Etymology and pronunciation[edit]

The region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and
parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas.[13] The term
was popularized by British cartographer Thomas Jefferys who used it in his The West-India
Atlas (1773).[14]
The two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" outside the Caribbean are /ˌkærɪ
ˈbiːən/ (KARR-ə-BEE-ən), with the primary stress on the third syllable, and /kəˈrɪbiən/ (kə-RIB-ee-ən),
with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third
syllable.[15] This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has
been established for over 75 years.[16] It has been suggested that speakers of British
English prefer /ˌkærɪˈbiːən/ (KARR-ə-BEE-ən) while North American speakers more typically use /kə
ˈrɪbiən/ (kə-RIB-ee-ən),[17] but major American dictionaries and other sources list the stress on the
third syllable as more common in American English too.[18][19][20][21] According to the American version of
Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK
English and is increasingly considered "by some" to be more up to date and more "correct". [22]
The Oxford Online Dictionaries claim that the stress on the second syllable is the most common
pronunciation in the Caribbean itself, but accordi