Did You Know

There is only one island in the Caribbean.

Over 700 major islands, kind of hard to believe.

17.9000° N said:

There are six official languages in the Caribbean.

Most people know Spanish and English are major Caribbean languages, but many would be surprised that Dutch, French Creole, Haitian Creole and Papiamento (Portuguese Creole) are also officially recognized languages in the Caribbean.


Another interesting fact.

There are over 700 major islands in the Caribbean, the Bahamas has 2000 alone. But just 2% are inhabited.

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They forgot French, which is the official language of Saint Barth, St Martin, Marie Galante, Les Saintes, La Desirade, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, Haiti... where did that list come from?

Not from Wikipedia!

elgreaux said:

They forgot French, which is the official language of Saint Barth, St Martin, Marie Galante, Les Saintes, La Desirade, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, Haiti... where did that list come from?

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I came across a Forbes article a while back (I looked but can't find it), where this was mentioned, I was going by memory when I wrote the post, there was no mention of French alone. But I just looked on Wikipedia and I see that it's an and/or.

French Caribbean

The French Caribbean (or Francophone Caribbean) includes all the French-speaking countries in the region.[SUP][6][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP][SUP][8][/SUP] It can also refer to any area that exhibits a combination of French and Caribbean cultural influences in music, cuisine, style, architecture, and so on.[SUP][9][/SUP] The Francophone Caribbean is a part of the wider French America, which includes all the French-speaking countries in the Americas.
The term varies in meaning by its usage and frame of reference. It is not used much in France, unless the speaker wants to refer to every French dependency in the Caribbean region. The term's more ambiguous than the term "French West Indies", which refers specifically to the islands that are French overseas departments, which means they have overall the same laws and regulations as departments on the mainland of France. Collectivities can be included too.
The following Caribbean regions are predominantly French-speaking and/or French Creole-speaking:

• 
  French Republic
  • 
    French Guiana
  • 
    Guadeloupe
  • 
    Martinique
  • 
    Saint Barthélemy
  • 
    Saint Martin
• Sovereign state(s)
  • 
    Dominica*
  • 
    Haiti
  • 
    Saint Lucia*

It is not and/or.. French is the official language of all the places I listed.. a different version of French Creole is spoken in those places as well but not at all the same thing...

elgreaux said:

It is not and/or.. French is the official language of all the places I listed.. a different version of French Creole is spoken in those places as well but not at all the same thing...

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Need to notify Wikipedia elgreaux and set them straight.

crescentbeach said:

Need to notify Wikipedia elgreaux and set them straight.

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please note that Wikipedia is not always correct about anything, dubious facts quite frequently.

French is of course the official language of France, ergo the official language of the French overseas territories, which are part of France.The various versions of French Creole vary from island to island and are contact languages with native speakers for which French is the common denominator...





(The internet points out: There are 12 million fluent Creole speakers in the world and although it's derived from the French language, it's not French. Creole is Haiti's official language alongside French. ... The greatest difference in French and Creole is the grammar and conjugation of the verbs as well as the pluralization of nouns.)

Another thing the original list of island languages for St Barth that was omitted is patois.. a dialect of French that the early settlers of Saint Barth arrived with in the 17th century,, it is not Creole but an old form of French specific to the region they came from, like Provencal in Provence, Langue d'oc in Montpelier, Breton in Brittany, etc... it is interesting that 300 years later this patois still exists in St Barth but is dying out except in same very traditional families. It is also almost the same as Cajun, as some of the same settlers went to Acadia in Canada, and then to the Bayou, where it developed into Cajun, so the Saint Barths and the Cajuns are distant cousins as it were.. .and of course Portuguese should now be added to the list as well...

so for a tiny island of 9 sq miles we have French, Creole, Patois, English, Portuguese and most people who live in St Barth speak at least two of these... polyglots !

elgreaux said:

please note that Wikipedia is not always correct about anything, dubious facts quite frequently.

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A crowdsourced site that is edited at will by whomever wishes.

JEK said:

A crowdsourced site that is edited at will by whomever wishes.

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Readers beware!