This is a Living Dictionary of the Arawakan language Garifuna, spoken in Central America.

Garifuna is written here in a new spelling system adapted from those widely in use in Belize and Honduras. In contrast to prior systems, we try to write all long vowels (as doubled vowels, aa ee ii oo uu üü); we mark stress on all words except auxiliaries and particles (clitics), with stressed ü written û; and we do not use the letter ñ (which is intended to mark nasalization in the environment of a y), which has generally been used inconsistently. This system is further described and exemplified in an in-progress grammar, Adímureha Wamaa Garífuna (Let's Speak Garifuna), which has been used in classes at UCLA and in an currently on-going community class for heritage learners and native speakers in Los Angeles.

Contributors to this Living Dictionary include Ben Flores, Martha Martinez-Ciego, and Pam Munro, with Anita Lanbey-Martinez and Allen Munro, and with additional input from other members of the Los Angeles Garifuna study group, including Jo Baker, Lisa Carlos, Shantel Garcia, Marva Lewis, and Jessica Palacio. We thank Prof. Michael Galant of CSU Dominguez Hills for assistance with Spanish (but don't blame him for anything that's wrong; he probably hasn't seen that entry!). 

We are continuing to add new entries and to edit old ones all the time. (Entries marked with ** have currently unresolved issues.) Please send any comments or questions about our dictionary entries to munro@ucla.edu. We'd welcome your suggestions about new words that should be included. 

See "Grammar" for more about the dictionary entries.