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The major languages spoken in Belize include English, Spanish and Kriol, all three spoken by more than 40% of the population. Mayan languages are also spoken in certain areas, as well as German. [1] English is the official language and the primary language of public education, though spoken natively by a minority of people as a first language.
According to the 2000 census, Belize has 106,795 Hispanic people. In this figure can be added another 21,848 people who can speak Spanish as second language. In total, there are 128,243 people who speak Spanish in Belize. Although English is the official language, Spanish is spoken by the majority of Belize's population. [14]
Over generations the language developed into a creole, being a language used as some people's mother tongue language. [2] Belizean Creoles are people of Afro-European origin. [3] While it is difficult to estimate the exact number of Belizean Creole speakers, it is estimated that there are more than 70,000 in Belize who speak the
Although only 5.6% of the population speaks it as the main language at home, 54% can speak it very well, and another 26% can speak some English. 37% of Belizeans consider their primary language to be Kriol, an English-based creole of words and syntax from various African languages (namely Akan, Igbo, and Twi), [17] and other languages (Miskito ...
While English is the only official language of Belize, Spanish is the common language of majority (62.8%), wherein 174,000 (52.9% of Belizeans) speak some variety of Spanish as a native language. Belizeans of Guatemalan, Honduran, Mexican (including Mexican Mennonites), Nicaraguan, Salvadoran (including Salvadoran Mennonites), and even Cuban ...
However, in the younger generations, elders of the community have raised concerns for the decline in pride for speaking their native language. Belize was colonized by the British, so the official language is English. [145] Belizeans, ethnically Creole, speak English Creole as their native language.
The largest proportion of the lexicon unique to Belizean English is thought to name local flora, fauna, and cuisine. [7] Notably, the most significant donor language to this portion of Belizean English lexicon is thought to be the Miskito language, not Mayan languages, 'as might be expected.' [9] Other donor languages include Mayan languages, African languages (via Jamaican English), and ...
Belizeans are people associated with the country of Belize through citizenship or descent. Belize is a multiethnic country with residents of Ethnic groups of Amerindian , African , European , Asian and Middle-eastern descent or mixed race with any combination of those groups.