Talk:Garifuna language

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 8 September 2020 and 18 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Llearn2020.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:03, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

gender mix-up?
I changed 'masculine/feminine singular' to 'singular, male/female speaker in the pronoun chart. If I used a 2sg feminine pronoun, it would mean you are female, but AFAIK in Garifuna the form is used if I am female. That is, in the 3rd person, the pronouns don't mean 'he' and 'she', but AFAIK both mean 's/he', but depend on the gender of the speaker. Please correct me if I'm wrong. — kwami (talk) 02:31, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Language and other issues
I just saw some of the edits at Garifuna people and Garifuna language which seem to have come out of the Meetup/NYC/AfroCrowd/AfroLatinoCROWD event - this is great! Much of what is here, including what has been added, is supported by studies in the relevant fields, including history and linguistics. I'm a historian of the Eastern Caribbean in the period when the Garifuna emerged and will try to help contribute to this in the next few weeks. For now, I linked Kalhíphona for Caliponian language. I'll help add stronger sources but would like to be in touch with others working on this so I don't accidentally push away those who are working on this in New York right now (among others). Some things we could work to improve, in addition to sources, would be to use the most precise language possible when discussing "Africa" and "African" influences (the level of specificity for the indigenous languages is really great! We can use existing studies to make similar efforts on the African side. I'll help and am happy to help others participate in this by sharing my access to these resources. Feel free to be in touch, including if you have any concerns about my edits. Isaaccurtis (talk) 02:41, 13 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi, can you clarify the above? I am the organizer of the AfrolatinoCROWD editathon that took place yesterday and I don't see any of our participants in this article's history. However one participant worked on Garifuna people. Is that what you are referring to? --Aliceba (talk) 18:00, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

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Requested move 20 January 2020

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page to the proposed title at this time, per the discussion below. Dekimasu よ! 13:41, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

Garifuna language → Garífuna – "Garífuna" is consistently misspelled throughout this article and across all Wiki articles dealing with the Garífuna language, culture, and people. The accent on the "í" is not optional, and aside from the implicit lack of respect for Garífuna culture contained in such a misspelling, is misleading to anyone seeking to learn about Garífuna culture. Mpaniello (talk) 08:28, 20 January 2020 (UTC)


 * Oppose No evidence provided, contradicted by the first two refs I checked. Isn't giving the language and people a Spanish spelling also 'disrespectful'? What does a Spanish accent mark have to do with Garifuna culture? — kwami (talk) 08:35, 20 January 2020 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The comment objecting to the original move request above makes a couple of untenable claims based on faulty assumptions. They checked *two* (presumably English-language) sources (which propagate the very accentuation error I'm pointing out) and concluded that all is well as-is. They then ask what Spanish accentuation rules have to do with anything. Firstly, if they had bothered to check a Spanish-language source (eg https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar%C3%ADfuna_(etnia)) they'd have seen the standard spelling in all its glory. Secondly, regarding what Spanish accentuation has to do with the Garífuna language, that would be of course because Spanish is the primary language of the vast majority of Garinagu and that's the way they would write it, at least in formal settings, such as encyclopedia articles. But more basically, to turn the question around, what do English accentuation rules have to do with the Garífuna language, for that matter? That objection seems to take umbrage at the supposed imposition of Spanish accentuation rules, based on... what? The assumption that English/American rules are the default? If that's the case, why does En-Wikipedia use any diacritics in any non-English words at all?

The fact of the matter is that Wikipedia is a total shambles when it comes to the consistent rendering of non-English-language names that use diacritics, and this article is a case in point. It is immaterial whether or not someone who speaks only English has bothered to notice that diacritics are not optional in many of the world's languages; they are objectively as integral as the dot on an "i."

For further reference please consult the work of arguably the world's leading Garífuna cultural and linguistic scholar, Dr. Salvador Suazo, who is himself Garífuna: (https://www.ecured.cu/Salvador_Suazo) Mpaniello (talk) 02:07, 30 August 2020 (UTC)
 * For further reference please consult the references of Glottolog. All English-language sources spell Garifuna without the diacritic. This should give a hint about the WP:COMMONNAME. You may add the autonym in the infobox using the parameter "nativename" with a proper reference—NB a reference for the native name, not the Spanish name (like es-WP), which latter is irrelevant here. Btw, this is how Dr. Suazo spells "Garifuna" in Garifuna. Isn't it disrespectful to claim that the Spanish spelling is more authentic than the native spelling? Austronesier (talk) 18:44, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Native spelling? You think the Roman alphabet is native to Garífuna? Regarding the picture of the book cover you linked, you'll also notice that "Garífuna" isn't capitalized (as is the case in Romance languages with ethnonyms). If you're eager to adhere to the native standard, why is Garifuna capitalized in the article? Isn't capitalizing the word an imposition of English spelling and grammar rules? Mpaniello (talk) 21:42, 2 September 2020 (UTC)