguistic innovations that spread along trade routes, and languages of peoples dominant in trade, developed into languages of wider communication (linguae francae). Of particular importance in this respect areFrench (in the central and east Caribbean) andDutch (in the south and the east Caribbean).
After gaining independence, many Caribbean countries, in the search for national unity, selected one language (generally the former colonial language) to be used in government and education. In recent years, Caribbean countries have become increasingly convinced of the importance of linguistic diversity. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism.[18]
Of the 38 million West Indians (as of 2001),[19] about 62% speak Spanish (a west Caribbean lingua franca). About 25% speak French, about 15% speak English, and 5% speak Dutch. Spanish and English are important second languages: 24 million and 9 million speak them as second languages.
The following is a list of major Caribbean languages (by total number of speakers)[needs updating]:
| Country/Territory | Population | Official language | Spoken languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anguilla | 11,430 | English | English, Anguillian Creole English, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 66,970 | None | English,Antiguan and Barbudan Creole, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Aruba | 103,400 | Dutch, Papiamento | Papiamento, Dutch, English, Spanish |
| The Bahamas | 303,611 | English | English, Bahamian Creole, Haitian Creole (immigrants), Spanish, Chinese (immigrants) |
| Barbados | 275,330 | English | English,Bajan Creole, Spanish |
| Bay Islands,Honduras | 49,151 | Spanish | Spanish, English, Creole English, Garifuna |
| Bermuda | 63,503 | English | English, Bermudian Vernacular English, Portuguese |
| Bonaire | 14,230 | Dutch | Papiamento, Dutch, English, Spanish |
| Bocas del Toro Archipelago | 13,000 | Spanish | Spanish |
| British Virgin Islands | 20,812 | English | English, Virgin Islands Creole English, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Cayman Islands | 40,900 | English | English, Cayman Creole English, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Corn Islands | 7,429 | Spanish | Spanish, English |
| Cuba | 11,217,100 | Spanish | Spanish |
| Curaçao | 130,000 | Dutch, Papiamentu, English | Papiamento, Dutch, English, Spanish |
| Dominica | 70,786 | English | English,Dominican Creole French, French, Haitian Creole (immigrants), Spanish (immigrants) |
| Federal Dependencies of Venezuela | 2,155 | Spanish | Spanish |
| Dominican Republic | 11,532,151 | Spanish | Spanish, Haitian Creole (immigrants), English (immigrants) |
| Grenada | 89,227 | English | English, Grenadian Creole English, Antillean Creole French, Spanish, Andaluz |
| Guadeloupe | 431,170 | French | French, Antillean Creole French, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Guyana | 747,884 | English | English,Guyanese Creole,Guyanese Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu),Spanish,Portuguese,Chinese,Tamil, and the native languages:Akawaio,Macushi,Waiwai,Arawak,Patamona,Warrau,Carib,Wapishana, andArekuna |
| Haiti | 11,470,261 | French, Creole | French, Haitian Creole, Spanish |
| Isla Cozumel | 50,000 | Spanish | Spanish, English |
| Isla Mujeres | 12,642 | Spanish | Spanish, English |
| Jamaica | 2,665,636 | English | English,Jamaican Patois,Spanish,Caribbean Hindustani,Irish,Chinese,Portuguese,Arabic |
| Martinique | 418,454 | French | French, Martinican Creole French, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Montserrat | 7,574 | English | English, Montserrat Creole English |
| Nueva Esparta | 491,610 | Spanish | Spanish |
| Puerto Rico | 3,808,610 | Spanish, English | Spanish, English |
| Saba | 1,704 | Dutch | English, Saban Creole English, Dutch |
| Saint Barthelemy | 6,500 | French | French, French Creole, English |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | 38,756 | English | English, Saint Kitts and Nevis Creole English, Spanish |
| Saint Lucia | 158,178 | English | English,Saint Lucian Creole French, French, Spanish |
| Saint Martin | 27,000 | French | English, St. Martin Creole English, French, Antillean Creole French (immigrants), Spanish (immigrants), Haitian Creole (immigrants) |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 115,942 | English | English, Vincentian Creole English, Antillean Creole French, Spanish |
| San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina | 75,167 | Spanish | English, Spanish,San Andrés–Providencia Creole |
| Sint Eustatius | 2,249 | Dutch | English, Statian Creole English, Dutch, Spanish (immigrants) |
| Sint Maarten | 41,718 | Dutch, English | English, St. Martin Creole English, Dutch, Papiamento (immigrants), Antillean Creole French (immigrants), Spanish (immigrants), Haitian Creole (immigrants) |
| Suriname | 541,638 | Dutch | Dutch,Sranan Tongo,Sarnami Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu),Surinamese-Javanese,Ndyuka,Saramaccan,Chinese,English,Portuguese,French,Spanish, and the native languages:Akurio,Arawak-Lokono,Carib-Kari'nja,Mawayana,Sikiana-Kashuyana,Tiro-Tiriyó,Waiwai,Warao, andWayana |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1,169,682 | English | English,Trinidadian Creole,Tobagonian Creole,Trinidadian Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu),Spanish,Chinese,Arabic,Trinidadian French Creole,Yoruba |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | 36,132 | English | English, Turks and Caicos Creole English, Spanish, Haitian Creole (immigrants) |
| United States Virgin Islands | 108,000 | English | English, Virgin Islands Creole English, Danish (colonial), Spanish (immigrants), Antillean Creole French (immigrants) |
Some linguistic features are particularly common among languages spoken in the Caribbean, whereas others seem less common. Such shared traits probably are not due to a common origin of all Caribbean languages. Instead, some may be due tolanguage contact (resulting in borrowing) and specific idioms and phrases may be due to a similar cultural background.
Widespread syntactical structures include the common use of adjectival verbs for e.g.: "Hedirty the floor", the use of juxtaposition to show possession as in English Creole's "John book" instead of Standard English's "John's book", and the omission of the copula in structures such as "he sick" and "the boy reading". In Standard English, these examples would be rendered, "he seems/appears/is sick" and "the boy is reading".
Quite often, only one term is used for both animal and meat; the wordnama ornyama for animal/meat is particularly widespread in otherwise widely divergent Caribbean languages.
