Garifuna

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A language of Honduras

ISO 639-3
cab
Alternate Names
Black Carib, Caribe, Central American Carib, Garífuna
Population

98,000 in Honduras (Rivas 1993). 100 monolinguals. Population total all countries: 195,800.

Location

Mainly north coast between Masca, Cortés Department, Plaplaya; Gracias a Dios Department. 37 villages in Honduras, 46 elsewhere in Central America (plus cities La Ceiba, San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, and Puerto Cortés). Also in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, United States.

Language Maps
Language Status

5 (Developing).

Classification
Maipurean, Northern, Maritime, Ta-Maipurean, Iñeri
Dialects

Eastern Garifuna, Western Garifuna. Eastern Garifuna dialect is in Honduras and Nicaragua (leaves out, r, and tends to shorten words), Western Garifuna in Guatemala and Belize. Related to Island Carib [car], with Spanish [spa], English [eng], and French [fra] borrowings.

Typology

VSO

Language Use

Shifting to Spanish [spa] in some villages. All domains. Mostly positive attitudes. A few also use English [eng] as well as Spanish [spa].

Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: 1%–5%. Literacy rate in L2: 5%–15%. Radio programs. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 2002.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Garifuna
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Christian, traditional religion.

Also spoken in:

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