Garifuna
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A language of Honduras
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
Black Carib, Caribe, Central American Carib, Island Carib, Karif
Autonym
Garífuna
User Population
98,000 in Honduras (Rivas 1993). 100 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 43,100 (2013 census). Total users in all countries: 174,300.
Location
Atlántida and Colón departments; Cortes department: north coast between Masca and Plaplaya in Gracias a Dios department; Islas de la Bahía (Roatan island) department; cities: La Ceiba, Puerto Cortés, San Pedro Sula, and Tegucigalpa; 37 villages.
Language Status
6b (Threatened).
Classification
Dialects
Typology
VSO.
Language Use
Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: 1%–5%. Literacy rate in L2: 5%–15%. Radio. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. Bible: 2002.
Language Resources
Writing
Latin script [Latn].
Ancestors taken from Saint Vincent Island in 1796–1797, and taken to Roatan Island. Most went to Trujillo, Honduras in 1937. About 35 years later political troubles threatened their existence, and they fled further east into Honduras and Belize. Later they emigrated to other countries. Christian, traditional religion.