Warao (also known as Guarauno, Guarao, Warrau) is the native language of the Warao people. 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,

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. The 2015 Venezuelan film ''

Gone with the River ''Gone with the River'' ( es, Dauna. Lo que lleva el río) is a 2015 Venezuelan drama film directed by Mario Crespo (director), Mario Crespo. The film is spoken in Warao language, Warao. It was selected as the Venezuelan entry for the Academy Aw ...

'' was spoken in Warao.

Classification

Warao appears to be a

, unrelated to any recorded language in the region or elsewhere. Terrence Kaufman (1994) included it in his hypothetical

Macro-Paezan Macro-Paesan (also spelled Macro-Paezan) is a proposal linking several small families and language isolates of northwest South America. Kaufman (2007) proposes the structure at the right. Paez–Barbacoan is commonly proposed, though Curnow (1998) ...

family, but the necessary supporting work was never done. Julian Granberry connected many of the grammatical forms, including nominal and verbal suffixes, of Warao to the Timucua language 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 as a possible explanation for these similarities.

Waroid hypothesis

Granberry also finds "

Waroid 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 ...

" 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 símo'' "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 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 colonizat ...

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 The Cariban languages are a Language family, family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken ...

, 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 * G ...

interaction sphere.

Demographics

The language had an estimated 28,100 speakers in Venezuela as of 2007. The Warao people live chiefly in the Orinoco Delta region of northeastern Venezuela, with smaller communities in southwestern Trinidad ( Trinidad and Tobago), western

and

. The language is considered endangered by UNESCO.

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 Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cut ...

(1950) lists: *''Waikeri'' (''Guaiqueri'') *''Chaguan'' *''Mariusa''

Grammar

The language's basic word order 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

, ɺ The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline o ...

are 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. Morfología, sintaxis, literatura. Estudios Venezolanos Indígenas. Caracas. * Wilbert, Johannes. 1964. Warao Oral Litrerature. Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología. 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