Garifuna is an Arawakan language that originated on the island of St. Vincent, but is now spoken in Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. The Garinagu (also known as Black Carib) number roughly 250, 000 with the majority living in Honduras.

I have seen many places where Garifuna is called a creole but this is not the case. While the Garifuna language does contain borrowings from English, French and Spanish, and of course Galibi, it is solidly an Arawakan language. In addition, only one word of African origin is in the Garifuna language, mutu meaning "person".

The Garifuna language is very very closely related to the Karifuna though there are differences, mainly in terms of pronunciation and stress but also sentence structure. In spite of these differences a person speaking and Karifuna and a person speaking Garifuna could understand each other without difficulty.

Pronunciation notes: In Garifuna most letters are sounded as in Spanish, except for "h" which is like it's English counterpart and "ü" which is a sound that is found in many indigenous South American languages but not in English. To produce this sound say the "oo" sound as in the word "pool" and then unround your lips while saying it.

WORDLIST

SOME GARIFUNA VERBS

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LINKS AND RESOURCES:

• Online Garifuna Lessons: Learn a bit of the Garifuna language! It also as a good list of Garifuna names as well as a comparison to the Karifuna language


• Women and the Ancestors: Black Carib Kinship and Ritual


• The Belizean Garifuna: Organization of Identity in an Ethnic Community in Central America


• Spirit of my Mother: (DVD) This video tells the story of Sonia, a Garifuna woman living in the United States, who returns home to Honduras at the request of her deceased mother.


• Spriit of my Mother: (WEBSITE) The website of the DVD above. Has many links about the Garifuna and even has some traditional Garifuna songs for you to download and listen.


• National Garifuna Council of Belize: an organization devoted to preserve and promote Garifuna culture.


• Garifuna Peoples of Honduras: An absolutely excellent website from Stanford University. Has video and music of the Garifuna culture as well as interviews with Garifuna community members.


• Garinagu.com: The largest Garifuna photo gallery. Has lots and lots of pictures relating to the Garifuna.


• Language Planning in a Trans-National Speech Community: A discussion about Garifuna language revitalization. (This is a .pdf file. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.)

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