THE CREOLE LANGUAGES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AN APPROACH TO THEIR ORIGINS AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATIONS

The article presents a general description of the sociolinguistic situation of the Creole languages spoken in the Caribbean. With this objective in mind, the text is organized as follows: first, it explains the concept of Creole Language; second, it discusses how said languages are classified in the Caribbean region; third, it examines the different forms of emergence of these languages in the Caribbean; and, finally, it shows the sociolinguistic situations of various Caribbean countries. The article concludes with the proposal that the Caribbean is a multi-lingual region in which linguistic contact has produced, in very different ways, diverse Creole languages, and in which there are different relations among the languages that co-exist there. Therefore, the text’s objective is to expand the view regarding Creole languages and improve the linguistic understanding of the Caribbean.