Garifuna Language

Garifuna Language

Garifuna is a member of the Arawakan language family albeit an atypical one since, 1) it is spoken outside of the Arawakan language area which is confined to the northern parts of South America, and 2) because it contains an unusually high number of loanwords, from both Carib and a number of European languages, attesting to an extremely tumultuous past involving warfare, migration and colonization. The language was once confined to the Antillean island of St. Vincent but due to twists of fate its speakers landed on Mainland Honduras from where the language has since spread south to Nicaragua and north to Guatemala and Belize. In later years a large number of Garifuna people has settled in a great number of larger US cities, presumably as part of a more general pattern of north bound migration.

Since colonial times and until as recent as the latter half of the 20th Century the language was known to non-Garifuna communities as Carib or Black Carib and Igñeri.

Parts of Garifuna vocabulary are split between men's speech and women's speech, i.e. some concepts have two words to express them, one for women and one for men. Moreover, the terms used by men are generally loanwords from Carib while those used by women are Arawak.

The Garifuna language was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009 along with Garifuna music and dance.