LC
Saint Lucia
Summary
- Official Name
- Population
- 184,000
- Principal Languages
- English
- Literacy Rate
- 90% (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2018)
- International Conventions
- CPPDCE (2006), CSICH (2012), UNCRPD (2006), UNDRIP (2007)
- General References
- Carrington 1984
- Deaf Population
- 160–300
- Language Counts
- The number of established languages listed for Saint Lucia is 4. Of these, 3 are living and 1 is extinct. Of the living languages, 1 is indigenous and 2 are non-indigenous. Furthermore, 1 is institutional and 2 are developing. Also listed are 2 unestablished languages.
Languages
- American Sign Language ase
- Scattered. Users: 200 in Saint Lucia (Parks and Williams 2011). Estimated 160–300 deaf signers (Parks and Williams 2011), 0.1%–0.2% of the total population. Status: 5* (Developing). Alternate Names: ASL Classification: Sign language, Deaf community sign language
- English eng
- Users: 41,700 in Saint Lucia, all users. L1 users: 1,700 in Saint Lucia (2021 Joshua Project). L2 users: 40,000 (Crystal 2003a). Status: 1 (National). De facto national language. Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
- French fra
- Users: 2,910 in Saint Lucia (Beck et al 2018), L2 users. Status: Unestablished. Classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Rhaetian, Oïl, French
- Island Carib crb
- Widespread, extending to all the Windward Islands. Users: No known L1 speakers in Saint Lucia. Status: 10 (Extinct). Alternate Names: Igneri , Inyeri, Iñeri, Kalinago Classification: Maipurean, Northern, Maritime, Ta-Maipurean, Iñeri
- Lesser Antillean French Creole acf
- Widespread. Users: 131,000 in Saint Lucia (2016). Total users in all countries: 702,353. Status: 5* (Developing). De facto language of national identity. Alternate Names: Créole, French Creole, French-lexicon Creole, French-lexified Creole, Patois, Patwa Autonym: Kwéyòl Classification: Creole, French based
Languages by Status
English
[eng] 1 (National). De facto national language. 41,700 in Saint Lucia, all users. L1 users: 1,700 in Saint Lucia (2021 Joshua Project). L2 users: 40,000 (Crystal 2003a).
American Sign Language
[ase] 5* (Developing). 200 in Saint Lucia (Parks and Williams 2011). Estimated 160–300 deaf signers (Parks and Williams 2011), 0.1%–0.2% of the total population.
Lesser Antillean French Creole
[acf] 5* (Developing). De facto language of national identity. 131,000 in Saint Lucia (2016). Total users in all countries: 702,353.
Island Carib
[crb] 10 (Extinct). No known L1 speakers in Saint Lucia.
French
[fra] Unestablished. 2,910 in Saint Lucia (Beck et al 2018), L2 users.
Maps
Creole Languages of the Eastern Caribbean
Graphs
Language Vitality Profile
Full explanation
Language Status Profile
Full explanation