The Ta-Arawakan languages, also known as Ta-Maipurean and Caribbean, are the indigenous
Arawakan
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. Branch ...
languages of the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
coasts of Central and South America. They are distinguished by the first person pronominal prefix ''ta-,'' as opposed to common Arawakan ''na-.''
Languages
Kaufman (1994) provides the following subclassification:
*
Taíno
The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...
* Guajiro (Wahiro)
**
Wayuu
The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayúu, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Amerindian ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost part of Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Maipuran (Arawak) language family.
Geography
...
(Guajiro, Wahiro)
**
Paraujano (Parauhano, Añun) ''(†)''
**
Arawák (Lokono)
* Iñeri (Inyeri)
**
Kalhíphona (
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 language ...
, modern
Garífuna
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian Cr ...
or Black Carib)
Aikhenvald adds
Shebayo, which Kaufman had left unclassified, and removes Iñeri from Ta-Arawakan proper:
Caribbean Arawakan
* Iñeri
**
Kalhíphona
* Ta-Arawakan
**
Taíno
The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...
**
Wayuu
The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayúu, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Amerindian ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost part of Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Maipuran (Arawak) language family.
Geography
...
**
Parauhano
**
Arawák
**
Shebayo
**
Caquetio
Caquetio, Caiquetio, or Caiquetia are natives of northwestern Venezuela, living along the shores of Lake Maracaibo at the time of the Spanish conquest. They moved inland to avoid enslavement by the Spaniards, while their numbers were drastically ...
Proto-language
Reconstructions of Proto-Lokono-Guajiro proposed by Captain (1991):
[Captain, D. (1991 ]005
''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...
. Proto-Lokono-Guajiro. ''Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Etnolingüísticos'', 10:137-172.
:
References
{{Arawakan languages
Arawakan languages
Languages of the Caribbean
Languages of Central America
Languages of Belize
Languages of Honduras
Languages of Guatemala