Miskito Coast Creole is an English-based creole language spoken in coastal Honduran and Nicaraguan regions of Mosquito Coast on the Caribbean Sea; its approximately 100,000 speakers are spread over the Gracias a Dios Department of Honduras and RACCN and RACCS regions of Nicaragua. Mosquito is the nickname that is given to the region and earlier residents by early Europeans who visited and settled in the area. The term "Miskito" is now more commonly used to refer to both the people and the language.
Most of the creole speakers are located along the banks of the large rivers and lagoons that surround the area. Inland, the language is spoken in the "mining triangle" which compromises Siuna, Bonanza and Rosita on the Prinzapolka River. On the Pacific coast, there are small numbers of speakers in Corinto, Puerto Sandino, and the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. A smaller portion of the population stays in large towns along the northern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, as well as other neighboring Central American countries.
! Location
! Number of speakers
|-
|Bluefields
|11,258
|-
|Corn Islands
|3,030
|-
|Pearl Lagoon
|1,285
|-
|Bilwi
|1,733
|-
|Other locations
|8,417
|-
|Total
|25,723
|}
History
African slaves were shipwrecked on the Mosquito Coast as early as 1640, which started the interaction between them and the local Miskito population.
17th to 19th centuries
The modern-day Creoles' ancestors came as escapees from shipwrecked slave ships to the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast from Africa between the 17th and the late 18th centuries. The escapees went to the jungles and soon formed relations with the local Indigenous tribes and intermarried. The Coast was officially under British protection from 1740 to 1787 according to the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance with the Miskito Kingdom and remained under British influence until the late 19th century.
While they were here, the African population renewed and transformed its culture and traits by taking elements of its African culture and mixing it with European culture along with the local Indian tribes which created a new culture. The Creole people have now become a minority in the areas in which they had previously predominated. Many Creoles now speak mostly Spanish as well as creole and consider themselves to be only Nicaraguan. There are many Creoles who have now intermarried with mestizos even though many Creoles still protest on how they lost their political and economic power to the mestizos.
Culture and identification
The Creoles of Nicaragua are said to be an Afro-Caribbean population that are mixed with Europeans, Africans and Amerindians.
Language details
The Nicaraguan Creole English language is spoken as a primary first language by only 35,000 to 50,000 Creoles, Nicaraguan Garifuna, and some Miskitos. The language is being quickly replaced with Spanish with fewer and fewer people speaking it.