Kalinago language

Kalinago, sometimes called Island Carib, was an Arawakan language historically spoken by the Kalinago people across the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles from Guadeloupe to Grenada, developing from the Arawakan speech of the islands' earlier Igneri inhabitants that incoming Caribs adopted in the pre-Columbian era despite its Carib name. During the French colonial period, Carib men also spoke a distinct Cariban-derived pidgin among themselves, while women and general communication used the Arawakan language, an unusual gender-based speech division. The language died out by about 1920 due to population decline and colonial-era deportations; according to linguist Douglas Taylor, its last native speaker was Ma Gustave of Dominica, who died around 1918. An offshoot of Kalinago survives today as Garifuna in Central America.