The Carib languages are an indigenous language family of South America. Carib languages are widespread across northern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the ColombianAndes. The 29 living Carib languages are divided into a northern branch (21 languages) and a southern branch (8 languages).
Carib-speaking peoples occupied the Lesser Antilles several hundred years ago, killing, displacing, or forcibly assimilating the Arawakan peoples who inhabited the islands. Island Carib, an extinct language spoken on the Lesser Antilles until the 1920's, is classified as an Arawakan language, as is Garífuna, a language of Honduras also known as Caribe or Black Carib.
Cariblanguages are widespread across northern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes and from Maracaibo ( Venezuela) to Central Brazil.
Cariban languages are relatively close to each other; in some cases, it is difficult to decide whether different groups speak different languages or dialects of the same language.
Thus the language is called Island Carib, though it is not part of the Carib linguistic family.
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