Warao (also known as Guarauno, Guarao, Warrau) is the native language of the
Warao people
The Warao are an indigenous Amerindian people inhabiting northeastern Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Alternate common spellings of Warao are Waroa, Guarauno, Guarao, and Warrau. The term ''Warao'' translates as "the boat pe ...
. A
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
, it is spoken by about 33,000 people primarily in northern
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
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
and
Suriname
Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
. It is notable for its unusual
object–subject–verb 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 ...
. The 2015 Venezuelan film ''
Gone with the River'' was spoken in Warao.
Classification
Warao appears to be a
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
, unrelated to any recorded language in the region or elsewhere.
Terrence Kaufman (1994) included it in his hypothetical
Macro-Paezan family, but the necessary supporting work was never done.
[ Julian Granberry connected many of the grammatical forms, including nominal and verbal ]suffixes
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry g ...
, of Warao to the Timucua language
Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua peoples. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization in Florida. Differences among the ...
of North Florida, also a language isolate. However, he has also derived Timucua morphemes from Muskogean, Chibchan, Paezan, Arawakan, and other Amazonian languages, suggesting multi-language creolization
Creolization is the process through which creole languages and cultures emerge. Creolization was first used by linguists to explain how contact languages become creole languages, but now scholars in other social sciences use the term to describe ne ...
as a possible explanation for these similarities.
Waroid hypothesis
Granberry also finds " Waroid" vocabulary items in Guajiro (from toponymic evidence it seems that the Warao or a related people once occupied Goajiro country) and in Taino (''nuçay'' or ''nozay'' osái"gold" in Ciboney — cf. Warao ''naséi sÃmo'' "gold" (lit. "yellow pebble") — and ''duho'' "ceremonial stool" in Classic Taino — cf. Warao ''duhu'' "sit, stool"). Granberry & Vescelius (2004) note that toponymic evidence suggests that the pre-Taino Macorix language
Macorix (/maso'riʃ/, also rendered MaçorÃs and Mazorij) was the language of the northern coast of what is today the Dominican Republic. Spanish accounts only refer to three languages on the island: Taino, Macorix, and neighboring Ciguayo. The ...
of Hispaniola and the Guanahatabey language
Guanahatabey (Guanajatabey) was the language of the Guanahatabey people, a hunter-gatherer society that lived in western Cuba until the 16th century. Very little is known of it, as the Guanahatabey died off early in the period of Spanish coloniz ...
of Cuba may have been Waroid languages
Waroid is a proposal by Granberry and Vescelius (2004) linking Warao of Venezuela with the extinct Macoris and Guanahatabey languages of the Greater Antilles.
Languages
;Waroid
* Warao
*Caribbean
** Macoris (Macorix)
***Upper Macoris
***Lower ...
as well.
Language contact
Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban, Arutani, Máku, and Sape language families due to contact within an earlier 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
* ...
interaction sphere.
Demographics
The language had an estimated 28,100 speakers 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 ...
as of 2007. The Warao people
The Warao are an indigenous Amerindian people inhabiting northeastern Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Alternate common spellings of Warao are Waroa, Guarauno, Guarao, and Warrau. The term ''Warao'' translates as "the boat pe ...
live chiefly in the Orinoco Delta
The Orinoco Delta is a vast river delta of the Orinoco River, located in eastern Venezuela.
Location
The Orinoco Delta is one of the eight natural regions of Venezuela.
It covers the whole of Delta Amacuro State and a few square kilometers of ...
region of northeastern Venezuela, with smaller communities in southwestern 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 ...
(Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
), western Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
and Suriname
Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
. The language is considered endangered by UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
.
Varieties
Loukotka (1968) lists these varieties:
*''Guanoco'' - spoken on the Laguna de Asfalto, state of Monagas (unattested)
*''Chaguan'' - spoken in the Orinoco Delta on the Manamo branch (unattested)
*''Mariusa'' - spoken in the same region on the Cocuina and Macareo branches
Mason (1950) lists:
*''Waikeri'' (''Guaiqueri'')
*''Chaguan''
*''Mariusa''
Grammar
The language's basic 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 ...
has been analyzed as object–subject–verb, a very rare word order among nominative–accusative languages such as Warao.
Phonology
The Warao consonant inventory is small, but not quite as small as many other South American inventories. It does not contain any notable exotica.
and , ɺare allophones of // and /ɾ/. There are five oral vowels and five nasal vowels . /u/ after /k/ within the beginning of words has a sound as ¨
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Uarao (Warao) and Mariusa.
:
References
Other sources
*
* Barral, Basilio de. 1979. Diccionario Warao-Castellano, Castellano-Warao. Caracas: UCAB
* Figeroa, Andrés Romero. 1997. A Reference Grammar of Warao. München, Newcastle: Lincom
* Ponce, Peter. 2004.
Diccionario Español - Warao
'. Fundación Turismo de Pedernales.
* Vaquero, Antonio. 1965. Idioma Warao. MorfologÃa, sintaxis, literatura. Estudios Venezolanos IndÃgenas. Caracas.
* Wilbert, Johannes. 1964. Warao Oral Litrerature. Instituto Caribe de AntropologÃa y SociologÃa. Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales. Monograph no 9 Caracas: Editorial Sucre.
* Wilbert, Johannes. 1969. Textos Folklóricos de los Indios Warao. Los Angeles: Latin American Center. University of California. Latin American Studies Vol. 12.
External links
Warao-Spanish dictionary
{{South American languages
Languages of Venezuela
Languages of Suriname
Languages of Guyana
Language isolates of South America
Macro-Paesan languages
Agglutinative languages
Object–subject–verb languages
Endangered language isolates
Endangered indigenous languages of the Americas