Yao (Jaoi, Yaoi, Yaio, Anacaioury) is an extinct

Cariban The Cariban languages are a 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 in small pockets ...

language of

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 ...

and

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

, attested in a single 1640 word list recorded by

Joannes de Laet Joannes or Johannes De Laet (Latinized as ''Ioannes Latius'') (1581 in Antwerp – buried 15 December 1649, in Leiden) was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his ''History of the New World'', ...

. It is thought that the Yao people migrated from the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wo ...

to the islands perhaps a century earlier, after the

Kaliña 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, ...

. The name 'Anacaioury' is that of a number of chiefs encountered over a century or so. Yao is too poorly attested to classify within Cariban with any confidence, though

Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguist ...

links it to the extinct

Tiverikoto Tiverikoto (Tivericoto) is an extinct and poorly attested Cariban language. Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican ...

. A few of the attested words are: ''nonna'' or ''noene'' 'moon', ''weyo'' 'sun', ''capou'' 'céu', ''chirika'' 'star', ''pepeïte'' 'wind', ''kenape'' 'rain', ''soye'' 'earth', ''parona'' 'sea', ''ouapoto'' 'fire', ''aroua'' 'jaguar', ''pero'' 'dog' (from Spanish).

References

Cariban languages Extinct languages of South America Indigenous languages of the Caribbean Languages of French Guiana Languages extinct in the 17th century Languages of Trinidad and Tobago {{na-lang-stub