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 Mexic ...

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 (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 languag ...

, modern Garífuna or Black Carib) Aikhenvald adds Shebayo, which Kaufman had left unclassified, and removes Iñeri from Ta-Arawakan proper: Caribbean Arawakan * Iñeri ** Kalhíphona * Ta-Arawakan **

** Wayuu ** Parauhano ** Arawák ** Shebayo ** Caquetio

Proto-language

Reconstructions of Proto-Lokono-Guajiro proposed by Captain (1991):Captain, D. (1991 005. 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