Languages of the Caribbean
The languages of the Caribbean reflect the region's diverse history and culture. There are six official languages spoken in the Caribbean:
There are also a number of creoles and local patois. 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, 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.
Languages
Most languages spoken in the Caribbean are either European languages or European language-based creoles.Spanish-speakers are the most numerous in the Caribbean. English is the first or second language in most Caribbean islands and is also the unofficial "language of tourism", the dominant industry in the Caribbean region. In the Caribbean, the official language is usually determined by whichever colonial power held sway over the island first or longest.
English
The first permanent English colonies were founded at Saint Kitts and Barbados. 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% 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
The Caribbean English-speakers are 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 are Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Belize, and some islands off Central and South America.French
About one-quarter of West Indians speak French or a French-based creole. They live primarily in Guadeloupe and Martinique, both of which are overseas departments of France; Saint Barthélemy and the French portion of Saint Martin, both of which are overseas collectivities of France; the independent nation of Haiti ; and the independent nations of Dominica and Saint Lucia, which are both officially English-speaking but where the French-based Antillean Creole is widely used, and French to a lesser degree.Dutch
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 of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, a creole based on Portuguese and West African languages known as Papiamento is predominant, while in Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius, English, as well as a local English creole, are spoken. A Dutch creole known as Negerhollands 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.Other languages
Caribbean Hindustani
is a form of the Bhojpuri and Awadhi dialect of Hindustani spoken by descendants of the indentured laborers from India in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and other parts of the Caribbean.Indigenous languages
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 have been added to the list of endangered or extinct languages—for example, Arawak languages, Caribbean, Taruma, Atorada, Warrau, Arecuna, Akawaio and Patamona. Some of these languages are still spoken there by a few people.
Creole languages
are contact languages usually spoken in rather isolated colonies, the vocabulary of which is mainly taken from a European language. Creoles generally have no initial or final consonant clusters but have a simple syllable structure which consists of alternating consonants and vowels.A substantial proportion of the world's creole languages are to be found in the Caribbean and Africa, due partly to their multilingualism and their colonial past. The lexifiers of most of the Caribbean creoles and patois 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 that decreolization occurs and a post-creole continuum arises. For example, the Jamaican sociolinguistic situation has often been described in terms of this continuum. Papiamento, spoken on the so-called 'ABC' islands.
In Jamaica though generally English-speaking island, a patois, often called "patwa" drawing on a multitude of influences including Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arawak and African languages as well as Irish. In Barbados, a dialect often known as "bajan" have influences from West African languages that can be heard on a regular daily basis.
Contact between French- and English-lexified creoles is fairly common in the Lesser Antilles, and can also be observed on Dominica, Saint Vincent, Carriacou, Petite Martinique and Grenada.
Others
Asian languages such as Chinese and other Indian languages such as Tamil are spoken by Asian expatriates and their descendants exclusively. In earlier historical times, other Indo-European languages, such as Danish or German, could be found in northeastern parts of the Caribbean.Change and policy
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. Two examples are the Spanish 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 of English 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. Of particular importance in this respect are French and Dutch.
After gaining independence, many Caribbean countries, in the search for national unity, selected one 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.
Demographics
Of the 38 million West Indians, about 62% speak Spanish. 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 :
| Country/Territory | Population | Official language | Spoken languages |
| Anguilla | 11,430 | English | English, Anguillian Creole English, Spanish |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 66,970 | English | English, Antiguan Creole English, Spanish |
| Aruba | 103,400 | Dutch, Papiamento | Papiamento, Dutch, English, Spanish |
| Bahamas | 303,611 | English | English, Bahamian Creole, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Chinese |
| Barbados | 275,330 | English | English, Bajan Creole |
| 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 | 13000 | Spanish | Spanish |
| British Virgin Islands | 20,812 | English | English, Virgin Islands Creole English, Spanish |
| Cayman Islands | 40,900 | English | English, Cayman Creole English, Spanish |
| 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, Antillean Creole French, French, Haitian Creole |
| Federal Dependencies of Venezuela | 2,155 | Spanish | |
| Dominican Republic | 8,581,477 | Spanish | Spanish, Haitian Creole, English |
| Grenada | 89,227 | English | English, Grenadian Creole English, Antillean Creole French |
| Guadeloupe | 431,170 | French | French, Antillean Creole French, Spanish |
| Guyana | 747,884 | English | English, Guyanese Creole, Guyanese Hindustani, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Tamil, and the native languages: Akawaio, Macushi, Waiwai, Arawak, Patamona, Warrau, Carib, Wapishana, and Arekuna |
| Haiti | 6,964,549 | French, Creole | French, Haitian Creole |
| Isla Cozumel | 50,000 | Spanish | Spanish, English |
| Isla Mujeres | 12642 | Spanish | Spanish, English |
| Jamaica | 2,665,636 | English | English, Jamaican Patois, Spanish, Caribbean Hindustani, Irish, Chinese |
| Martinique | 418,454 | French | French, Antillean Creole French, Spanish |
| Montserrat | 7,574 | English | English, Montserrat Creole English |
| Nueva Esparta | 491,610 | 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 |
| Saint Martin | 27,000 | French | English, St. Martin Creole English, French, Antillean Creole French, Spanish, Haitian Creole |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 115,942 | English | English, Vincentian Creole English, Antillean Creole French |
| San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina | 75,167 | Spanish | |
| Sint Eustatius | 2,249 | Dutch | English, Statian Creole English, Dutch, Spanish |
| Sint Maarten | 41,718 | Dutch, English | English, St. Martin Creole English, Dutch, Papiamento, Antillean Creole French, Spanish, Haitian Creole |
| Suriname | 541,638 | Dutch | Dutch, Sranan Tongo, Sarnami Hindustani, 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, and Wayana |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1,169,682 | English | English, Trinidadian Creole, Tobagonian Creole, Trinidadian Hindustani, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Trinidadian French Creole, Yoruba |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | 36,132 | English | English, Turks and Caicos Creole English, Spanish, Haitian Creole |
| United States Virgin Islands | 108,000 | English | English, Virgin Islands Creole English, Danish, Spanish, Antillean Creole French |