Carib or Kari'nja is a
Cariban language spoken by the
Kalina people
The Kalina, also known as the Caribs or mainland Caribs and by several other names, are an indigenous people native to the northern coastal areas of South America. Today, the Kalina live largely in villages on the rivers and coasts of Venezuela, ...
(Caribs) of South America. It is spoken by around 7,400 mostly in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
,
Guyana,
Suriname,
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...
, and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The language is currently classified as highly endangered.
Names
The language is known by several names to both its speakers and outsiders. Traditionally it has been known as "Carib" or "Carib proper" in English, after its speakers, called the "Caribs" in English. It is known ''Caribe'' in Spanish, ''Galina'' in French, and ''Karaïeb'' in Dutch. However, the speakers call themselves ''Kalina'' or ''Karìna'' (variously spelled), and call their language ''Karìna auran'' .
Other variants include ''Kali'na'', ''Kari'nja, Cariña'', ''Kariña'', ''Kalihna'', ''Kalinya''; other native names include ''Maraworno'' and ''Marworno''.
Classification
Kari'nja is classified as a
Cariban language, in the Guianan Carib branch.
Geographic distribution
Due to contact with Kari'nja invaders, some languages have Kari'nja words incorporated into them, despite being
Arawakan languages
Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branc ...
linguistically.
A Carib-based ''lengua generale'' was once used in the old missions of the
Oyapock
The Oyapock or Oiapoque (; ; ) is a long river in South America that forms most of the border between the French overseas department of French Guiana and the Brazilian state of Amapá.
Course
The Oyapock runs through the Guianan moist fores ...
and surrounding regions, apparently surviving at least along the
Uaçá tributary into the 20th century.
In Suriname, there is a village called
Konomerume which is located near the Wajambo River. With about 349 people living there, a majority identify as ethnically Kari'nja and as for who knows the language, the adults are reported to at least have a decent knowledge of it. Those above the age of 65 use the language as a primary language among the members of the community. Speakers between the ages of 45 and 65 tend to use the language only when speaking with older residents or elder members of their family, while for the most part using the official languages:
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and
Sranan Tongo
Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname.
Developed originally amo ...
. Younger adults between the ages of 20 to 40 for the most part understand the language but do not speak it, and children learn bits about Kari'nja in school.
There is an attempt to revive Carib traditions, including the language, by some of the 500 people of Carib descent in
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
.
Dialects
Carib dialects (with number of speakers indicated in parentheses):
*Venezuelan Carib (1000)
*Guyanese Carib (2000)
*Western Surinamese Carib (500)
*Eastern Surinamese and French Guianese Carib (3000)
**Suriname has two dialects of Kari'nja: ''Aretyry'' which is spoken in the west and central parts of the country, and ''Tyrewuju'' which is what the majority of Kari'nja speakers in Suriname use.
Alphabet
The Carib alphabet consists of 15 letters:
a,
e,
i,
j,
k,
`,
m,
n,
o,
p,
r,
s,
t,
u,
w,
y.
Phonology
In the Kari'nja language, there are four syllable patterns: V, CV, VC, CVC; C standing for consonants while V means a vowel. Regarding phonemes, consonants are divided into two groups: obstruents (voiceless stops—p, t, k) and resonants (voiced stops—b, d, g, s).
Kari'nja has a typical 6 vowel system after *ô merged with *o, being ''a e i o u ï.'' Compared to past Kari'nja, the modern day Kari'nja has replaced the ''e'' in many words to ''o''.
Allophones for /r w t/ include sounds as
½ β,v tʃ /s/ before /i/ may be pronounced as
ƒ /n/ before a consonant may be pronounced as
‹and also
²elsewhere. Another sound, ranging
~x often occurs before a voiced or voiceless consonant, and succeeding a vowel, it can also be an allophone of /Ê”/.
Grammar
There are 17 particles within Kari'nja which include the ''ky-'' prefix and the ''-ng'' suffix.
Vocabulary
All four dialects of Kari'nja have loan words from the primary language of the area (Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana). For example, the Kari'nja spoken in Suriname borrows words from Dutch and Sranantongo.
Examples
Some of the words show instances in which the ''e'' has been replaced with ''o'' in present-day Kari'nja.
The two statements beneath the singular words show examples of two suffixes.
References
External links
Ka'lina (Carib) Vocabulary List(from the World Loanword Database)
Audio resources from the MPI-PL archive for linguistic resources, which origin from data collected by dr. Berend Hoff in the period 1955-1965How to count in Kali’na* A video of someone speaking Kari'nja is also availabl
here
Endangered Languages Kari'nja profileKari'nja main clauses vs nominalized phrasesFormal Teaching of Kari'njaCarib Phonology* The Carib Language
* ELAR archive o
Kari'nja Dictionary and Video DocumentationDe'kwana(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
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Indigenous languages of the South American Northeast
Languages of French Guiana
Languages of Guyana
Languages of Suriname
Languages of Venezuela
Languages of Brazil
Languages of Trinidad and Tobago
Languages of Grenada
Indigenous languages of the Caribbean