Kalinago language

The Kalinago language, also known as Island Carib and Igneri (Iñeri, Inyeri, etc.), was an Arawakan language historically spoken by the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. Kalinago proper became extinct by about 1920 due to population decline and colonial period deportations resulting in language death, but an offshoot survives as Garifuna in Central America.

Despite being known as Island Carib, the language was not closely related to the Carib language of the mainland Caribs. Instead, it appears to have been a development of the Arawakan language spoken by the islands' earlier Igneri inhabitants, which incoming Caribs adopted in the pre-Columbian era. During the French colonial period, Carib men also spoke a Cariban-derived pidgin amongst themselves.

History

At the time of European contact, the Kalinago lived throughout the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, from Guadeloupe to Grenada. Contemporary traditions indicated the Kalinago were related to the Kalina people (mainland Caribs) of South America and had conquered these islands from their previous inhabitants, the Igneri. As such the Kalinago were also known as Caribs or Island Caribs, and it was long assumed that they spoke Carib or a related Cariban language. However, studies in the 20th century determined that the language of the Antillean Caribs was not Cariban, but Arawakan, related to the Lokono language on the South American mainland and more distantly to the Taíno language of the Greater Antilles.

Modern scholars have proposed several hypotheses accounting for the prevalence of an Arawakan language among the Kalinago.