Languages of Bahamas
See language map.[See also SIL publications on the languages of Bahamas.]
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. 323,000. National or official language: English. 30 inhabited islands. Literacy rate: 95% (1990). Immigrant languages: Greek (800), Haitian (20,000). Deaf population: 16,451. Deaf institutions: 2. The number of individual languages listed for Bahamas is 3. Of those, 2 are living languages and 1 has no known speakers.
| Bahamas Creole English | [bah]
225,000 in Bahamas (1987). Also in United States.
Alternate names: Bahamian Creole English, Bahamian Dialect.
Dialects: Good comprehension of Sea Island Creole [gul]. Very similar to Sea Island Creole [gul] and Afro-Seminole [afs] of USA (Hancock 1980). Major differences with Sea Island are in phonology, a few words, regional expressions, grammatical differences (verbal markers). There is a spectrum of varieties from Standard USA English usage to creole (Todd and Hancock 1986).
Classification: Creole, English based, Atlantic, Eastern, Northern
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| English | [eng]
49,300 in Bahamas (2004).
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
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| Taino | [tnq]
Extinct. Ethnic populations also in Florida and New Jersey, USA; Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Cuba.
Classification: Arawakan, Maipuran, Northern Maipuran, Caribbean
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