The Cariban languages are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of languages indigenous to northeastern
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...
. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the
Amazon River to the
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...
n
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
, and they are also spoken in small pockets of central Brazil. The languages of the Cariban family are relatively closely related. There are about three dozen, but most are spoken only by a few hundred people.
Macushi is the only language among them with numerous speakers, estimated at 30,000. The Cariban family is well known among linguists partly because one language in the family—
Hixkaryana—has a default
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
of
object–verb–subject. Previous to their discovery of this, linguists believed that this order did not exist in any spoken
natural language.
In the 16th century, Cariban peoples expanded into the
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc be ...
. There they killed or displaced, and also mixed with the
Arawak peoples
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greate ...
who already inhabited the islands. The resulting language—
Kalhíphona or Island Carib—was Carib in name but largely Arawak in substance. The Carib male conquerors took Arawak women as wives, and the latter passed on their own language on to the children. For a time, Arawak was spoken by women and children and Carib by adult men, but as each generation of Carib-Arawak boys reached adulthood, they acquired less Carib until only basic vocabulary and a few grammatical elements were left. That form of
Island Carib
The Kalinago, also known as the Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated languag ...
became extinct in the
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc be ...
in the 1920s, but it survives as
Garífuna, or "Black Carib," in
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
. The gender distinction has dwindled to only a handful of words.
Dominica
Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographical ...
is the only island in the eastern
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...
to retain some of its
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
population, descendants of the
Carib Indians, about 3,000 of whom live on the island's east coast.
Genetic relations
The Cariban languages share irregular morphology with the
Ge and
Tupi families. Ribeiro connects them all in a
Je–Tupi–Carib family. Meira, Gildea, & Hoff (2010) note that likely morphemes in proto-Tupian and proto-Cariban are good candidates for being cognates, but that work so far is insufficient to make definitive statements.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Guato,
Kawapana,
Nambikwara,
Taruma,
Warao,
Arawak
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greate ...
,
Bororo,
Jeoromitxi,
Karaja,
Rikbaktsa, and
Tupi language families due to contact.
Extensive lexical similarities between Cariban and various
Macro-Jê languages
Macro-Jê (also spelled Macro-Gê) is a medium-sized language stock in South America, mostly in Brazil but also in the Chiquitanía region in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, as well as (formerly) in small parts of Argentina and Paraguay. It is centered o ...
suggest that Cariban languages had originated in the
Lower Amazon region (rather than in the
Guiana Highlands
The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories:
* French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France
* ...
). There they were in contact with early forms of Macro-Jê languages, which were likely spoken in an area between the
Parecis Plateau and upper
Araguaia River.
Family division
The Cariban languages are closely related. In many cases where one of the languages is more distinct, this is due to influence from neighboring languages rather than an indication that it is not closely related. According to Kaufman (2007), "Except for Opon, Yukpa, Pimenteira and Palmela (and possibly Panare), the Cariban languages are not very diverse phonologically and lexically (though more so than Romance, for example)."
[Kaufman, Terrence. 2007. "South America". In: R. E. Asher and Christopher Moseley (eds.), ''Atlas of the World’s Languages'' (2nd edition), 59–94. London: Routledge.]
Previous classifications
Good data has been collected around ca. 2000 on most Cariban languages; classifications prior to that time (including Kaufman 2007, which relies on the earlier work) are unreliable.
Several such classifications have been published; the one shown here, by Derbyshire (1999) divides Cariban into seven branches. A traditional geographic classification into northern and southern branches is cross referenced with (N) or (S) after each language.
*
Galibi /nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_( /nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_ /nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_Tiriyó_language">Tiriyó– /nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_Tiriyó_language">Tiriyó–Akuriyó_language">Akuriyó,_/nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_Tiriyó_language">Tiriyó–Akuriyó_language">Akuriyó,_ Salumá_(N),_Carijona_language.html"__"title="Salumá_language.html"_;"title="Akuriyó_language.html"_;"title="Tiriyó_language.html"_;"title="Taranoan_languages.html"_;"title="Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_Tiriyó_language">Tiriyó–Akuriyó_language">Akuriyó,_Salumá_language">Salumá_(N),_Carijona_language">Carijona_Carijona_are_a_South_American_indigenous_group_known_for_the__Carijona_language._They_numbered_in_the_thousands_in_the_1840s,_but_war_with_the__Witotoans_and_exploitation_from_the_rubber_industry_led_to_virtual_extinction._Some_live_among_the__Corre_...
–Salumá_(N),_Carijona_language.html"__"title="Salumá_language.html"_;"title="Akuriyó_language.html"_;"title="Tiriyó_language.html"_;"title="Taranoan_languages.html"_;"title="Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña
.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_Tiriyó_language">Tiriyó–Akuriyó_language">Akuriyó,_Salumá_language">Salumá_(N),_Carijona_language">Carijona_Carijona_are_a_South_American_indigenous_group_known_for_the__Carijona_language._They_numbered_in_the_thousands_in_the_1840s,_but_war_with_the__Witotoans_and_exploitation_from_the_rubber_industry_led_to_virtual_extinction._Some_live_among_the__Corre_...
–Hianákoto_language">Hianákoto_(S)
**Kashuyana:_ Salumá_(N),_Carijona_language.html"__"title="Salumá_language.html"_;"title="Akuriyó_language.html"_;"title="Tiriyó_language.html"_;"title="Taranoan_languages.html"_;"title="Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña.html"_;"title="Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña">Kaliña.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Kaliña">/nowiki>Kaliña/nowiki>_(N)
*Guiana_Carib_(Taranoan_languages">Taranoan):_
**Trio:_Tiriyó_language">Tiriyó–Akuriyó_language">Akuriyó,_Salumá_language">Salumá_(N),_Carijona_language">Carijona_Carijona_are_a_South_American_indigenous_group_known_for_the__Carijona_language._They_numbered_in_the_thousands_in_the_1840s,_but_war_with_the__Witotoans_and_exploitation_from_the_rubber_industry_led_to_virtual_extinction._Some_live_among_the__Corre_...