Garifuna language
Encyclopedia
Garifuna is an Arawakan language spoken in Honduras
, Guatemala
, and Belize
by the Garifuna people. The language is also spoken to a lesser extent in Nicaragua's
Mosquito Coast
. Historically it was referred to as Carib or Black Carib and Igñeri by Europeans. Garifuna has a vocabulary split between terms used only by men and terms used only by women. This does not however affect the entire vocabulary but when it does, the terms used by men generally come from Carib
and those used by women come from Arawak
. It was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
in 2009 along with Garifuna music
and dance.
, especially in Honduras
(about 98,000 speakers), but also in Guatemala
(about 16,700 speakers), Belize
(about 16,100 speakers), Nicaragua
(about 1,500 speakers), and within the USA, particularly New York City
.
The Carib people, who gave their name to the Caribbean, once lived throughout the Lesser Antilles
, and although their language is now extinct
there, ethnic Caribs still live on Dominica
, Trinidad
, Saint Lucia
, and Saint Vincent
. The Caribs had conquered the previous population of the islands, Arawakan peoples like the Taino
and Palikur
. During the conquest, which was conducted primarily by men, the Carib married Arawakan women. Children were raised by their mothers speaking Arawak, but as boys came of age, their fathers taught them Carib
, a language still spoken in mainland South America. When European missionaries described the Island Carib people in the seventeenth century, they recorded two unrelated languages—Carib spoken by the men and Arawak spoken by the women. However, while the boys acquired Carib vocabulary, after a few generations they retained the Arawakan grammar of their first language. Thus Island Carib
as spoken by the men was genetically either a mixed language
or a relexified language. Over the generations, men substituted fewer Arawak words, and many Carib words diffused to the women, so that the amount of distinctly male vocabulary diminished, until both genders spoke Arawak with an infusion of Carib vocabulary and distinct words in only a handful of cases.
During the colonial era, escaped slaves
of Africa
n origin joined Island Carib society and acquired the language. As the race of the people changed, the language and people came to be known as Black Carib. Many of these people were transferred by the British from Saint Vincent to islands in the Bay of Honduras in 1796.
Apart from that, there also some few words from African languages
.
There remains, however, a diglossic distinction in the grammatical gender
of many inanimate nouns, with abstract words generally being considered grammatically feminine by men, and grammatically masculine by women. Thus the word wéyu may mean either concrete "sun" or abstract "day"; with the meaning of "day", most men use feminine agreement, at least in conservative speech, while women use masculine agreement. The equivalent of the abstract impersonal pronoun in phrases like "it is necessary" is also masculine for women, but feminine in conservative male speech.
s, Garifuna distinguishes masculine
and feminine
gender
:
The forms au and amürü are of Cariban
origin, the others are of Arawakan origin.
ing. For example:
The plural of Garífuna is Garínagu.
on nouns is expressed by personal
prefix
es:
, the grammatical categories tense
, aspect, mode, negation
, and person
(both subject
and object
) are expressed by means of affix
es, partly supported by particles.
The paradigms of conjugation
are very numerous.
continuous tense
:
The conjugation of the verb alîha "to read" in the simple present tense:
There are also some irregular verbs.
system, which in today's Standard French
is only apparent at "80":
s.
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
by the Garifuna people. The language is also spoken to a lesser extent in Nicaragua's
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
Mosquito Coast
Mosquito Coast
The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras, and part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskito Indians and long dominated by British interests...
. Historically it was referred to as Carib or Black Carib and Igñeri by Europeans. Garifuna has a vocabulary split between terms used only by men and terms used only by women. This does not however affect the entire vocabulary but when it does, the terms used by men generally come from Carib
Carib language
Carib, also known as Caribe, Cariña, Galibi, Galibí, Kali'na, Kalihna, Kalinya, Galibi Carib, Maraworno and Marworno, is an Amerindian language in the Cariban language family....
and those used by women come from Arawak
Arawakan languages
Macro-Arawakan is a proposed language family of South America and the Caribbean based on the Arawakan languages. Sometimes the proposal is called Arawakan, in which case the central family is called Maipurean....
. It was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness on intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and the local people who sustain these forms of cultural...
in 2009 along with Garifuna music
Garifuna music
Garifuna music is quite different from the music of the rest of Central America. The most famous form is punta. Its associated musical style, which has the dancers move their hips from right to left in a circular motion...
and dance.
Where spoken
Garifuna is spoken in Central AmericaCentral America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, especially in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
(about 98,000 speakers), but also in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
(about 16,700 speakers), Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
(about 16,100 speakers), Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
(about 1,500 speakers), and within the USA, particularly New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
History
Garifuna traces its history through Carib, Arawakan, and African peoples.The Carib people, who gave their name to the Caribbean, once lived throughout the Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...
, and although their language is now extinct
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
there, ethnic Caribs still live on Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
, and Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent (island)
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains...
. The Caribs had conquered the previous population of the islands, Arawakan peoples like the Taino
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...
and Palikur
Palikur
The Palikur are an Arawak-speaking clan society located in the riverine areas of the Brazilian state of Amapá and the eastern border area of French Guiana, on the left bank of the Oyapock...
. During the conquest, which was conducted primarily by men, the Carib married Arawakan women. Children were raised by their mothers speaking Arawak, but as boys came of age, their fathers taught them Carib
Carib language
Carib, also known as Caribe, Cariña, Galibi, Galibí, Kali'na, Kalihna, Kalinya, Galibi Carib, Maraworno and Marworno, is an Amerindian language in the Cariban language family....
, a language still spoken in mainland South America. When European missionaries described the Island Carib people in the seventeenth century, they recorded two unrelated languages—Carib spoken by the men and Arawak spoken by the women. However, while the boys acquired Carib vocabulary, after a few generations they retained the Arawakan grammar of their first language. Thus Island Carib
Island Carib language
Island Carib, also known as Iñeri , was an Arawakan language of the Lesser Antilles related to Taíno. It went extinct about 1920, but survives in its daughter language Garifuna....
as spoken by the men was genetically either a mixed language
Mixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
or a relexified language. Over the generations, men substituted fewer Arawak words, and many Carib words diffused to the women, so that the amount of distinctly male vocabulary diminished, until both genders spoke Arawak with an infusion of Carib vocabulary and distinct words in only a handful of cases.
During the colonial era, escaped slaves
Maroon (people)
Maroons were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together...
of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n origin joined Island Carib society and acquired the language. As the race of the people changed, the language and people came to be known as Black Carib. Many of these people were transferred by the British from Saint Vincent to islands in the Bay of Honduras in 1796.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Garifuna is composed as follows:- 45 % Arawak (Igñeri)
- 25 % Carib (Kallínagu)
- 15 % French
- 10 % English
- 5 % Spanish or English technical terms
Apart from that, there also some few words from African languages
African languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
.
Gender differences
Relatively few examples of diglossia remain in common speech, where men and women use different words for the same concept, such as au ~ nugía for the pronoun "I". Most such words are rare, and often dropped by men. For example, there are distinct Carib and Arawak words for 'man' and 'women', four words altogether, but in practice the generic term mútu is used by both men and women and for both men and women, with grammatical gender agreement on a verb, adjective, or demonstrative distinguishing whether mútu refers to a man or to a woman (mútu lé "the man", mútu tó "the woman").There remains, however, a diglossic distinction in the grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
of many inanimate nouns, with abstract words generally being considered grammatically feminine by men, and grammatically masculine by women. Thus the word wéyu may mean either concrete "sun" or abstract "day"; with the meaning of "day", most men use feminine agreement, at least in conservative speech, while women use masculine agreement. The equivalent of the abstract impersonal pronoun in phrases like "it is necessary" is also masculine for women, but feminine in conservative male speech.
Personal pronouns
With independent personal pronounPersonal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s, Garifuna distinguishes masculine
Masculine
Masculine or masculinity, normally refer to qualities positively associated with men.Masculine may also refer to:*Masculine , a grammatical gender*Masculine cadence, a final chord occurring on a strong beat in music...
and feminine
Feminine
Feminine, or femininity, normally refers to qualities positively associated with women.Feminine may also refer to:*Feminine , a grammatical gender*Feminine cadence, a final chord falling in a metrically weak position...
gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
:
| singular, male speaker | singular, female speaker | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | au | nugía | wagía |
| 2nd person | amürü | bugía | hugía |
| 3rd person | ligía | tugía | hagía |
The forms au and amürü are of Cariban
Cariban languages
The Cariban languages are an indigenous language family of South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, but also appear in central Brazil. Cariban languages are relatively closely related, and number two to three...
origin, the others are of Arawakan origin.
Plural of nouns
Pluralization of nouns is irregular, it is realized by means of suffixSuffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
ing. For example:
- isâni "child" – isâni-gu "children"
- wügüri "man" – wügüri-ña "men"
- hiñaru "woman" – hiñáru-ñu "women"
- itu "sister" – ítu-nu "sisters"
The plural of Garífuna is Garínagu.
Possession
PossessionPossession (linguistics)
Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other ....
on nouns is expressed by personal
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
es:
- ibágari "life"
- n-ibágari "my life"
- b-ibágari "your (singular) life"
- l-ibágari "his life"
- t-ibágari "her life"
- wa-bágari "our life"
- h-ibágari "your (plural) life"
- ha-bágari "their life"
Verb
On the Garifuna verbVerb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
, the grammatical categories tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
, aspect, mode, negation
Negation
In logic and mathematics, negation, also called logical complement, is an operation on propositions, truth values, or semantic values more generally. Intuitively, the negation of a proposition is true when that proposition is false, and vice versa. In classical logic negation is normally identified...
, and person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
(both subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
) are expressed by means of affix
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
es, partly supported by particles.
The paradigms of conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
are very numerous.
Examples
The conjugation of the verb alîha "to read" in the presentPresent tense
The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
continuous tense
Continuous and progressive aspects
The continuous and progressive aspects are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. It is a verb category with two principal meaning components: duration and incompletion...
:
- n-alîha-ña "I am reading"
- b-alîha-ña "you (singular) are reading"
- l-alîha-ña "he is reading"
- t-alîha-ña "she is reading"
- wa-lîha-ña "we are reading"
- h-alîha-ña "you (plural) are reading"
- ha-lîha-ña "they are reading"
The conjugation of the verb alîha "to read" in the simple present tense:
- alîha-tina "I read"
- alîha-tibu "you (singular) read"
- alîha-ti "he reads"
- alîha-tu "she reads"
- alîha-tiwa "we read"
- alîha-tiü "you (plural) read"
- alîha-tiñu "they (masculine) read"
- alîha-tiña "they (feminine) read"
There are also some irregular verbs.
Numerals
From "3" upwards, the numbers of Garifuna are exclusively of French origin and are based on the VigesimalVigesimal
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...
system, which in today's Standard French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
is only apparent at "80":
- 1 = aban
- 2 =biñá, biama, bián
- 3 = ürüwa (< trois)
- 4 = gádürü (< quatre)
- 5 = seingü (< cinq)
- 6 = sisi (< six)
- 7 = sedü (< sept)
- 8 = widü (< huit)
- 9 = nefu (< neuf)
- 10 = dîsi (< dix)
- 11 = ûnsu (< onze)
- 12 = dûsu (< douze)
- 13 = tareisi (< treize)
- 14 = katorsu (< quatorze)
- 15 = keinsi (< quinze)
- 16 = dîsisi, disisisi (< "dix-six" → seize)
- 17 = dîsedü, disisedü (< dix-sept)
- 18 = dísiwidü (< dix-huit)
- 19 = dísinefu (< dix-neuf)
- 20 = wein (< vingt)
- 30 = darandi (< trente)
- 40 = biama wein (< 2 X vingt → quarante)
- 50 = dimí san (< "demi cent" → cinquante)
- 60 = ürüwa wein (< "trois-vingt" → soixante)
- 70 = ürüwa wein dîsi (< "trois-vingt-dix" → soixante-dix)
- 80 = gádürü wein (< quatre-vingt)
- 90 = gádürü wein dîsi (< quatre-vingt-dix)
- 100 = san (< cent)
- 1,000 = milu (< mil)
- 1,000,000 = míñonu (< engl. million?)
Other types of words
The language uses prepositions and conjunctionGrammatical conjunction
In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...
s.
External links
- Garifuna Research Institute
- Ethnologue, Languages of the World: Garifuna
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Garifuna version (sample text)
- A Caribbean Vocabulary Compiled in 1666 (lists of older Garifuna words)