English is the official language. Many of the locals speak Antiguan Creole. The Barbudan accent is slightly different from the Antiguan.
In the years before Antigua and Barbuda's independence, Standard English was widely spoken in preference to Antiguan Creole, but afterwards Antiguans began treating Antiguan Creole as a respectable aspect of their culture. Generally, the upper and middle classes shun Antiguan Creole. The educational system dissuades the use of Antiguan Creole and instruction is done in Standard (British) English.
Many of the words used in the Antiguan dialect are derived from British as well as African languages. This can be easily seen in phrases such as: "Me nah go" meaning "I am not going". Another example is: "Ent it?" meaning "Ain't it?" which is itself dialectal and means "Isn't it?". Common island proverbs can often be traced to Africa.
Spanish is spoken by around 10,000 inhabitants.[10]
Bahamas
The official language of the Bahamas is English. Many residents speak the Bahamian dialect.[61] According to 1995 estimates 98.2% of the adult population is literate.
Barbados
English is the official language of Barbados, and is used for communications, administration, and public services all over the island. In its capacity as the official language of the country, the standard of English tends to conform to the vocabulary, pronunciations, spellings, and conventions akin to, but not exactly the same as, those of British English.
A regional variant of English referred to locally as Bajan is spoken by most Barbadians in everyday life especially in informal settings.[3] In its full-fledged form, Bajan sounds markedly different from the Standard English heard on the island. The degree of intelligibility between Bajan and general English depends on the level of creolised vocabulary and idioms. A Bajan speaker may be completely unintelligible to an English speaker from another country. Bajan is influenced by other Caribbean English dialects.
There was no known indigenous language on Barbados.
Belize
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Cuba
See also: Cuban Spanish
Spanish
is the official language of Cuba. Of all the regional variations of
Spanish, Cuban Spanish is most similar to, and originates largely from,
the dialect spoken in the Canary Islands. This is a consequence of Canarian migration, which in the 19th and early 20th century was heavy and continuous. There were also migrations of Galicians and Asturians as well, but they did not impact Cuban Spanish to the same degree.Much of the typical Cuban replacements for standard Spanish vocabulary stems from Canarian lexicon. For example, guagua (bus) differs from standard Spanish autobús the former originated in the Canaries and is an onomatopoeia stemming from the sound of a Klaxon horn (wah-wah!). An example of Canarian usage for a Spanish word is the verb fajarse [16] ("to fight"). In standard Spanish the verb would be pelearse, while fajar exists as a non-reflexive verb related to the hemming of a skirt. Other languages of Cuba are Cuban Sign Language, Lucumi and Haitian Creole, the latter spoken by Haitian immigrants. Historically, the Ciboney and Classic dialects of Taino and the unattested Guanahatabey were spoken. English is commonly studied as a foreign language. Dominica English is the official language and universally understood; however, because of historic French domination, Antillean Creole, a French-lexified creole language, is also widely spoken. Dominican Republic Spanish, Samaná English, Dominican Sign Language extinct: Taino, Macorix, Ciguayo El Salvador Spanish is the language spoken by virtually all inhabitants. Spanish (official), Salvadoran Sign Language, Pipil (Nawat) , Kekchí. Immigrant languages include Chinese, Turkish, Poqomam, and American Sign Language.[15] GrenadaThe Grenadian creoles originally influenced by French, now contain elements from a variety of Grenadian Creole and a little of the African languages. Grenadian Creole French is mainly spoken in smaller rural areas, but today it can only be heard in a few small pockets of the society. Grenadian Creole French is mainly known as Patois and may have similarities to the St. Lucian Kwéyòl. It is believed that the one-time native or indigenous languages were Iñeri and Karina. Guatemala
Haiti Taíno was the major pre-Columbian language in the region now known as Haiti. One of the country's official languages is Haitian Creole, a French-based creole with African, Spanish, Portuguese, English and Taíno influences. French is the other official language. Spanish, though not official, is spoken by a growing amount of the population, and is spoken more frequently near the border with the Dominican Republic. English is increasingly spoken among the young and in the business sector.[citation needed] Honduras LanguagesSpanish, Honduran Sign Language, Garifuna, Bay Islands Creole English, Mískito, Sumu, Pech, Jicaque, Ch’orti’, Lenca (extinct).Jamaica English (official), Jamaican Patois, Jamaican Sign Language, Jamaican Country Sign Language, Levantine Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish. Also includes Mandarin Chinese and Kromanti.[5] Mexico
Panama
Saint Kitts and Nevis English is the country's official language, but the main spoken language is Saint Kitts Creole English.[6] Saint Lucia The official language is English.[9][10] Saint Lucian Creole French (Kwéyòl), which is colloquially referred to as "Patwah" (Patois), is spoken by 95% of the population.[11] This Antillean Creole is used in literature and music, and is gaining official acknowledgement.[11] As it developed during the early period of French colonisation, the creole is derived chiefly from French and West African languages, with some vocabulary from Carib and other sources. Saint Lucia is a member of La Francophonie.[12] Saint Vincent and the Grenadines While the official language is English most Vincentians speak Vincentian Creole.[9] English is used in education, government, religion, and other formal domains, while Creole (or "dialect" as it is referred to locally) is used in informal situations such as in the home and among friends.[10] Trinidad and Tobago English is the country's official language (the local variety of standard English is Trinidadian English or more properly, Trinidad and Tobago Standard English, abbreviated as "TTSE"), but the main spoken language is either of two English-based creole languages (Trinidadian Creole or Tobagonian Creole), which reflects the Amerindian, European, African, and Asian heritage of the nation. Both creoles contain elements from a variety of African languages; Trinidadian English Creole, however, is also influenced by French and French Creole (Patois).[58] Spanish is estimated to be spoken by around 5% of the population[59] and has been promoted by recent governments as a "first foreign language". Some of the early Indian arrivals to the island speak Bhojpuri, though native speakers of the language decreased over time. Currently very few residents of Indian background continue to speak languages from their ancestral homelands. Attempts are being made to preserve the Bhojpuri language in the country, including the promotion of an Indo-Trinidadian musical form called Pichakaree, which is typically sung in a mixture of English, Hindi and Bhojpuri. The indigenous languages were Yao on Trinidad and Karina on Tobago, both Cariban, and Shebaya on Trinidad, which was Arawakan. United States Aruba There are many languages spoken on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The official language is Dutch and schools require students to learn both English and Spanish. French and, to a lesser extent, Portuguese are also spoken on the island. According to the Government of Aruba the mother tongue and primary vernacular of almost all Arubans is a local language known as Papiamento.[1] an Afro-Portuguese Creole. Dutch has been the official language of the island for years as the island is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Aruba has recognized English as an international language, and has required that children learn English as early as the 4th grade. Since May 2003 Papiamento has also been officially declared as the official language, alongside Dutch. Aruba's location off the coast of South America has also made Spanish extremely important. Students begin learning this as early as 5th grade. Papiamento is a language with roots mainly from Portuguese, and to a lesser extent, from Dutch, Spanish and English. It originated in the 16th century as a means of communication among slaves and slave drivers. Papiamento was not considered important on Aruba until 1995. It was officially included in school curriculum in 1998 and 1999. Since then, the island has embraced the native language of Papiamento. A Papiamento dictionary and fairy tales written in Papiamento are now readily available on the island. The official language of the Cayman Islands is English. Islanders' accents retain elements passed down from English, Scottish, and Welsh settlers (among others) in a language variety known as Cayman Creole. Caymanians of Jamaican origin speak in their own vernacular (see Jamaican Creole and Jamaican English). It is also quite commonplace to hear some residents converse in Spanish as many citizens have relocated from Latin America to work and live on Grand Cayman. The Latin American nations with greatest representation are Honduras, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Spanish speakers comprise approximately between 10-12% of the population and is predominantly of Central American dialect. Filipino or Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines, is spoken by about 5% of inhabitants most of whom are residents on work permits. Curaçao is a polyglot society. The official languages are Dutch, Papiamentu, and English.[1] However, Dutch is the sole language for all administration and legal matters.[60] Most of Curaçao's population is able to converse in at least two of the languages of Papiamentu, Dutch, English, and Spanish. The most widely spoken language is Papiamentu, a Portuguese creole spoken in all levels of society. Papiamentu was introduced as a language of primary school education in 1993, making Curaçao one of a handful of places where a creole language is used as a medium to acquire basic literacy.[61] Spanish and English also have a long historical presence in Curaçao. Spanish became an important language in the 18th century due to the close economic ties with Spanish colonies in what are now Venezuela and Colombia.[20] Use of English dates to the early 19th century, when the British took Curaçao and Bonaire. When Dutch rule resumed in 1815, officials already noted wide use of the language.[20] According to the 2001 census, Papiamentu is the first language of 81.2% of the population. Dutch is the first language of 8% of the population. Spanish is the first language of 4% of the population, and English is the first language of 2.9%.[62] However, these numbers divide the population in terms of first language and do not account for the high rate of bilingualism in the population of Curaçao. The only official language of Greenland is Kalaallisut (or Greenlandic).[6] The number of speakers of Kalaallisut is estimated at 50,000 (85-90% of the total population), divided in three main dialects, Kalaallisut (West-Greenlandic, 44,000 speakers and the dialect that is used as official language), Tunumiit (East-Greenlandic, 3,000 speakers) and Inuktun (North-Greenlandic, 800 speakers). The remainder of the population mainly speaks Danish; Greenlandic Sign Language is the language of the deaf community. The population of Guadeloupe is mainly of African or mixed descent. It is largely Roman Catholic, speaking French and a Creole patois (Antillean Creole). There are also Europeans, Indians, Lebanese, Syrians, Chinese, and Iñeri Amerindians (remnants of the original pre-European population). The archipelago of Îles des Saintes is mostly populated by the descendants of colonists from Brittany and Normandy.[19] The official language is French. Many Martinicans speak Martiniquan Creole, a subdivision of Antillean Creole that is virtually identical to the varieties spoken in neighboring English-speaking islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica. Martiniquan Creole is based on French, Carib and African languages with elements of English, Spanish, and Portuguese. It continues to be used in oral storytelling traditions and other forms of speech and to a lesser extent in writing. Use of Creole is predominant among friends and close family. Though it is normally not used in professional situations, members of the media and politicians have begun to use it more frequently as a way to redeem national identity and prevent cultural assimilation by mainland France. Indeed, unlike other varieties of French creole such as Mauritian Creole, Martinican Creole is not readily understood by speakers of Standard French due to significant differences in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and pronunciation, though over the years it has progressively adapted features of Standard French. The official languages[222] of the executive branch of government of Puerto Rico[223] were Spanish and English, with Spanish being the primary language. Spanish is, and has been, the only official language of the entire Commonwealth judiciary system, despite a 1902 English-only language law.[224] All official business of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is conducted in English. English is spoken by a small minority – less than 10% of the population. Spanish is the dominant language of business, education and daily life on the island, spoken by over 95% of the population.[225] Public school instruction in Puerto Rico is conducted almost entirely in Spanish. There are pilot programs in about a dozen of the over 1,400 public schools aimed at conducting instruction in English only.[226] English is taught as a second language and is a compulsory subject from elementary levels to high school. The languages of the deaf community are American Sign Language and its local variant, Puerto Rican Sign Language. The Spanish of Puerto Rico has evolved into having many idiosyncrasies in vocabulary and syntax that differentiate it from the Spanish spoken elsewhere. While the Spanish spoken in all Iberian, Mediterranean and Atlantic Spanish Maritime Provinces was brought to the island over the centuries, the most profound regional influence on the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico has been from that spoken in the present-day Canary Islands. The Spanish of Puerto Rico also includes occasional Taíno words, typically in the context of vegetation, natural phenomena or primitive musical instruments. Similarly, words attributed to primarily West African languages were adopted in the contexts of foods, music or dances, particularly in coastal towns with concentrations of descendants of Sub-Saharan Africans. According to a study by the University of Puerto Rico, nine of every ten Puerto Ricans residing in Puerto Rico do not speak English at an advanced level.[227] More recently, according to the 2005–2009 Population and Housing Narrative Profile for Puerto Rico, among people at least five years old living in Puerto Rico in 2005–2009, 95 percent spoke a language other than English at home. Of those speaking a language other than English at home, 100 percent spoke Spanish and less than 0.5 percent spoke some other language; 85 percent reported that they did not speak English "very well."[228] Spanish became the official language of the island in 2015. According to the January 2011 population estimates, St. Barthélemy had 9,035 inhabitants.[3] Residents of Saint-Barthélemy (Saint-Barthélemoise people) are French citizens and work at establishments on the island. Most of them are descendants of the first settlers, of Breton, Norman, Poitevin, Saintongeais and Angevin lineage. French is the native tongue of the population. English is understood in hotels and restaurants, and a small population of Anglophones has been resident in Gustavia for many years. The St. Barthélemy French patois is spoken by some 500–700 people in the leeward portion of the island and is superficially related to Quebec French,[25][26][27] whereas Créole French is limited to the windward side. Unlike other populations in the Caribbean, language preference between the Créole and Patois is geographically, and not racially, determined.[28][page needed] The inhabitants speak French; their customs and traditions are similar to the ones found in metropolitan France.[26] The French spoken on the archipelago is closer to metropolitan French than to Canadian French, while maintaining a number of unique features.[51] Basque, formerly spoken in private settings by people of Basque ancestry, disappeared from the island by the late 1950s.[52] Both English and Dutch are spoken on the island and taught in schools, and both languages are official. Despite the island's Dutch affiliation, English is the principal language spoken on the island and has been used in its school system since the 19th century. English can therefore be used in communications of and to the government.[2] Saba English, a form of Virgin Islands Creole English, is the local vernacular. The official language of the islands is English and the population also speaks Turks and Caicos Islands Creole[52] which is similar to Bahamian Creole.[53] Due to its close proximity to Cuba and Hispaniola, large Haitian Creole and Spanish-speaking communities have developed in the territory due to immigration, both legal and illegal, from Creole-speaking Haiti and from Spanish-speaking Cuba and Dominican Republic.[54] The official language is English. Virgin Islands Creole, an English-based creole locally known as "dialect", is spoken in informal situations. The Virgin Islands Creole spoken on St. Croix, known as Crucian, is slightly different from that spoken on St. Thomas and St. John. Because the U.S. Virgin Islands are home to thousands of immigrants from across the Caribbean, Spanish and various French creole languages are also widely spoken. As of the 2000 census, 25.3% of persons over the age of five speak a language other than English at home. Spanish is spoken by 16.8% of the population and French is spoken by 6.6%.[33][34] Danish, once the language of administration and a handful of inhabitants for over a century and a half, virtually ceased to be spoken once Denmark sold the islands in 1916, although place names and surnames from the union age of Denmark-Norway among natives still remain. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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