Four features of Garífuna, explained in a few lines, with examples from our sources.
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1/4
I, you: it depends on who is speaking
In Garífuna, “I” and “you” are not said the same way when the speaker is a man or a woman. It isn't the subject of the sentence that decides, it's the person speaking.
A man says
A woman says
« I »
Au
Nugía
« you »
Amürü
Bugía
The other pronouns are the same for everyone:
Ligía HeTugía SheWagía WeHugía You (plural)Hagía They
💡 Remember A man says “Au” for “I”, a woman says “Nugía”.
Au and Amürü come from Carib, Nugía from Arawak (source: Spanish Wikipedia, “Idioma garífuna”).
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2/4
Plurals
The plural is marked by an ending added to the word. It is not the same for every word: in the two examples from our sources, isâni takes -gu and itu takes -nu.
Singular
Plural
isânichild
→
isâniguchildren
itusister
→
itunusisters
💡 Remember Since the ending changes, the safest way is to learn each plural together with its word.
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3/4
My life, his life: possessives
To say “my”, “his” or “her”, you don't use a separate word: you add a prefix to the start of the noun. Example with ibágari, “life”:
ibágari lifenibágari my lifelibágari his lifetibágari her life
💡 Remember With ibágari: n- for “my”, l- for “his”, t- for “her”.
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4/4
Numbers borrowed from French
From three onwards, Garífuna numbers come from French: ürüwa comes from “trois” (three), gádürü from “quatre” (four), wein from “vingt” (twenty), san from “cent” (hundred). And you count in twenties, a bit like the French “quatre-vingts” (four twenties = eighty).
Garífuna
Meaning
How it is built
Wein
20
20
wein aban
21
20 + 1
Biama wein
40
2 × 20
Ürüwa wein
60
3 × 20
Ürüwa wein dîsi
70
3 × 20 + 10
Gádürü wein
80
4 × 20
Gádürü wein dîsi
90
4 × 20 + 10
30 (darandi) and 50 (dimí san) have their own words.
💡 Remember 40 is “two twenties”, 60 “three twenties”, 80 “four twenties”. For 70 and 90, add ten.
