Languages in Belize

The remarkable thing about Belize apart from its famous Barrier Reef and Great Blue Hole, is that Belize is the only independent country in South America that employs English as its official language.  Although there are only about 5.6% of the population uses English as a mother tongue, 54% of the population can speak fluent English and about 26% can speak little English. Anyway, even if there are no English speakers in the country, English would still be the official language as Belize still officially a member of the Commonwealth of Nations which still recognizes Queen Elizabeth II as their figure-head monarch.

Although the  Spanish Conquistadores where always repelled by the early British settlers and was not able to control Belize even for a short time , the Spanish language still wormed its way to the Belizean culture. Around 1840s, a wave of Spanish mestizo refugees came to Belize and was welcomed. This group would become the ancestors of 46% of Belize’s population today who claims the Spanish language as their mother tongue.

Next to the Spanish language in terms of having the most natural speakers is the Kriol. About 37% of Belizeans were born to speak Kriol which evolved from English but the syntax were borrowed from various African languages but not entirely as traces of Miskito and Caliche could also be traced. There is however an ensuing debate among linguists that Kriol is either a language of its own or it’s just considered a dialect of English.

Being a former major center of the Maya Civilization, about 9% of the population can speak Kekchi, Mopan and Yucatec, all Mayan languages, still.